With the huge popularity of Instagram and Facebook, it’s no wonder that every business wants to encourage their patrons to share snapshots throughout their social media networks. In fact, this has become one of the major strategies that restaurateurs use to engage their own customers and drum up new custom.
If you want to drive new customers to your eatery, here are five décor and furnishing ideas that should give you a head start.
1. Themes or eye-catching interior designs
With social media, everything is about being visually appealing, which is why your business needs a theme or an eye-catching presentation that customers want to photograph. These can include digital or neon signs or menus on the walls, as well as a stand out theme, such as communal eating tables, open kitchens and using Italian style furnishings such as Nardi.
2. Lighting for social media engagement
Lighting is an integral part of any eatery, creating its mood and ambiance. This can include a variety of pendants, chandeliers, candles, and lanterns, all used to establish your theme. Lights need to be positioned to allow your customers to visually appreciate your theme, décor, table settings and food, all of which comes together to make an instagrammable vignette.
If you make a feature of your lighting however, this itself can encourage customers to take photographs to share with their social media followers. People love taking photos, and the more reasons you give them to photograph your business, the more you increase online engagement.
@thegrounds3. Food presentation
Why not give your chef the freedom to create food that is photogenic and instagrammable? It makes perfect sense when you want to engage your target audience via social media, because everyone wants to share a visually amazing display of food with their followers. An even better idea is to commission plate ware that is eye-catching, taking your food’s presentation up another notch. At Daydream, we stock a huge range of tableware and dining settings that are the perfect addition to any commercial business. Browse our beautiful entertainment accessories here!
4. Fun and branded menus
Since people automatically look for something unique and photogenic when they eat out, it makes sense to design your menus to be photographed. This means that engaging a local artist to design fun and interesting menus that complement your furnishings and theme, is a cost-effective exercise. People no longer simply photograph the food, so creating a space that has multiple photogenic factors within its décor is a win-win situation!
You can even personalise menus for special occasion bookings, making it pretty much guaranteed that they will photograph them and share it with their followers.
5. Create a photo wall
We highly recommend creating a unique design element or photo wall that customers would recognise when featured online and through social media. A few excellent ideas may be creating a living plant wall, planters filled with living herbs in the middle of your Nardi tables, backlit glass shelves filled with spirit bottles behind the bar or a wall covered in fabulous artwork. All of these furnishing and décor ideas make your eatery ‘instagrammable’, bringing in more customers to share your eatery with their social media followers!
@homebeautifulBonus Tips!
Instead of a boring photo of a plate of food, why not hand out wide-angle selfie sticks to your customers. This is a fun and creative way to engage your customers as well as showcase more of your business (furnishings included). Also, don’t forget to leverage your own branded hashtag so you can continue to engage with your customers post-purchase! Add these hashtags to all of your own Instagram images, captions and menus to keep your hashtag trending!
If you would like any styling tips or advice on new furniture fit-outs, feel free to contact the professional team at Daydream Leisure Furniture today. We are the outdoor living specialists who can help bring life back to your hospitality business.