By Kristin Herman, Contributor
Instagram Stories has taken many industries by storm with its ability to transform marketing into fun, fast, and digestible bits. With more than 300 million users interacting with Stories on a daily basis, it’s no wonder that businesses – including restaurants – are now turning to Instagram to promote their businesses and gain more customers.
So, if you’re ready to boost your ‘Gram rep and attract more loyal customers for your restaurant, then check out these five tips on how to create the best Instagram Stories!
Determine “Now” And “Later”
When posting an Instagram Story about your restaurant, capturing the raw or authentic quality in real time might seem attractive. And it totally can be! However, you may want to consider taking photos and videos and then saving them for later.
Why is that?
It gives you time to look back, select the best-looking images, and create a good story.
It lets you add commentary, create polls, and tag people and the restaurant (which can give you more views).
It lets you space out your content evenly over the course of a week or month instead of bombarding your followers with 20 posts in one day.
Create an Establishing Shot
Since first impressions are important, the first image of your Story has to nail it. You can do this by setting up an establishing shot.
Here are some ways that you can create an effective establishing shot:
Start an Instagram Story with a video that has one of your staff talking to the camera, giving a brief intro on where they’re going and what they’re doing.
Shoot a beautiful shot of the restaurant’s chic exterior or interior (preferably a memorable space that people like).
Pan across several of your restaurant’s dishes and drinks.
What you use for this first shot is really going to depend on what the series of Stories you’re posting is about, so think about the topic or theme or story you want to tell and what images will capture your follower’s attention.
Interview Your Restaurant’s Staff
It’s important to get other people involved, when posting about your restaurant. Maybe interview some of your staff – waiters, cooks, etc. You can ask them questions about their favorites on the menu or ask them how they like to bring their favorite dish to life.
You can even have them do tutorials on their food favorites -- recipe videos are insanely popular right now.
Whatever you do: don’t forget to get a selfie with your staff, and tag them in it (with their permission, of course).
Formulate A Story
So, what do you do now that you have a lot of photos, videos, etc. of what your restaurant has to offer? Well, it’s time to tell a story about it!
Now, there’s no right or wrong way to tell a story. If your preference is a chronological story, then go for it. If you want to focus on a certain theme, then that’s great too.
However, the important thing to keep is consistency. That means using the same filter, font style, color, etc. throughout the entire story. Find ways of incorporating your restaurant’s brand into your Instagram Story. And, make sure that those factors are easily seen and read by viewers. As for your restaurant’s handle, make sure that’s in every single Story that you post, so that people know who you are.
Finally, make sure you have the right hashtags to go along with your Stories. However, be mindful of how you use hashtags; too many of them will make your post spammy, and not using relevant hashtags will create confusion, and also label you as spam.
If you plan on using a location tag, make sure you use the right one to show where you are as you post your Story.
Add Your Restaurant’s Personality
Finally, there’s nothing wrong with adding personality to your Stories. By adding creative polls, asking viewers questions about the food or restaurant, there’s no shortage of fun to be add when creating your Stories. This allows you to not only engage with your audience, but to also have viewers turn into paying customers once they like and share your posts.
Conclusion
As you can see, Instagram Stories allows your restaurant’s brand to shine with amazing photos, engaging videos, and showcases of the people behind your business. As mentioned, not only will Stories promote your business, but they’ll also help you gain more attraction to where people will go to your restaurant for many years to come.
So, now that you’ve been shown the ropes on how to create the best Instagram Stories for your restaurant, why not start today, and let the fun and excitement begin?
About the Author
Kristin Herman is a writer and editor at Boom Essays and Simple Grad. She is also a contributing writer for Top Canadian Writers. As a marketing writer, she writes about the latest trends in marketing, along with great advice to up-and-coming marketers.
