The Importance of Analytics for Your Restaurant Social Media Strategy

How the analytics from Facebook, Instagram & Twitter can help you to discover what your customers like, want and how these data can improve your business strategy.

By Gabriela Fernandez

     How can I know how many people are following me and reading my posts? Which posts best target the interests of my audience? How do I engage more people? How do I make them come to my restaurant and keep them coming?

    If you are a restaurateur, and want to know how to take the best advantage of Social Media, probably you have asked these questions before. Here, I will explain the best and simplest way to get to the core of the analytics you have available in your Social Media apps, and how to read them to optimize your content, and generate more engagement and loyalty.

STEP 1: WHERE TO FIND THE ANALYTICS

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer data on how well individual posts perform with your audience, including their reach and engagement. These are valuable insights to get to know your audience and create your Social Media Strategy.

FACEBOOK:

   1          Click Insights at the top of your Page.

   2          Click Posts.

   3          Scroll down to All Posts Published.

   4          Click the arrow to the right of Post Clicks / Reactions, Comments & Shares.

   5          Select Engagement Rate.

INSTAGRAM:

Make sure to link your Instagram account to your business Facebook page. (Options > Business settings > Switch to business profile >Reach your customers > Get new contacts Options > Connect to Facebook > Connect to your page > Select your restaurant page > Set Up Your Business profile.)

1          Click Insights at the top of your Page.

   2          Click in any Post

   3          Scroll down and you will able to see followers, demographics, gender and age rate, top locations, and Hrs v/s Days and insights.

TWITTER:

On Twitter, you can see a snapshot of each post you’ve made by going to Settings > Analytics > Tweets. (This has to be done on a computer.)

STEP 2: HOW TO READ IT

     Focus on the data you really need. Get to know which of your posts work better and the day and time to post and get to know who your audience is.

  1. Which posts get more likes and engagements? What days of the week does your account have more visitors? Create engagements posts for those dates.
  2. Check the times that you have more visitors or when your audience is more active.

     To really understand who your audience is you need to know your demographics. Knowing where your audience lives, how old they are, and when they’re most frequently engaging with your content is key to creating and optimizing your content strategy.

     Pay close attention to the data you are getting here, because it will let you know what kind of content your audience is most interested in. With these analytics you will be able to determine if your audience responds better to links, images or videos. Knowing what your audience likes more will help you to create more posts of that kind and know when to schedule them. MORE DOESN’T MEAN ALL OF THEM! Make sure to mix it up with other content—you don’t want to saturate your audience with the same content all the time. This is also an opportunity to repurpose or recycle old post content that did exceptionally well.

STEP 3: WHAT TO POST

     After reading all these data, pick the posts that engaged your audience most, and note the days and times they are more active. Create a post that will engage your demographic. Now is the time to put all that information into practice and create content that interests your audience.

     It’s important to stress the authenticity of your restaurant and its cuisine and find content that you know matches your brand. Mario Ponce, owner of Bar Takito and Takito Kitchen in Chicago, knows the importance of social media for his restaurants and he recommends to “be authentic and pay for good photography. People eat with their eyes and other senses. Be true, authentic, and have fun. Connect with Mexican heritage. People are seeking uniqueness & authenticity (without being pretentious). Make it fun, too. Who doesn’t like fun?”.

Pro Tip: Once you set your business profile on Instagram DO NOT change it! Having your Facebook Page linked to Instagram will help generate data and help to give you all the insights mentioned above. If you switch to a personal account or disconnect your Facebook Page all that data will be deleted. So keep the pages connected to be able to collect valuable data for free.

STEP 4: WHEN TO POST

     It’s time to promote your restaurant and create great Social Media posts! After knowing how to read your analytics you will know when the best time is to post. Trust the numbers!

Pro Tip: When working on a campaign the sooner you start promoting, the better results you will get. 4-8 weeks is perfect timing to get it on their calendar.

     The day and time you post on social media will have an impact on the amount of impressions and engagements that your content receives too. Generally, you should post to Facebook and Instagram on weekdays in the afternoon between 12 p.m. - 3 p.m., to Twitter around lunchtime and on LinkedIn during the midweek, around noon or 5 p.m.

     Mario Ponce, owner of Bar Takito and Takito Kitchen in Chicago, talked to us about the importance of Social Media for Mexican restaurants and he said “the accessibility and expansive reach of social media makes it a critical part of our business. A brilliant add-on are the analytics that platforms like Facebook, Google, and Yelp provide at nominal fees. For us, it's proving to be the best spent dollar.”

STEP 5: CAN I USE A PLATFORM WHERE I CAN COMPARE ALL SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS TOGETHER?

Yes. Use Keyhole to measure, in precise detail, a brand or trend’s impact on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Giving you access to an intuitive and shareable dashboard, it tracks hashtag, keyword and campaign metrics in real-time. These include reach, impressions, periods of high activity and more.

Price: $89 – $3,000+ USD per month

AgoraPulse

Operating in multiple languages, you can use AgoraPulse to track enhanced engagement analytics across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Along with standard metrics, the platform ranks users who frequently share your content and notifies you when your pages and profiles have been mentioned.

Price: $29 – $199 USD per month

Buffer

As a comprehensive social media scheduling tool, you can log in to Buffer to see the engagement numbers for your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn posts. Based on these metrics, it also identifies your top post of the day. But keep in mind, Buffer only tracks the posts you make through its platform.

Price: Free – $2,550 USD per year