Social media for your restaurant: which channels, and what to do on each

Start with one goal, not a channel

Most owners open an account and only then ask what it is for. It turns into a scrapbook of lovely photos that nobody does anything with. Pick one goal a month and make every post contribute to it.

Decide what you count before you post, not afterwards. Likes tell you little. Look at reach, meaning how many new people from the area saw your food, and at clicks, meaning how many of them tapped to order or book. Check on the same day every month and write down the result.

Which channel fits which kind of restaurant

According to Newcom’s 2026 national social media survey, as Metricool reports the figures, nearly fourteen million people in the Netherlands use WhatsApp. YouTube follows with just over ten million, Facebook with nearly ten, Instagram with nearly nine, LinkedIn with nearly six and TikTok with nearly five million. Think only of Instagram and TikTok and you skip the channels where most people actually are.

Being everywhere takes too much time, and a channel where nothing happens works against you. A page whose latest post is a Christmas message from three years ago leaves a guest wondering whether you are open. Use this table as a starting point.

Instagram has a story of its own: what to post and what to write underneath is in what to post on Instagram. X you can usually leave alone. That you have sold out goes on your WhatsApp status and your Google profile, where your guests are already looking.

Then ask every new guest how they found you. That answer outweighs any table.

One style, five kinds of post

A guest who sees your video on TikTok and later opens your Facebook page should recognise the same restaurant. The groundwork for that is in your restaurant as a brand. For social media it comes down to four fixed points.

• Name and logo: the same spelling and the same picture on every channel, even when the circle is tiny.
• Bio and link: what you sell, where you are and when you are open, with one link to your ordering page.
• Light: photos taken by the same window in the same daylight, so your page reads as one whole.
• Tone: a snack bar can tease, a quiet bistro does not need to. Choose what your guests already know you for and stick with it.

It does not have to be perfect, but it does have to be recognisable. After that you choose from five kinds of post, so you never face an empty page.

Make sure at least three kinds appear in every four posts, and your page stays varied.

A week you can keep up

Three to five posts a week keeps you visible, as long as they land on fixed days. The trick is reuse: one recording becomes a Reel, a TikTok, a Short, a WhatsApp status and a post in a neighbourhood group. Count on a little over three hours a week: an hour recording, an hour posting and a little over an hour replying.

If that is too much, drop channels, not days. Three posts a week in two places beats six posts you abandon after a month.

Facebook: the neighbourhood, the groups and the events

According to Newcom, Facebook has more than twice as many users in the Netherlands as TikTok. It is the channel for your neighbourhood, for events and for guests who would rather read than scroll.

Get your page in order

• Address, phone number and opening hours are right, public holidays included.
• One action button that goes to your ordering page or your bookings.
• A pinned post at the top with whatever applies now, such as the weekly deal or changed hours.

Groups in your area

A neighbourhood group, or a group about eating out in your town, is full of people already looking for somewhere to go. Join first as yourself, read the rules and answer questions. Some groups ban advertising, others set aside a spot or a day for it. Ask the admin before you post anything. Do not let friends praise you as if they were guests: the ACM calls fake recommendations misleading and prohibited.

Events

For a quiz, a tasting or live music, create an event with the date, time and price. Share it on your page, in the groups that allow it and on your WhatsApp status, and remind people a week ahead and a day ahead. A cooking class, a collection or a charity dinner for the neighbourhood belongs here too.

Short video: TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts

Short video shows what a photo cannot: movement, sound and pace. You need a phone, daylight and something to hold the phone steady, such as a tripod. Keep to one idea per clip. The first two to three seconds decide whether someone stays: the pan that flares, the dough that goes up in the air, a cook who tastes and laughs.

Record once and post in three places. Use the original file from your phone and put the key words on screen for people watching without sound. According to YouTube, Shorts can run up to three minutes, but half a minute is plenty.

• How your best-known dish comes together, start to plate.
• The sound of your kitchen at the busiest moment, with no music over it.
• A short day in the life of someone on your team.
• A guest tasting something for the first time, with permission.
• The answer to a question you get every week, such as the best time to come.

Mind the music. TikTok itself says businesses should use its Commercial Music Library for all their commercial activity, ordinary posts included. Laying a popular song under your clip is therefore out. The sound of your own kitchen is often stronger than any track.

YouTube Shorts is mostly an extra place for the clip you already have. A longer video of three or four minutes, such as how you make your sauce, belongs on YouTube itself and on your own site.

WhatsApp: the direct line to your guests

Almost everyone is already on WhatsApp, so there is nothing to teach. With the free WhatsApp Business app you set up a business profile with your logo, description, opening hours and website, a catalogue of your dishes, quick replies to the questions you keep getting, labels to sort conversations, and a greeting and an away message.

• Questions ahead of time: a table for eight, a dietary need, whether you are open at Christmas.
• Catering enquiries, such as a lunch for thirty people.
• A link to your ordering page as the answer to “Can I still order something for tonight?”

Your Status stays up for a day and is seen by people who have saved your number. Put the dish of the day on it, the soup, or “sold out today”.

With a WhatsApp channel you send updates to followers, such as your weekly menu or an event. According to WhatsApp, a follower’s number stays private: only admins who have saved that follower as a contact can see it. Put the link or QR code on the receipt, on the table and in your Status.

Advertising by message falls under the same rules as email and text: people have to say yes beforehand, with a limited exception for people who have already bought from you, and they must be able to unsubscribe easily. Do not add anyone to a group or list without asking. The rules are set out in text-message marketing for restaurants. A list of people who said yes of their own accord is also a list that belongs to you.

