Can your social media feel like your restaurant?

“We don’t sell food – we sell emotions. If only we knew how to show that on social media.”

I hear this all the time from restaurant owners. And it’s true. Saying “We sell emotions” sounds simple. But actually demonstrating it? That’s the tricky part.

Show the food? Okay – but then what? How does that prove anything? Just posting a dish with the caption “We sell emotions” doesn’t exactly make people feel something. You’d agree, it’s not very convincing. These days, no one needs convincing that social media matters. Most restaurant owners get that.

The real question is different:

How do you promote your restaurant without turning your account into just another page featuring food photos?

Because you’re not only competing with other restaurants, you’re competing with everything on people’s feeds: food bloggers, recipe pages, lifestyle influencers, even posts about makeup or business motivation.

So the goal isn’t just to stand out from your direct competitors. It’s to stand out from everything on social media. At any given moment, your restaurant is competing for attention. And attention is the most valuable currency online.

But this problem isn’t new. It was the same with TV ads and billboards. The first task is always: grab attention.

To do that, there are three key things to focus on:

1. Know your customer. Your content should feel like it’s speaking directly to them.
2. Show the value emotionally. Don’t just show a close-up food photo. Put a dish in a context that makes someone feel what you want them to feel.
3. Give a clear reason to visit. Why should someone walk into your restaurant right now

I get it – reading this, it might feel confusing. Like social media was supposed to be simple… and now it sounds like strategy, psychology, storytelling. That’s because the idea of social media being “easy” is an illusion.

But here’s the good news: once you understand the fundamentals, it’s not as hard as it seems. To help you get there, I created the online course: “Restaurant Superpower: How to Make the Most of Social Media Platforms.”

This course is for restaurant owners, managers, and marketers who want to:

• Approach social media with a strategic mindset
• Create content that reflects their restaurant’s real value
• Build not just a following – but a loyal community

This isn’t about chasing likes or figuring out what time to post. It’s about how you think as the person behind your restaurant’s social media.

Transform your social media from a task into a space where your restaurant becomes more than just a place to eat.