Best Social Media Strategy for Restaurants in 2025
Maria owns this little Italian place three blocks from my apartment. Nonna’s Kitchen. You know the type—red checkered tablecloths, photos of the old country on the walls, sauce that’s been simmering since dawn.
Tuesday night I walked past around closing time. She was sitting at table twelve with her laptop open, scrolling through Instagram with this defeated look on her face. Through the window I could see her latest post: osso boco that looked incredible, posted six hours ago. Fourteen likes.
Meanwhile, the Wendy’s across the street had posted some grainy video of a burger assembly line that morning. Four thousand likes and counting.
“I don’t get it,” she told me the next day when I stopped in for my usual cappuccino. “Mrs. Thompson drives in from Springfield every Sunday just for my ragu. The Henderson’s had their anniversary dinner here last month—twenty-five years of marriage, and they chose us. But online? Cricket sounds.”
If you own a restaurant, you’ve been Maria. Great food, loyal customers, but your social media feels like screaming into a hurricane. Everyone keeps saying you need to “build your brand online,” but nobody explains how to actually do it without looking like every other restaurant posting the same boring food photos.
Here’s what I figured out after watching Maria and dozens of other restaurant owners crack this code: the best social media strategy for restaurants isn’t about fancy photography or viral TikTok dances. It’s weirder and simpler than that.
Throw Out Everything You Think You Know About Food Photography
Professional restaurant photos are dead. Murdered by authenticity.
My friend Jake runs this hole-in-the-wall breakfast joint in Tucson. Last month he hired some fancy food photographer, spent eight hundred bucks on pictures of his famous huevos rancheros. Posted them with perfect lighting, garnish arranged just so. Got maybe thirty likes per photo.
Then his dishwasher Carlos started filming Jake making pancakes during the morning rush. Phone camera, shaky hands, Jake cursing when the batter splattered on his shirt. Carlos posted it on the restaurant’s TikTok.
Two hundred thousand views. People shared it with comments like “This is exactly how I make pancakes at home” and “Finally, a chef who’s as messy as me.”
Jake hasn’t hired another photographer since.
Your customers eat with their eyes first, sure. But they also want to know there’s a real human being back there who sometimes drops things and burns the toast and has flour in their hair at the end of a long shift.
Maria started filming her pasta-making routine every morning. Not staged, not perfect. Just her doing what she’s done for thirty years, talking to the camera like she’s teaching a friend. Showing her hands working the dough, explaining why you never rush the process, laughing when she gets sauce on her apron.
Her followers tripled in six weeks. More importantly, people started walking in saying, “I saw your pasta video—I had to try it myself.”
Stop trying to look like a magazine. Start looking like yourself.
Turn Your Regulars Into Your Marketing Team
Your best customers already love you. They just need permission to tell everyone else.
Down at Mel’s Diner on State Street, they put these little tent cards on every table: “Great meal? Share a photo and tag us for 10% off next time!”
Sounds gimmicky, right? Except it works because Mel actually follows through. When someone tags the diner, he doesn’t just hit the heart button and move on. He comments on their post. Asks about their kids. Remember their order next time they come in.
Last week I watched him respond to a customer’s Instagram story about bringing their grandmother there for her eighty-fifth birthday. Mel commented: “Mrs. Peterson is our favorite customer! That smile of hers makes our whole week.”
The family shared that comment. Their friends started asking about the diner. Three new families came in that weekend specifically because they’d seen that exchange.
Your customers want to help you succeed. They’re proud to support a local business. They love showing off that they found this hidden gem before everyone else discovered it.
But you can’t just ask for their help and disappear. You have to show up. Comment on their posts. Remember their names. Ask about their anniversary dinner or their kid’s graduation party. Treat them like neighbors, not numbers.
Each Platform Is a Different Conversation
Posting identical content everywhere is like wearing the same outfit to a beach party and a job interview. Technically you’re dressed, but you’re missing the point.
Instagram wants aspiration. TikTok wants entertainment. Facebook wants community. LinkedIn wants expertise.
I learned this watching Tony’s Pizza attempt on social media. In the first month, he posted the same “daily special” photo across all platforms. Instagram did okay—nice lighting on the pepperoni. TikTok flopped completely. Facebook got a few comments from regulars.
Month two, Tony tried something different. Instagram got the beautiful overhead shot of the pizza coming out of the oven. TikTok got him spinning dough and inevitably dropping some on the floor. Facebook got him asking the local community what toppings they wanted to see next week.
His engagement went through the roof. Not because the content was better, but because it matched what people expected from each platform.
