5 Facebook Ideas You Should Be Using

Got a Facebook fan page for your restaurant? Super. Don’t? Then read no further. Go directly to Facebook, build a fan page, and get back to us.

We're not saying that using Facebook is a strategy – but it’s a more personal way of communicating your other tactics (events, specials). Having an FB fan page won’t necessarily get you more business. Using Facebook to promote specials (or make someone feel good by making specials just for fans), highlight your community involvement, whatever – that’s how you make yourself Mayor of the Village.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about Facebook marketing. I’m going to lay down some ideas here. You may have used a few of these before and if so, leave a comment and tell us how it worked. I will also list some that are hopefully new to you. So without further ado and in no certain order:

1. Once you have over 25 fans, go to facebook.com/username and reserve a unique name and url for your page. Let’s say your restaurant is Fannie’s Cookies. Then reserve “fanniescookies” as a username. Your page’s unique url will now be facebook.com/fanniescookies which obviously is easier for directing your customers.

2. Everyone should know this one: promote Facebook-only specials. There are a ton of ways to go about this. Post a keyword or phrase like “Fancy Fannie likes funnies” or something that people wouldn’t use in normal conversation. Tell your fans that if they come in and dance for 15 seconds, they get a free drink with their meal. Hold a contest for all fans, giving something free and OF VALUE to a random fan or two when they sign up before the end of the month. Run a photo or video contest and have fans upload them to your Facebook page. The list goes on and on.

3. Do you have a presence at local events? Make sure you mention your Facebook page and specials. Maybe even make a quick business card or coupon with your Facebook url to send home with folks, because I don’t know about you but my memory sucks.

4. Another idea for Facebook and events. Let’s say you’ll be at the local high school’s football game this week. Use the Events app on Facebook to create an event. Invite all your fans to the event. Promote the event via posts to your page. Maybe even give a little something extra to customers who mention that they saw you on Facebook. Like American Express says, “Membership has its privileges.”

5. Promote peer-to-peer discussions. That’s what social media is about, right? So don’t just talk to your fans but facilitate discussions on your Facebook page. This can also be a contest situation, depending on how many people answer your discussions. Starting questions will depend on your audience, but could be anything from pitting 2 local football teams against each other (“Who has the best team, the Red Rangers or the Purple Penguins?”) to asking about fans’ favorite pizza toppings. No hard selling here, of course. Talk about what the fans want to talk about.

Stay tuned for more Facebook ideas soon. In the meantime, post comments here and tell us your Facebook success stories – and your fails. Those can be helpful, too.