Quick Social Media Hacks for Caterers

Social media is a valuable tool for spreading brand recognition and bringing in new prospects. However, it’s only an asset if you’re using it strategically.

Lon Lane of Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions shares: “I use social media to introduce new products, praise employees, thank clients, and share stories and recipes.”

Share visual content

With the rise of Instagram, social media has become highly image-driven. Text posts are often scrolled right past, so you need to use photos and videos to draw in new leads. Fortunately, catering is an easy industry to source gorgeous photography — just share pictures of your food!

Hire a photographer for a day-long shoot or invest in a professional camera and lighting equipment to create beautiful pictures of your food. Capture dishes from different angles, so you can reuse the same meal while still keeping the content fresh.

Go behind the scenes

Your social media followers enjoy your content and they want to know more about your brand, so give them what they’re looking for. Post videos of a dish being made in the kitchen, photos of your employee get-together, or a walkthrough of your day-of process.

The goal is to connect faces to the brand to make it more personal and relatable. After all, food is an intimate experience – people want to see the team behind their meals.

Nurture your network

Social media is about just that — being social. In addition to reaching potential clients, you should also use it to build connections and curate the network that you’ve grown in the industry. 

Alan Berg CSP of Wedding Business Solutions LLC shares his strategy: “Every morning, I make sure to wish a happy birthday to everyone that Facebook and LinkedIn notifies me of their birthday. I do it in a private message, not on their wall, to show that I’m paying special attention to them. If they don’t acknowledge my birthday wishes two years in a row, it shows me that they’re not engaged in that platform and I disconnect from them (especially on Facebook where they cut you off at 5,000 friends).” 

Beyond birthdays, connect with your industry peers to get to know them on a friendly basis – the stronger your relationships, the more successful your collaborative work will turn out.

Draw prospects to your website

At the end of the day, your social media goal shouldn’t be about followers – it should be about getting people over to your website and bringing them one step closer to reaching out. Show people the excellent work that you do each week and the effort that goes into it, then guide them into your sales funnel over on your website. 

“Post about the events you do and be sure to tell the stories, not just hashtags,” Berg encourages. “Avoid dead-ends by giving links to related content on your website, so you can bring them closer to taking the actions you want.” 

A blog with regular posts is an excellent way to expand the social media story and give people more insight into your brand before they’re ready to book with you. Sales is a long game, so you need to nurture your prospects with high-quality content that points them in the right direction.

Whether you find the most success on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, social media is a game of experimenting. Be open with the content you share and watch the numbers to see what performs best – then, continue to replicate the best posts and watch your online presence (and your list of leads) grow.