How to Promote Your Restaurant on TikTok
TikTok ideas to market your brand, menu, and showcase your BOH superstars
Promoting your business in the era of social media means keeping up with the latest trends and platforms. Our team at Choco has put together a list of TiktTok ideas for restaurants to help chefs, managers, food servers, and line-cooks become the next online superstar!
WHAT IS TIKTOK?
TikTok was launched in 2017 and has become one of the most popular video-sharing social media platforms with approximately 74 million TikTok users. The app is mainly used to make short videos of different genres such as dance, comedy, or education across all industries!
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Concepts for a TikTok restaurant video
It takes one single viral TikTok video for restaurants to break through, gain visibility, and strengthen a brand. TikTok videos range from viral challenges, dances and reactions to motivational, funny, and informative videos. At first, all the options in the app can be a bit overwhelming when brainstorming new TikTok restaurant video ideas. When presenting your restaurant kitchen on TikTok, you can opt for different concepts such as restaurant walk-ins, dishes, or showing your back of house.
Let’s wrap this up and find out the key elements for a successful strategy.
Location
Showing your restaurant interiors or patio is a great way to attract customers and give them a more tangible idea of what the dining experience at your restaurant is all about. Put the spotlight on the details that make up the ambiance. Customers love seeing curated interiors, quirky objects, and get to know your music taste. A good location shoot is all about movement. For example, you can start by opening your restaurant door and doing a walk-in. The following segments can include customers being served and focus on specific areas such as the bar or outdoor area.
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Food textures
You should test food close-ups to promote your menu on TikTok. The most popular angle to shoot food and dishes is 45-degrees, but this doesn't mean you can't experiment with your camera to find your "signature style". When shooting food close-ups, move your camera up and down, zoom in, grab a piece of food, twirl the fork...do anything to tempt your customers and show the colors and texture of your food.
Back of house
Don't shy away from capturing food-prep or mise-en-place scenes. What is “normal” for you in the back of house (flipping an omelet, taking a bread loaf out of the oven) can make your audience go crazy. Along with this, try to focus on the people aspect: customers might fall in love with the rockstars that make up your kitchen team.
TikTok strategies for restaurants
There are many ways to create a successful restaurant TikTok account. If you’re not 100% familiar with the app, we recommend trying out different concepts listed above and spend some time collecting ideas from other TikTok accounts before defining your restaurant TikTok strategy. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Influencers
Checking out influencers can help you develop your restaurant’s TikTok style when opening your own account...and you might as well find the right candidate to collaborate with. Working with food & lifestyle influencers can help your restaurant get exposure among local customers and tourists, which is helpful for special occasions like your re-opening or launching a new menu. Keep in mind that TikTokers working with local restaurants (like Austin-based influencer @atasteofkoko) are the main trusted source for many people that want to know more about the cuisine a city has to offer.
2. TikTok challenges
The beauty of TikTok is that users often don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” and come up with their own concepts. This means that you can promote your restaurant by simply filming your kitchen team taking part in the latest viral challenge...and delighting your followers with your in-house dancing or lip-syncing skills! Popular TikTok content also includes awareness campaigns covering themes like mental health, inclusivity, and sustainability. Therefore, make sure that you are on top of the news and trends, and check on global events and popular hashtags such as #WorldEnvironmentDay2021 or #LidFlip.
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3. Homemade content
Last but not least: creating a TikTok video for your restaurant doesn’t necessarily imply shooting the content at your restaurant. You can use a simple TikTok restaurant background via the app if you want to create a video from your own home. You can purchase a basic TikTok kit (including a tripod, ring-light, and microphone) to help you stabilize your camera, provide good lighting and audio to your scene, and hit record via a Bluetooth controller.