Social media management for restaurant

How we transformed the social media channels of a leading London restaurant after a rebrand, including submitting and appealing a page name change request.

The challenge

We were approached by one of London’s leading Indian restaurants for help running their social media channels as part of our social media management service for restaurants and cafes. The restaurant had recently undergone an extensive rebrand, including the installation of a new storefront, new business hours and an updated name. We were asked to rebrand and update their social media channels to match this.

This would involve all new graphic designs for profile and header images, updating critical business information and changing the name of the pages. The restaurant has been in business for over 20 years and already had its own social media channels, which had been established for some time. Facebook in particular are notoriously strict with page name updates for existing pages. As the restaurant’s page already had numerous reviews, care would be need to handle the change without risking de-ranking or deletion of the page. Once we had completed the channel updates, we were asked to begin managing daily posting on the restaurant’s channels.

The solution

Our experienced restaurant branding designers set to work trialling a number of different designs suitable for social media header and profile artwork. Slight variations were needed as some would display in a circle, others in a square and banners in a rectangle. Despite these variations, it was important to keep the same look and feel in each to avoid confusing visitors. A simple white and red colour palette was used, drawing on inspiration from the client’s website and continuing the existing themes within their branding.

When the designs were drafted they were presented to the client so that a favourite could be chosen and finalised. Our designers had done such a good job that the client was happy for us to make the decision, so we picked our favourites and rolled them out across Twitter, Facebook, TripAdvisor and Instagram, all optimised at the perfect resolution to look great on mobiles, desktops and tablets.

Indian Restaurant social media page e1503496320219 - Social media management for restaurant

We put together a master document in collaboration with the client to detail all of the business’ critical information including address, opening times, links to the latest menu, contact email addresses and phone numbers in order to be sure that all details we added to their social platforms was 100% accurate. This is critical to make sure that anyone who finds the business online is able to easily convert to a customer, if they have any difficultly the chances are that they will quickly move on.

Indian Restaurant social media about e1503496684821 - Social media management for restaurant

Once all channels had been updated with the latest information the final task was to rename the channels inline with the new identity of the restaurant. For some platforms, Twitter for example, this was a relatively straightforward job. For others, an enquiry form or email needed to be submitted, since not all platforms allow the user to change their business name.

Facebook presented the biggest challenge. Facebook’s guidelines on page name changes are open to quite broad interpretation. In this case, despite the fact that the updated name matched all artwork and business details, the details on the website, the physical storefront, menu, Google maps listing and every other social media channel, Facebook had decided changing the page name fell foul of their guidelines by potentially confusing people who already liked the page. Building a new page was not an option, it was critical to retain the many positive reviews already gathered on the page. Luckily, we had previous experience in situations like this and were able to appeal the decision directly with Facebook staff. After some negotiation the new page name was eventually approved and the rebrand was complete. The client was delighted with the results.

Indian Restaurant social media resolution e1503496367140 - Social media management for restaurant

Our graphic designers created branded image assets for the updated channels using professional quality photographs of the updated menu and the newly designed restaurant interior. With the profile updates complete, we began posting these assets one per day. The restaurant social media graphics had been carefully put together and optimised to look brilliant on the page. Sure enough they did, boosting the reach of the page and attracting new engagement and customer bookings along the way.

The details

  • New profile and header artwork drafted and presented to client
  • Artwork finalised and rolled out across all channels, optimised specifically for each platform
  • Business details verified and updated in biographical sections of all channels
  • Page name update submissions and negotiations
  • Daily post roll out with fully optimised, branded, engaging images