Is Your Restaurant Leveraging Tik Tok as a Marketing Tool?
The restaurant marketing game is ever-evolving, and it takes time, effort, and dedication to learning new ways of bringing your restaurant to the attention of your community. Tik Tok is a somewhat new social media app that started — like all others — as a way to connect with each other.
However, it wasn’t long until businesses learned the value of meeting their customers where they were already at — on social. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms are important places for businesses, especially restaurants, to have a presence. Tik Tok should be added to the list, and here’s why.
The Growth & Importance of Video In Restaurant Marketing
Video marketing is quickly becoming the most preferred way of consuming content for internet users. While publishing blogs and other high-quality information assets are still critical components of your overall business marketing strategy, video campaigns show far more powerful results.
According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 97% of marketing gurus say that video content helps customers better understand products and services. Currently, over 80% of all internet traffic consists of video, a prediction made by Cisco before 2021 that was proven early in the year.
Tik Tok vs. Other Social Media Marketing for Restaurants
Tik Tok is quickly becoming one of the top social media apps to consume video content. In fact, you’ll find video content on other social apps that have the signature Tik Tok watermark in the video, meaning the video originated from Tik Tok and was shared on other apps afterward.
According to Buffer, the app is already the 6th most popular social media platform, with 800 million users. Just ahead of Tik Tok is a tie between WeChat and Instagram, at 1 billion users each, WhatsApp with 1.6 billion users, YouTube with 1.9 billion users, and Facebook with 2.4 billion users. Well-known social applications like LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, and Pinterest rank below Tik Tok in terms of users.
Essentially, if your restaurant isn’t on Tik Tok yet, now is the time to start an account.
Ideas to Post on Your Restaurant’s Tik Tok
Wondering just what exactly you should put on your restaurant’s Tik Tok account? Here are some fun ideas you can get creative with:
Behind the scenes videos. Customers love seeing their favorite restaurant workers behind the scenes making their preferred dishes. Record quick videos on busy nights to highlight the efficiency of your restaurant or a little bit of goofing off on a slow night. Your community will love getting to know both sides of your establishment.
Staff spotlights. “Kill two birds with one stone,” so to speak, and lift up both your restaurant staff and your customers with staff spotlights. Recognize staff members for a job well done on video and capture their excited responses on camera. Let customers and other users in your community take part in the fun.
How-to’s and recipes. Don’t want to give away your most secret recipes? You don’t have to. Post instruction videos on a couple classics that customers can recreate from home. They’ll enjoy getting to participate in cooking the dishes from your restaurant that they love, and they’ll still come back to enjoy the favorites you don’t post recipes for.
Trending videos. One of Tik Tok’s most valuable marketing tools is its trending sounds feature. Trending sounds occur when multiple users make similarly themed videos using the same sound, which goes viral. Pay attention to trending sounds and videos and create versions of your own.
Social justice videos. Is your restaurant taking part in any social justice initiatives? Do you have employees that want to speak out about social justice? Tik Tok is a great place to do that. Facebook? Not so much.
How Long Should Your Tik Tok Videos Be?
The length of your Tik Tok marketing videos depends largely on two factors: 1) the three video length options available with the app and 2) the type of video you’re making. Tik Tok offers the ability to record in 15-second, 60-second, and 3-minute clips. You can go under this amount of time but not over it depending on which you selected.
You should also choose a video length that best fits the type of video you’re creating. Short promos likely don’t need to be longer than 15 seconds. A recipe video, however, may fill every bit of 3 minutes. If you choose a longer video option, you can always trim it to your desired length with Tik Tok’s post-editing features.
How to Promote Your Restaurant Videos on Tik Tok
Promoting your restaurant’s Tik Tok videos is often as easy as just using the right hashtags. Unlike other social media platforms, you don’t have to choose your audience or demographic; the app has a specific and highly secretive algorithm that recommends videos to people on their “For You” page based on certain criteria, including but not limited to basic demographic information like age and location and videos users previously interacted with.
Select hashtags that are relative to your content, but don’t be afraid to sneak a trending hashtag in every once in a while, even if it’s completely out in left field. Many of the most popular Tik Tok creators use non-related trending hashtags to get their content in front of more people. Using niched hashtags is a good strategy for cultivating a following of your target audience.
S&W Foods: Serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 35+ Years
At S&W Foods, we’re as passionate about restaurant and business marketing as we are about providing fresh wholesale foods and foodservice products to restaurants across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In 35 years, we’ve seen many changes in how restaurants market their offerings, and we can help you level up your advertising and service game.
Contact us today to learn more about restaurant marketing ideas or explore our selection of the highest-quality wholesale foodservice products along the coast.