Your restaurant’s LinkedIn business page
LinkedIn is rated the top social network for B2B lead generation; connecting more professionals, decision makers, and Fortune 500 executives than any other platform.
While it’s typically associated with online resumes and employer-talent networking, LinkedIn also hosts an equally effective platform for business marketing. We’ve compiled a list of best practices so you can capitalize on the marketing capabilities of your LinkedIn Business profile.
What goes on your restaurant’s business profile?
First, you’ll need to cover the basics listed below until LinkedIn’s progress tracker says your business page is completely filled out. According to LinkedIn, “Completed Company Pages generally receive twice as many visitors than those with incomplete pages.”
Logo
Use the dimensions and file sizes suggested when you upload your image. Make sure it’s uncluttered and still legible on a small screen.
Cover image
This will display in different sizes on different devices, so pick a good quality, high resolution photo that reflects your restaurant brand identity.
Company description
There’s no need to go into too much depth here. Keep it to a sentence or two, getting across the main message of what your restaurant is about and what makes you different.
Website URL
Point this to your main homepage, rather than to your menu or any other part of your website.
Company size
Be sure to update this as you grow. Some people look for jobs in companies of a specific size.
Industry
‘Restaurant’ is the obvious one to pick, but you may want to consider alternatives such as ‘Catering’ or ‘Events’ if that’s where the majority of your business comes from.
Location
Your profile can have multiple locations, but only one primary address, so state where your company is officially registered.
How do you make it even better?
Match your brand
Make sure your company logo, images, and style match your website and other company pages.
Customize your Call to Action (CTA)
Get customers to your website by customizing a call to action. For example, “Check out our menu” or “See what’s cookin’ at X” with a link to your website or other social pages. This also allows you to track traffic to your website coming from LinkedIn.
Add showcase pages
Your LinkedIn page can be deeper than just your main profile page. You could add extra pages that specifically target your evening customers, or create a page that goes into detail about a weekly event you run in your restaurant.
Shape up executive pages
Build out your personal pages to complement your company page. Many potential customers will search for owners, CEOs, and executives to contact directly.
Culture and career
The Life and Jobs sections give you the opportunity to spotlight your restaurant’s employment opportunities and company culture.
Add a LinkedIn Badge to your website
Grow your company page on LinkedIn by adding a badge to your website.
Use your connections to grow your business
One of the quickest ways to grow your brand reach is with your existing friends, followers, and customers. You can do this in several ways by adding these connections directly using Sponsored InMail.
Write to your existing customers, colleagues, and brand loyalists and invite them to join your email list, come in for a free appetizer, or share a review. The service lets you personalize your message and send it to up to 50 connections at a time.
Connect with your employees
Invite your employees to follow your brand. With executives, FOH, and BOH, a restaurant has a lot of opportunity to grow its influence.
Follow influencers
Good news, you don’t have to have a connection with an influencer to follow them. You might even get their attention.
Invite critics and new customers
Invite food critics to come try a new menu item, or tell a local business about an event space or lunch special.
Share your digital business card
Grow your audience by following up on offline networking with friends and loyal customers when you invite them to connect on LinkedIn.
What kind of content should you post?
Algorithms aren’t the only determining factor when it comes to content performance, LinkedIn also uses real people and editors to score your content. Long story short, it needs to be quality. The social network recommends implementing the 4-1-1 rule: Four posts should be industry neutral and educational, one self-promotional, and one a specific request for action from your followers.
If you’re experiencing poor results, maybe you’re not posting what your audience wants. Sometimes good content ideation is as simple as scrolling down your newsfeed to see what your customers are talking about.
“Employees typically have 10x the social reach of their company. Share your employees’ best posts on LinkedIn, and leverage their networks and their voice to build a connection to your brand.”
LinkedIn marketing solutions »
Rewards Network® does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.
