A social media strategy in four sentences

A restaurant's marketing folder holds a forty-page social media strategy, written by an agency two years ago. It has audience personas, brand pillars, content buckets, hashtag lists and a section on emerging platforms. Nobody at the restaurant has read it since the week it arrived, and the Instagram account posts whenever someone remembers. A social media strategy that nobody can remember is not a strategy. For most restaurants, four sentences are enough.

The four sentences answer four questions. Who are you posting for? What do you want them to do? Where will you post? How often? A venue that can answer those clearly, and stick to the answers, has a better strategy than most forty-page documents, because every post can be checked against it in a few seconds.

This guide covers each of the four sentences, how to write yours, what follows from them, from what to post to how to measure it, and the things a strategy is not. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

A restaurant's social media has a simple job: to bring the right people through the door. Most of the complexity in social media plans, such as long lists of content themes, detailed personas and platform-by-platform tactics, describes how to do that job, not the job itself. For a busy venue, it is decoration.

Four sentences keep the job in view. They are short enough to remember, to share with the whole team and to check every post against. When someone asks whether to post something, the answer is in the four sentences: does it reach the people we post for, and does it help them do what we want?

The first sentence names the people you are posting for. Not "everyone", and not "foodies", but the guests most likely to come: "people who live or work within twenty minutes of us and like a relaxed dinner", or "families nearby looking for a weekend lunch", or "office workers in the streets around us at lunchtime".

Being specific changes what you post. Posts for families nearby show the Sunday lunch, the space for prams and the children's menu. Posts for office workers show how fast lunch is and how close you are. Posts for "everyone" show nothing in particular and persuade nobody.

For most restaurants, the guests who matter live or work nearby. A beautiful post that reaches thousands of people in other cities is pleasant for the ego and useless for bookings. A modest post seen by a few hundred people within a short walk can fill a table tonight.

Let sentence one reflect that. Tourist destinations and venues people travel to are exceptions, and their first sentence will look different. But for a neighbourhood restaurant, the strategy starts with the neighbourhood.

The second sentence says what you want those people to do. Usually, it is to book a table, or to come in. Sometimes it is something more specific: to try the new lunch menu, to book for a private party, to come back on a quiet night.

This sentence matters because it decides what success looks like. If you want people to book, then likes and followers are not the goal; bookings are. Social to bookings, the path from a post to a seated guest, is the measure. Everything you post should make that path easier.

The third sentence says where you will post. For most restaurants, one or two platforms are enough, chosen because the people in sentence one use them. Trying to be everywhere spreads a small amount of time across too many places, and each one gets weaker.

Choose the platforms where your guests already are, and do them well. A venue that posts well on one platform, and keeps its Google Business Profile up to date, will usually do better than one that posts badly on five.

Different platforms suit different guests and different kinds of post. Visual platforms suit food and rooms. Some platforms are used more by younger guests, others by older local communities. Short video suits venues willing to film the kitchen and the team.

Look at who your guests are, ask a few of them where they found you and check where similar venues nearby are active. Then choose one or two. The general practice of social media marketing changes quickly, but the principle of being where your guests are does not.

The fourth sentence says how often you will post, and it should be a number you can keep: "three times a week", "every weekday", "twice a week, plus stories when something is happening". Consistency matters more than volume. An account that posts reliably three times a week builds an audience; one that posts daily for a fortnight and then falls silent for a month loses it.

Be honest about the time you have. A small venue with no marketing help may manage two or three posts a week. That is plenty, as long as it is steady.

Here is an example for an invented bistro. "We post for people who live or work within twenty minutes of us and enjoy a relaxed dinner with good wine. We want them to book a table, especially from Tuesday to Thursday. We post on Instagram and keep our Google Business Profile up to date. We post three times a week and reply to every comment within a day."

That is the whole strategy. It fits on a card by the till. Every post can be checked against it, and anyone on the team can explain it.

Restaurant social media works like a front door. Many guests look at a venue's profile before they book, to see the food, the room and the people. The profile answers the questions they would otherwise ask: is it the kind of place we like, and does the food look good?