Instagram users want to feel inspired to visit your place. TikTok users want to be entertained while they scroll. Facebook users actually read posts and engage in conversations.
Instagram: Show the best version of your restaurant life. Beautiful food, happy staff, satisfied customers. Not perfect, just appealing.
TikTok: Embrace the chaos. Kitchen disasters. Staff personalities. Trends adapted to restaurant life. The “day in my life as a restaurant owner” videos consistently perform well here.
Facebook: This is your town square. Local events, community involvement, actual conversations with customers. People use Facebook differently—they comment, they share stories, they argue about whether pineapple belongs on pizza.
Match your content to the conversation happening on each platform.
Track What Actually Puts Money in the Register
Vanity metrics will bankrupt you. Followers don’t pay rent.
I know a taco truck with fifteen thousand Instagram followers that closed last year. I also know a barbecue joint with nine hundred followers that expanded to a second location.
Guess which one focused on likes versus reservations?
Tommy runs a seafood place up in Bar Harbor. Spent months chasing follower counts, celebration posts hitting certain numbers, the whole ego game. Business stayed flat.
Then he started tracking different stuff. His Instagram Stories about daily catches had completion rates over 80%—people watched the whole thing. Posts about sustainable fishing practices got saved way more than his food photos. Every sunset picture he posted led to DMs asking about reservation availability.
So Tommy doubled down on what actually worked. More Stories about the boats coming in with fresh lobster. More posts about working with local fishermen. More sunset shots with captions about perfect endings to great meals.
Bookings increased 40% over three months.
Stop measuring applause. Start measuring business.
Comments asking about your hours. Saves on your menu posts. DMs requesting reservations. Shares where people tag friends saying “we need to go here.”
Those metrics matter. Everything else is just noise.
Let Technology Handle the Boring Stuff (But Keep Your Personality)
You don’t need to become a social media expert. You just need smart systems.
Scheduling tools so you’re not posting at random times. Analytics that tell you when your customers are actually online. Apps that suggest content ideas based on what’s working for similar restaurants in your area.
But here’s the crucial part: use technology to handle logistics, not personality. Let software schedule your posts, but write the captions yourself. Use data to find the best posting times, but jump in with spontaneous Stories when something interesting happens.
Maria now schedules her pasta-making videos to post every morning at 8 AM when her customers check social media with their coffee. But when a customer surprises her with flowers or when she burns a batch of breadsticks, she grabs her phone and shares it immediately.
Automation handles the routine. Authenticity handles the moments that matter.
Six Months Later
Maria’s reservation book is full through next month. A food blogger discovered Nonna’s Kitchen through a customer’s Story and wrote this glowing review that got shared all over local social media.
But the moment that really got to her happened three weeks ago. An elderly couple came in for dinner, and the woman told Maria, “We’ve been watching your pasta videos for months. You remind me of my mother—she had the same passion for cooking. We drove two hours just to meet you.”
They stayed until closing, sharing stories about the woman’s mother, asking Maria about her family in Italy, leaving a twenty-dollar tip on a forty-dollar meal.
That’s what real social media strategy does. It doesn’t just fill tables—it fills your restaurant with people who were already excited to meet you before they walked through the door.
The best social media strategy for restaurants isn’t about going viral or building a massive following. It’s about connecting with the right people—the ones who will become your regulars, your advocates, your friends.
Your community is out there right now, scrolling through feeds, looking for somewhere special to eat. They want to support local businesses. They want authentic experiences. They want to feel connected to the people making their food.
They’re looking for you. Make sure they can find you.
Start tomorrow. Pick one platform. Share one genuine moment. Show them why your restaurant exists beyond just serving food.
Your future regulars are scrolling right now.
FAQs
High follower counts don't guarantee revenue. Focus on attracting local, engaged followers who can actually visit your restaurant rather than pursuing broad, generic audiences. Create content that encourages action (reservations, visits, recommendations) rather than passive consumption. Engage genuinely with your community and track metrics that correlate with actual business growth.
Small restaurants have a significant advantage in authenticity and personal connection. Share your unique story, showcase the people behind the food, and engage directly with customers in ways large chains cannot. Focus on building genuine relationships with local customers rather than trying to match corporate marketing budgets. Personal connections and authentic storytelling consistently outperform polished corporate content.
Treating social media as a broadcasting tool rather than a conversation platform. The biggest mistake is posting content without engaging with responses, sharing identical posts across all platforms, or focusing solely on self-promotion. Successful restaurant social media requires genuine interaction, platform-specific content, and showing the human personalities behind the business.
