How to Blog for your Restaurant with Personality
What makes a blog interesting to read? The same things that make your restaurant an interesting place to dine, and the same thing that your customers connect with when they become loyal regulars: personality. If you are a restaurant owner starting to blog for your business for the first time, that’s the most important thing for you to keep in mind. The more of your restaurant’s personality and character that ends up in your blogging, the better your posts will read, and the more likely you will be to see success from your efforts.
But how exactly can you blog well while injecting your business’s personality into your writing? And how can you balance the fine line between character and professionalism? If you are starting a blog for the first time, these can be hard questions to answer, but we’ve got you covered. Here are 5 steps to blogging for your restaurant with personality.
1. Speak In YOUR Voice
There are a lot of great bloggers on the internet that you could choose to emulate, but none of those writers knows your restaurant like you do. If you want to inject your restaurant personality into your writing, start by using your own voice. Write like you’d talk, and don’t try to hard to change your tone or voice for the medium. In general, blogging is a very informal writing style, and if you write close to how you speak, you will inject character into your blogging from the start.
2. Think of YOUR Audience
You know who eats at your restaurant regularly, and you know what they like more than anyone. And for the most part, your blog readers will be a similar audience to your diners that show up in person. Thinking about your audience can help you inject personality into your writing by giving you a way to structure your thoughts in a way that your readers will understand and enjoy. Just like how you have a different tone for every conversation you have in person, every blogger has a different approach based on their audience. And if you want your blogs to hit home and have character, spend some time thinking about who your audience is and what they will respond to.
3. What Makes Your Restaurant Unique?
Your restaurant’s personality isn’t based on things that everyone else does well, it’s based on what makes you unique and special. Think about the things that draw customers through your door, and make them choose you over all of the other dining options out there. If you are drawing a blank, do some crowd research. Ask some of your regulars what makes your restaurant special, and why they keep coming back.
You will find that much of the time, the very thing that makes your restaurant unique and connect uniquely with your guests is the same thing you are trying to capture in your writing: personality. You produce that kind of authentic character in your restaurant almost effortlessly, as all of the parts of your business work together with a charm that your diner’s can’t resist. Recreating that in your writing can be a daunting task at first, but just think about how you can incorporate all of the things that give your restaurant personality in person into your blogging.
Do your decorations sell your ambiance uniquely? Photograph them, and throw them on the blog! Does your food win over everyone with its unique flavor profile? Write about that, and convey as much as you can of your food’s brilliance through writing. All of the things that give your business personality in person can give your writing personality too, as long as you spend some time thinking about how to capture them.
4. Strive for Conversation
How professional your blog writing will be is based on two other factors we covered, your audience and your own unique voice. But in general, you shouldn’t worry too much about coming across as too casual in blogging. As a writing form, blogging is usually very conversational, and that’s a good thing for restaurant owners struggling to inject personality into their blog posts.
Think about how you would entice someone into a conversation in person, and adapt that to your blog writing. A bit of controversy is a good thing, as long as you don’t take so harsh of a stance that you scare away some of your readers. A warm tone that encourages response is invaluable, as long as you don’t exclusively spend time writing “fluff” that doesn’t carry any weight. Write your blog posts with conversation in mind, and personality will come naturally.
5. Have Fun!
Don’t worry about all of this stuff so much that you don’t have fun in your blogging. If you write about things that you genuinely enjoy, the personality will shine through, and you will find your own way to write blog posts that are perfect YOUR restaurant.