That means the profile itself, not just the latest post, matters. A clear bio, a link to book, recent photos of real food and a sense of what the venue is like all help. Our guide to Instagram for restaurants: the profile as a front door covers how to set one up.

Once the four sentences are clear, what to post follows. Posts for local diners who enjoy relaxed dinners might show the evening light in the room, a new dish, the wine of the week and the team preparing for service. Posts for office workers at lunch might show the lunch menu, how quickly it arrives and the queue-free tables at noon.

When you are stuck for ideas, go back to sentences one and two: what would make these people want to do this? Our guide to what to post when nothing new is happening covers ideas from an ordinary week.

A social calendar turns sentence four into a plan. It sets out what you will post, and when, for the coming weeks: the new menu launch, the seasonal dishes, the events, the ordinary weeks in between. It stops the account going quiet in busy weeks and running out of ideas in quiet ones.

Build it around your own year: your seasons, your events, your quiet nights. A calendar that follows the venue's real rhythm is easier to keep than one copied from a template. Our guide to a social posting schedule a kitchen can keep covers a weekly routine.

If sentence two is "book a table", the profile needs a link that takes people straight to booking. A link in the bio that goes to the booking page, not the home page, removes a step between interest and a reservation. Every extra tap loses some of the people who wanted to book.

Mention the link in posts that might prompt a booking: "Book through the link in our bio." Our guide to bookings from Instagram: the link and the bio covers how to set it up.

To know whether the strategy is working, measure social to bookings: how many bookings came from people who found you on social media. It is not always easy to measure precisely, but you can estimate it by asking guests how they heard about you, by watching bookings after a strong post and by using links that show where visitors came from.

The number matters more than followers or likes. A strategy that grows followers but not bookings has not met sentence two. Our guide to social to bookings: closing the loop covers how to measure it.

A strategy is not a follower target. Followers who live far away, or who followed for a giveaway, rarely book. It is not a plan to go viral, which is luck rather than strategy. And it is not a list of every trend worth joining, because most trends have nothing to do with the people in sentence one.

Keep the strategy focused on the four sentences. Anything that does not help the right people do the right thing, on the right platform, at a pace you can keep, is optional at best.

It is easy to measure success by followers, because the number is always on screen. But a restaurant does not need followers; it needs guests. A thousand followers within a short walk of the venue are worth far more than ten thousand scattered across the world.

When you look at your numbers, look for signs of local guests: comments from people who have visited, questions about booking, mentions from neighbours. Those are the followers who turn into covers.

Paid posts can extend a strategy, especially for a new venue or a specific event. Their strength is targeting: you can show a post only to people within a few miles of the venue, which matches sentence one exactly.

Keep paid posts within the four sentences. A small budget aimed at local people, promoting something specific, such as a new menu or an event, with a link to book, is far more useful than a large budget aimed at growing followers in general.

A strategy only works if someone does the posting. In a small venue, that is often the owner, a manager or a member of the team who enjoys it. Give them the time to do it, and make it part of their job rather than something squeezed in after service.

One person owning the account usually works better than several people posting when they remember. That person can keep to the rhythm, keep the voice consistent and reply to comments. Others can help by sending photos and ideas.

The way the venue sounds on social media should match the way it sounds everywhere else: in the room, on the menu, in its emails. A relaxed neighbourhood bistro should sound relaxed and neighbourly online; a formal restaurant should sound polished.

A consistent voice helps guests recognise the venue and trust it. Our guide to restaurant branding beyond a logo and a font covers how voice fits into the wider brand.

Social media is a conversation, not a noticeboard. Guests comment, ask questions and send messages about bookings, allergies and opening hours. Replying quickly and warmly is part of the strategy, because each reply is seen by others too.

Include it in sentence four: "and reply to every comment and message within a day". A venue that answers questions promptly turns curious followers into booked guests. One that ignores them loses those guests to a venue that answers.

Review the four sentences every few months. Are you still posting for the right people? Is the strategy bringing bookings? Are the platforms still the right ones? Is the rhythm sustainable?

Small changes are normal: a new lunch service may add office workers to sentence one; a new platform may replace one that your guests have left. The four sentences are a living plan, not a document to file away.

