Social media marketing for restaurants, done for you
Menu carousels, dish reels and weekly Google posts that bring diners through the door. From $200 a month.
- MonThe 5 dishes our regulars orderCarousel
- TueFriday special: slow-cooked lambPost
- WedPlating our signature dish in 15 secondsReel
- ThuOpen till 11 tonightPost
- FriWhere this recipe comes fromTo approve
- SatPost
- SunReel
Everything a social media manager does, from $200 a month
Agencies charge $40 to $150 a post (WebFX, October 2026). Our Starter plan is 12 posts for $200, researched, designed, checked and published.
Research
Topics from your customers' real questions, current news in your trade and what your competitors' best posts did. Every fact keeps its source.
Write and design
Carousels, single posts and short reels in your brand template, sized for each platform. A person reads every one.
Publish
Scheduled at the times your audience is online, on up to 5 platforms, from one calendar you approve.
Measure
Reach, saves and clicks for each post. Formats that work get more of next month; the rest get dropped.
Accounts we run today
Greenwolf Advisors, cross-border wealth advisory
Two to three posts a day on Instagram, Facebook, X and Substack since 14 October 2026, each fact-checked before it goes out. See their pages
- WeeklySkin clinic, Gurgaon: a treatment post on Google every week, with no one at the clinic writing it
- 48% vs 14%B2B analytics firm: median engagement, carousels against single images, so carousels got more slots
- 5,787Founder on LinkedIn: impressions on one post after we moved posting to US hours
Names of these three accounts are hidden.
How it works
You approve; we do the rest.
Tell us about your business
Your website, your offers and what you want people to buy or book.
Approve the calendar
Next month's posts, laid out in one place. Edit anything.
We create and publish
Researched, designed, checked and scheduled for you.
Review what worked
A short report, and the mix shifts toward what performs.
Plans
Month to month, in US dollars. Ad spend not included.
Starter
Stay visible, every week
- 12 posts a month
- 4 carousels, 6 posts, 2 reels
- 2 platforms
- A content calendar you approve
- Monthly report
Growth
Turn followers into enquiries
- 20 posts a month
- 6 carousels, 8 posts, 6 reels
- 3 platforms
- A weekly Google Business post
- Format tests, report every 2 weeks
Pro
A daily presence and a founder voice
- 30 posts a month
- 10 carousels, 10 posts, 10 reels
- Up to 5 platforms
- 2 founder LinkedIn posts a week
- 2 articles a month, weekly report
01
Questions about social media marketing for restaurants
How much does social media marketing for restaurants cost?
How often should a restaurant post on social media?
What should a restaurant post on Instagram?
Do I need professional food photography?
Can we repost photos customers take of our food?
Are Google Business Profile posts worth it for restaurants?
Do you have restaurant clients?
What happens after the 7 free posts?
Ready when you are
Choose a plan and we start this week. Or, if you would rather see the work first, we will make your first 7 posts free: designed on your brand, approved by you, and yours to keep whatever you decide.
Read the full guide: social media marketing for restaurants
01
What social media marketing for restaurants needs to do
Social media marketing for restaurants is a weekly stream of food video, menu and offer posts, and Google Business Profile updates that give nearby diners a reason to visit. We plan, draft, design and schedule it from your photos and clips, and you approve every post before it goes live.
Restaurant owners rarely lack ideas for posts. They lack an hour in the day. Service runs late, suppliers call, staff swap shifts, and the Instagram account that was busy in the opening month has not posted in six weeks. When a diner checks you before booking, a quiet page reads like a quiet room.
We treat restaurant social media marketing as a system rather than a creative scramble. Your team sends phone photos and short clips from the kitchen and floor whenever it suits them. AI drafts captions and carousel text from a brief and your menu, designs are rendered from your brand template, every post is checked, and you approve it in one tap. It is the same system behind our AI social media marketing packages, shaped around how restaurants actually get discovered.
02
How diners find restaurants
Social media is one discovery channel among several, and it helps to be honest about its size. In a Toast survey of 1,466 US adults run from 9 to 15 October 2025, reported by PMQ Pizza in July 2026, word of mouth was the top way people found new restaurants at 38%, followed by passing by in person at 30%. Facebook was named by 27%, map apps by 18%, search engines by 16%, Instagram and YouTube by 15% each and TikTok by 14%. Among Gen Z respondents, 38% named TikTok as their favorite discovery channel.
Two conclusions follow. First, social works best when it feeds word of mouth: dishes people want to show friends, events they want to bring someone to, posts worth sending in a group chat. Second, map and search discovery matters, which is why your Google Business Profile belongs in the plan alongside Instagram and Facebook.
