Top 5 Social Media Best Practices for Restaurants in 2025

Feb 6

1. Engage with Guests in Real Time
Social media is a two-way conversation. Your restaurant needs to engage with your followers in real-time to build relationships and encourage loyalty.

What to Do:

Respond to comments and DMs quickly. Whether it’s a compliment or a question about the menu, guests want to feel heard.
Host Instagram Lives or Facebook Q&A sessions to answer questions about your menu, ingredients, or restaurant story.
Share user-generated content like customers’ photos of your dishes (with permission) to create a sense of community.

Tools to Use:

Sprout Social for managing interactions and scheduling real-time responses across multiple platforms.
Hootsuite for monitoring and replying to messages on social media channels.

2. Use Instagram and TikTok for Short-Form Videos
Short-form video continues to be one of the most effective ways to engage your audience and show off your food, atmosphere, and staff personality.

What to Do:

Create food prep videos that highlight the quality of your ingredients or the process of making a signature dish.
Showcase your restaurant’s ambiance in quick, high-energy clips that entice guests to visit.
Use trending music or hashtags on TikTok to make your videos discoverable and increase engagement.

Tools to Use:

InShot for editing short-form videos easily.
TikTok and Instagram Reels for uploading and optimizing video content.

3. Build a Consistent Brand Voice
Consistency across all your social media channels helps establish a strong brand identity. In 2025, customers expect a cohesive experience from your posts, replies, and tone.

What to Do:

Develop a clear brand voice that aligns with your restaurant’s personality (whether it’s casual, sophisticated, fun, etc.).
Create brand guidelines for your social media, covering tone, visuals, and type of content to ensure consistency.
Post regularly and at optimal times to stay top-of-mind.

Tools to Use:

CoSchedule to help schedule posts for consistent timing and organization.
Brandfolder to store and manage your visual assets and ensure cohesive branding.

4. Run Contests and Giveaways
People love free stuff, and giveaways can generate buzz and increase your social media following quickly.

What to Do:

Create simple, fun contests where people can win a free meal, gift card, or exclusive event by tagging friends, sharing your post, or following your page.
Promote your giveaways on all your social platforms to maximize participation.

Tools to Use:

Rafflecopter for managing online contests and giveaways.
Woobox for creating engaging contests and giveaways on social media.

5. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Partnering with local influencers who resonate with your target audience can boost brand awareness and bring in new guests.

What to Do:

Identify local food bloggers and influencers in your area with strong engagement rates.
Offer free meals or experiences in exchange for honest reviews or posts about your restaurant.
Use micro-influencers (under 10K followers) for more authentic connections and engagement.

Tools to Use:

Upfluence or AspireIQ to find and manage influencer partnerships.
Influencity for tracking the ROI of your influencer marketing efforts.

Jaci Lund

Jaci Lund partner, creative director, designer Jaci’s quick wit and native intelligence comes across as soon as you meet her—and carries over to her design, where she fuses fun and sophistication in just the right doses. With a dual focus on creating original branding for new concepts and revitalizing the look and feel of even the most-established brands, Jaci approaches each project with a fresh and thoughtful perspective. While she recognizes the relevance of current trends, she’s hyper-conscious of the fine line that separates “trend” from “fad,” and tends toward more timeless and classic looks for her clients. Before founding Treebird, Jaci was instrumental in growing the design department at Atlanta’s The Reynolds Group, Inc. Through a five-year tenure that saw her quickly ascend to senior designer and then become the company’s first creative director, Jaci worked on design and branding projects with visionaries, entrepreneurs, and business leaders whom she admires greatly and whose own passion elevates her sense of what’s possible through new design, branding, and communication. Jaci has won nine ADDY Awards (and counting) for her design and branding work and has twice been featured in the national design blog “Art of the Menu.” She holds a B.A. in communications from Michigan State University and completed the graphic design program at The Creative Circus, where she also teaches a quarterly course called “Introduction to Creative Thinking.” To see Jaci's previous work please visit jacilund.com.

treebirdbranding.com