Change the strategy when something significant changes: a new venue, a new kind of guest, a new service such as lunch or private dining, or results that show the current approach is not bringing bookings. Change it deliberately, one sentence at a time, and give the new version a few months before judging it.

Avoid changing it because of a trend or a competitor's post. A strategy that changes every month is not a strategy; it is a series of reactions.

A group of venues has a choice: one account for the group or one for each venue. Separate accounts suit venues with different characters and different local guests, because each can write its own four sentences. One group account suits venues that share a brand and a style.

Either way, each venue still needs its own four sentences, because each has its own neighbourhood, its own guests and its own reasons for them to book. Shared accounts can include a line about each venue's local audience.

A new restaurant's four sentences are slightly different, because it has no regulars yet and few followers. Sentence one is still the local guests most likely to come; sentence two might be to book for the opening weeks; sentence four might be a little more often, while the opening creates things to show.

Write the sentences before opening, so the first posts already serve them. Our guide to restaurant launch marketing for the first month covers how social media fits into an opening.

Social media is one part of a venue's marketing, alongside email, the website, the Google listing and the room itself. The four sentences should fit with the rest: the same guests, the same voice and the same aim of filling the right tables.

A post can send guests to the booking page; an email can remind regulars; the Google listing can catch people searching nearby. Seen together, each channel does its own job, and social media does not have to carry everything alone.

Write the four sentences with the people who will use them: the person who posts, the manager and perhaps the chef. Each sees the guests from a different angle, and the sentences will be better for it. It also means everyone understands the strategy and can help.

Pin the result somewhere the team sees it, such as by the pass or in the staff room. A strategy the whole team knows produces better ideas, more photos and posts that sound like the venue.

Social media rarely changes bookings overnight. It builds familiarity, and familiarity takes time: a guest may see a venue's posts for months before booking. Give the strategy a few months before judging it, while measuring what you can.

If after that time the numbers show little effect, look at each sentence in turn. Are you posting for the right people? Is the link to booking easy? Is the rhythm steady? Usually one sentence is the weak one.

An invented bistro has been posting irregularly, mostly photos of dishes, with few bookings to show for it. The owner writes four sentences: local diners within twenty minutes who like relaxed dinners; book a table, especially midweek; Instagram and the Google profile; three posts a week and every comment answered within a day.

The posts change: more about midweek evenings, the room at dusk and the team, each with a reminder to book through the link in the bio. The bistro asks new guests how they found it. Within a few months, more guests mention Instagram, midweek bookings rise and the account posts steadily three times a week.

servearound does not post to social media or plan posts, so the four sentences and the calendar are yours. What it gives the second sentence is a destination: each venue's booking page, at its own address on servearound.com, which you can put in a profile's bio, and which can show the venue's Instagram and other social links, a Google Maps link and a map.

Reservation analytics show bookings by source, from the booking page, the widget on your own site, phone, staff entered and walk-in, but not which outside channel, such as Instagram, sent a guest to the booking page, and there are no tracked links for a venue's own channels, so the social-to-bookings measure in this guide is one you estimate. See Campaigns.

Four answers: who you post for, what you want them to do, where you post and how often.

Usually the people who live or work nearby and are likely to book.

Bookings, not followers or likes.

One or two, where your guests are, done well.

As often as you can keep up steadily. Two or three times a week is plenty for many venues.

Not always. Small, local, specific paid posts can help, especially for new venues and events.

Estimate bookings from social media by asking guests, watching bookings after posts and using links that show where visitors came from.

Every few months, or when something significant changes.

A social media strategy for a restaurant fits in four sentences: who you are posting for, usually local guests; what you want them to do, usually book; where you will post, one or two platforms where those guests are; and how often, at a rhythm you can keep. Everything else is decoration.

Let the four sentences decide what to post, build a social calendar around your own year, put a link to booking in the profile and measure social to bookings rather than followers. Reply to comments, keep the voice consistent with the venue, use paid posts only for local, specific aims and review the sentences every few months, changing them deliberately rather than with every trend.