More Blog Tips for Restaurant Owners
There are a ton of reasons why every restaurant owner should do their best to maintain a blog for their small business. But, even if you understand the importance of blogging as a restaurateur, that doesn’t mean it is any easier to sit down, start writing, and produce a piece of content that you are proud of. Blogging can be hard, and it isn’t a skill that comes naturally to many small business owners. Don’t worry, we are back with more blogging tips for restaurant owners. Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your blogging content.
1. Adapt the Right Tone
In general, blogs are usually written in a conversational tone that doesn’t take things too seriously. As a medium, blogs are often casual and more “fun” spirited than formal writing. The last thing you want to do with your blogging is bore your potential customers, so think about writing with a tone and in a style that people would actually enjoy reading. This usually means keeping things loose and having a little fun as you write.
However, you will need to find the right tone for YOUR audience. Knowing your audience is one of the most important things you can do as an aspiring blogger, and once you know a bit about who you are writing for, adjust your tone accordingly. For example, consider using some internet slang or mannerisms if you have mostly young diners (though be careful that you don’t overdo it.) Or consider writing in a more formal tone if your audience is older and more refined. Start with a conversational tone, and adapt your writing to find the right tone for your audience.
2. Remain Consistent
Your blog should function as a regularly updated source of news about your business and anything else that is interesting to you as a restaurant owner. If you don’t keep your blog updated regularly and post things consistently, you won’t ever build up a loyal readership. Plus, many of the exposure benefits you can obtain by running a blog won’t really materialize. If you want to get the most out of your blog, you need to be posting often.
If the idea of writing something new on a weekly or bi-weekly basis intimidates you, there are a few things that you can do to help plan ahead and make sure that content remains consistent. First, sit down and brainstorm a big list of potential blog topics, so that you have something to start with if you end up getting writer’s block the day before you should be uploading something to your site. Then, if you have the time and creative energy, consider writing a few blog posts ahead in order to have extra posts in case of emergency. Do anything you can to keep your content consistent!
3. Explore Guest Posts
Guest blogging can be a great way for you to help your businesses blog. There are two sides to the guest blogging coin, and both can benefit you as a restaurant owner. First, if you can find anyone to write guest posts for your businesses, some of the pressure of keeping up a regular blog will be taken off of your shoulders. Ask your employees, and maybe even some of your best customers. Lots of people enjoy writing as a hobby, and you will be surprised at how easy it is to find guest bloggers for your site.
If you are hoping to get some major exposure for your business through your blogging, explore the other half of guest blogging as well. Think about places where you could volunteer to do your own writing, and share posts for free. When you do so, the publication or website you are blogging for will usually let you link back to your own site for extra views. Make a list of publications in your niche and organizations in your area, and start putting out feelers looking for places to guest blog.
4. Get Social
Social media is a great place to interact with your fans and build new connections with your community. But it can also be a great place to conduct some free customer research, and figure out what kinds of topics your fans and followers would be interested in reading about. One strategy to conduct this kind of research is to ask outright by posting a question on your social media pages asking about the kind of content your fans want to see. But there is another more sophisticated way to use social media to analyze potential writing topics for your blog.
Spend some time looking back through your most successful posts, and see if you can make any notes about what kind of content does well with your audience. Look at your posts that have gotten the most engagement, as well as your posts that have reached the widest audience. Then, spend some time thinking about how you can say something original and interesting about the same subject. As long as you research and write well, you can rely on social media to find topics that are home runs with your audience.