Twitter is no longer an option for your bar or restaurant—it’s a necessity. It can be a great tool for promoting your business and engaging your customers, but where do you start? These 10 tips will help you get the hang of Twitter and figure out how you can use it to benefit your bar or restaurant.

1. Keep it consistent.

When you start using Twitter, you’ll probably be excited. But don’t let your excitement translate into 20 tweets in 20 minutes, followed by days of silence. Spamming your followers with constant updates and then treating them to long silences isn’t an effective Twitter strategy. Instead, use a tool like Hootsuite, which lets you preschedule tweets. This way, you know your tweets will be evenly spaced out and you can make sure they go out at a time when your customers will be reading them.

2. Respond to customers.

If you aren’t having a conversation with your customers, then you aren’t using Twitter effectively. When customers tweet a question, make sure you answer it. When they have a complaint, address it and offer to fix the problem. But don’t ignore your praise! If a happy customer wants to tell you about their meal or show off a picture, be sure to respond.

3. Retweet.

Don’t go overboard with retweets, but they can be a great way to show customers that you value their feedback. And as long as you’re retweeting positive things (which, of course, you should be!) this will show your other followers your good side.

4. Post your specials.

Twitter gives you a great platform to make sure your customers know about your daily specials. You can schedule these tweets for times when you know you’ll reach the most customers—for example, tweet about your happy hour specials right before the end of the work day, or tweet out your dinner specials right before dinner when you know people will be hungry.

5. Use pictures.

Sure, you can tell your followers about your food, but showing it to them is a lot more effective! You can try posting pictures of your daily specials or new dishes you’re trying out.
[fl_builder_insert_layout slug=”whitepaper-signup-module-5-step-marketing-budget-planner”]

6. Interact with other businesses.

Your customers aren’t the only followers you want to engage. By responding to other businesses in the area and retweeting their relevant updates, you’ll show that you’re a part of the community.

7. Run Twitter specials.

Try tweeting a special promo code for your followers’ eyes only. If customers mention the tweet at your restaurant, they can get a discount or deal. This will make your followers feel like they have the inside scoop!

8. Try contests.

Contests are a great way to drive engagement and excite your Twitter followers. For example, offer up a gift certificate to one person who retweets your status. You’ll raise awareness and reward a loyal customer.

9. Use hashtags.

Hashtags (as long as you don’t overuse them!) are a great way to get attention. They help Twitter users can find you more easily. For example, if you hashtag your happy hour tweet with #happyhour, people looking for happy hour deals will be able to find you quickly, even if they don’t already follow you. Just don’t overdo it…a tweet full of hashtags is hard to read and can get annoying.

10. Keep it up.

Many bar and restaurants’ Twitter pages are basically ghost towns. Maybe the business lost steam, didn’t get the response it was looking for right away, or just didn’t see the need to keep tweeting. Either way, it’s essential to keep your page active, even if you don’t see a ton of activity right away. A Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in a year will make your customers wonder if you’re disinterested in communicating with them. Even worse, they may think your restaurant closed down!

Twitter might seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. By keeping these tips in mind, you can make sure your tweets promote your bar or restaurant and engage your customer base!