03
What works in restaurant social media marketing
Menu reels
Short vertical clips of a dish being plated, a pour, a grill, a slice. Filmed on a phone by your team, edited and subtitled by us.
- Under 30 seconds
- One dish or drink per reel
- Dish name and price on screen if you want it
Google Business Profile posts
Google offers three post types: updates, offers and events. Updates can promote a new dish, offers need start and end dates, and events need a date and time.
- Weekly on the Growth plan and above
- Book, order or call button
- Shown where local diners search
Guest content, with permission
Photos and videos your guests post are often your best material. We only reshare them after the guest has agreed, and we credit them.
- Ask in comments or DMs first
- Credit the creator
- Keep a record of the permission
Local hashtags and location tags
A short set of neighbourhood, city and cuisine tags, plus the restaurant's location tag on every post, so people browsing nearby can find you.
- Tested and pruned monthly
- No long irrelevant tag lists
- Location tag every time
Posting times that match your service
We do not rely on a universal best time to post. We start with the hours before your busy periods, when people are deciding where to eat, then let the 72 hour scores tell us what to keep.
- Lunch and dinner decision windows
- Weekend plans posted midweek
- Adjusted from your own results
Specials, events and changes
Weekly specials, live music, set menus, holiday hours and new menu launches, scheduled ahead so they are out before people make plans.
- Planned in the monthly calendar
- Same message across platforms
- Expired offers taken down
04
Google Business Profile: the post most restaurants skip
According to Google Business Profile Help, businesses can publish updates, offers and events to their profile, and posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set. Google also says featured posts, which can appear on your profile on mobile, are currently available in English for single-location food and drink businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
That makes a weekly Google post one of the lowest-effort habits a restaurant can keep: one dish, one photo, one sentence about why it is worth trying, and a button to book or order. We include a weekly Google Business Profile post in the Growth and Pro plans, and it can be one of the 2 platforms in the free trial.
05
Your first 7 free posts: a sample 7-post plan for a restaurant
Carousel: the five dishes regulars order
A slide per dish with a one-line description. It answers a first-time diner's real question, what should I order, and it is the kind of post people save for later.
- Format: carousel
- Why it works: saves and shares
Carousel: the story behind one dish
Where the recipe comes from, what goes into it and how long it takes, told in five slides with kitchen photos. It gives people something to say when they recommend you.
- Format: carousel
- Why it works: feeds word of mouth
Single post: this week's special
One photo, the dish, the days it is available and how to book. Simple and time-bound, so it gives a reason to come this week rather than someday.
- Format: single image
- Why it works: urgency
Single post: the room
A wide photo of the dining room or terrace at its best light, with opening hours. Diners choosing a place for an occasion want to see where they will sit.
- Format: single image
- Why it works: answers the occasion question
Single post: a Google Business Profile update
If Google is one of your 2 platforms: one signature dish, a sentence about it and an order or book button, shown to people searching nearby.
- Format: single post on Google
- Why it works: reaches people already searching
Reel: plating one dish
A 15 to 20 second clip of a signature dish being plated, with the name on screen. Food in motion is what makes people stop scrolling.
- Format: reel
- Why it works: reach beyond your followers
Reel: a minute in the kitchen
Quick cuts from prep, the pass and service, with subtitles. It shows the people behind the food and the care involved.
- Format: reel
- Why it works: personality and trust
06
Why we call it a sample plan
We do not yet run a restaurant account, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. The plan above is a sample built from the formats that work for local businesses and from the discovery data cited on this page. Your actual 7 posts would be built around your menu, your room and your photos.
What is proven is the method, which runs on all our accounts. Every post is scored at 72 hours and the format mix shifts toward what performs. On one B2B LinkedIn page we manage, document carousels had a median engagement rate of 48% against 14% for single images across 27 scored posts, so carousels got more slots in the calendar. For a restaurant, the same scoring would tell us within a few weeks whether reels of plating or carousels of the menu bring more profile visits and bookings, and the calendar would shift accordingly.
07
What the plans cover, and what they do not
All three plans are priced in US dollars and run month to month, with no long contract. Ad spend is not included: if you want to boost posts or run paid campaigns, that budget is paid directly to the platform.
Your team supplies photos and clips from service; we handle selection, editing, captions, design and scheduling. If you need comments, messages and reviews answered day to day as well, our social media management services add community management and fuller reporting. For every format and tool we use, see our AI social media marketing service.