Rant: Restaurant Social Media Fail

For restaurants, social media can be daunting. What is the best way to use social media to promote their restaurant? How often should they post on social media? What should they post? What shouldn't they post? However, there is one simple matter where some restaurants fail and there is no reason why they should fail in this regard.

Consider this: A writer has written a positive review of a restaurant. That writer posts about their review on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, tagging the restaurant. Obviously, a restaurant should be pleased to receive a positive review and want to spread the news of that review, to hopefully entice more customers. So, what should the restaurant do in response to this review?

At a bare minimum, the restaurant should share the review on their own social media. For example, on Twitter, they should Like the writer's tweet but also Retweet it. Merely Liking it isn't sufficient as that doesn't bring notice of the review to a restaurant's Twitter followers. By Retweeting it though, all of a restaurant's followers can then see the review. And some of those followers might further Retweet it, spreading it even further. The same applies to Facebook, where merely posting a response, such as a Like or Love, isn't sufficient. A restaurant should Share the post on their own page, ensuring their followers get to see the positive review. And those followers might Share the post too.

With all the difficulty of operating a successful restaurant, restaurants need to do whatever they can to attract customers, and highlighting positive reviews can be important. All of this Retweeting and Sharing is simple and quick. Yet it can have a significant impact so there is no reason you shouldn't be doing this. There is no downside.

I've seen too many restaurants who may Like a social media restaurant review post, but then fail to Retweet or Share it. That is a simple fix. And I've also seen some of the positive impact from Retweeting and Sharing. It can lead to far more potential diners reading a positive review, as many as ten times as much than those who would have read the review if the restaurant hadn't shared it.

Restaurants, whenever a writer posts about a positive review on social media, take a few seconds to Retweet and Share that post. It will only help you and costs nothing to do so.