Google profile and LinkedIn: where people already search

On your Google profile you can publish posts: an update, an offer or an event. They appear on your profile in Search and Maps. Google archives posts after six months unless you set a date range. Posts about regulated products such as alcohol are not allowed: you may post, but not about the drink itself. Put something up every week, such as the dish of the day, changed opening hours or an event. How to set up the profile itself is in Google Business Profile for restaurants.

LinkedIn is the channel for lunch and catering to offices. According to Newcom, nearly six million people in the Netherlands use it, including the people who arrange a lunch for a meeting or drinks for a department.

• A photo of a lunch for thirty people, with what is in it and what it costs per person.
• Your terms in three lines: minimum number of people, delivery time and how they order.

For the first months, post from your own profile, because people there already know you, and point them to a WhatsApp number or email address for quotes. There is more on catering in catering as a second source of income.

Guests and colleagues on camera, and replying

Photos from guests are free and believable, but they are not yours. Ask permission with a reply or a private message, credit the person who made it and do not edit the picture. The same goes for your own recordings: anyone recognisable on screen needs to know.

Two rules apply. A portrait made without anyone ordering it may not be published if the person pictured has a reasonable interest against it (article 21 of the Dutch Copyright Act). And a recognisable face is personal data: under the GDPR consent has to be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and withdrawing it must be as easy as giving it. So favour shots of hands, plates and kitchen, and show faces only after a yes.

The same holds for your team. An employee finds it hard to say no to the boss, so make the choice truly free, write down that they said yes and take the picture down if they change their mind.

Reply to comments and messages within a day, and also under other people’s posts where your restaurant comes up, such as a guest who tags you. Answer criticism calmly, with an offer to phone. Do not delete criticism while leaving the praise. If your site shows only the positive comments, say it is a selection, as the advertising code asks. Never buy followers, likes or reviews: the ACM imposed a penalty payment order on an influencer who paid for fake followers and fake likes.

Working with local creators, and what the advertising code asks

For a neighbourhood restaurant, a creator with a few thousand followers from your own town often works better than a big name, because those followers could be at your table tomorrow. Look at who responds, not at the follower count. Do not work with anyone who bought followers or likes: the ACM says you must check that the influencers you work with follow the rules.

What you agree

• What the creator gets: a meal, a fixed fee, a discount code or a mix.
• What you ask in return: a video, photos or Stories, with a tag for your restaurant and the location.
• When it goes live, and that the post is clearly marked as advertising.
• What you may reuse and until when, with the maker’s name on it.
• What you check: address, opening hours and prices, not the opinion.

Say a creator eats at your place for two. On your menu that is €70, and your purchasing cost is around €22. If you also give a code for €5 off and ten people use it, you give away €50. That way you know in advance what you are spending and you can work out afterwards what it brought in. If you pay a fee, have the creator invoice you, and ask your bookkeeper how to record free meals.

The rules on disclosure

If you give a creator a free meal so they will post about it, then under the Reclamecode Social Media & Influencer Marketing from the Advertising Code Foundation (Stichting Reclame Code) that is a relevant relationship: a benefit that can affect how believable the post is. The ACM also names a discount, an affiliate link, a trip and an invitation to an event. No contract is needed, and it makes no difference how many followers someone has. So the post has to say clearly that it is advertising.

• Use words such as “Reclame”, “Advertentie” or “Betaald partnerschap met @yourrestaurant”, or the Instagram feature that adds that label.
• If there is only a hashtag, put it first and not buried among other hashtags.
• In Stories the disclosure goes in the first and the last Story, visible for as long as they are up.
• In a video it goes at the start, during the pitch or on screen throughout, and also in the description.
• Only tagging your restaurant is not enough, the ACM says.

You and the creator are both responsible. The code asks you to make the creator aware of the rules, write them into your agreement and act when the disclosure is missing. Complaints go to the Advertising Code Committee, and the ACM supervises misleading advertising. Read the current text at reclamecode.nl, because the code is revised from time to time. This is not legal advice.

Paid reach: start small

An ordinary post reaches mostly the people who already follow you. Paid reach is for the streets next door. You advertise on Facebook and Instagram through the same Meta ad system.

1. Pick a post that already did well without payment.
2. Pick one goal: clicks to your ordering page, a booking or a phone call.
3. Target a radius of a few kilometres around your restaurant, where your guests actually come from.
4. Set a daily budget and let the ad run for fourteen days.
5. Make a second version with one difference, such as a different first line or picture, and keep the better one running.

Say you spend €5 a day for fourteen days. That is €70. If €9 is left per order after food and staff, you need eight orders to break even. You know that number before you start.

A picture, a video, a Story or a carousel can all work; test what suits your restaurant. If you promote alcohol, read the Reclamecode voor Alcoholhoudende Dranken (the Dutch alcohol advertising code): it has its own articles on social media and on hospitality promotions, and advertising may not target minors. If you put a Meta pixel on your site, that comes with consent through your cookie banner.

What you measure, and what you do each month

Make every source recognisable so you can see where an order came from: a separate link per channel, a code per creator, and with a new guest the question of how they found you. How to fit your goals and figures into one plan is in a marketing plan for your restaurant.

Choose your two channels, set a goal, plan three hours a week and end every post somewhere you own. How it fits into your marketing as a whole is in the complete guide, and how to bring guests back is in loyalty programmes that bring in orders.