Social media · Mini workbook

Content ideas for restaurants, for the days you don't know what to post

Twenty-four post prompts in four themes, from our mini workbook for restaurants. Pick one, grab your phone during service, and you have a post that shows why people choose you.

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Workbook cover: Content ideas for restaurants, a mini workbook for the days you don't know what to post, with tabs for food and menu, reasons to visit, community and personality, and behind the kitchen.

Restaurants have more to post about than almost any other small business. Something happens in the kitchen every hour, regulars have their usual orders, and every plate is a photo. The problem is not a lack of content. It is remembering to capture it on a busy night, and knowing what to say when you sit down to post.

This mini workbook is the restaurant edition of our content ideas for personal brands. It covers four themes, and every prompt is something you can shoot on a phone in a few minutes. We have added a little guidance under each one.

Workbook cover: Content ideas for restaurants, a mini workbook for the days you don't know what to post, with tabs for food and menu, reasons to visit, community and personality, and behind the kitchen.
Slide 1 of 5

A mini workbook for the days you don't know what to post

The workbook has four tabs, and each one answers a different question a hungry follower has:

  • Reasons to visit: why should I come here?
  • Community and personality: who are these people?
  • Behind the kitchen: how is my food made?
  • Food and menu: what should I order?

A feed that answers all four feels like a place people know before they ever walk in.

Workbook page: Reasons to visit. The reason people drive past other restaurants to come here. The reason regulars keep coming back week after week. The reason this works just as well for a quick bite as it does for a long catch-up. Why your next date night should be here. Why people stay longer than they planned to. The little things guests notice that we never advertise.
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Reasons to visit

  • The reason people drive past other restaurants to come here
  • The reason regulars keep coming back week after week
  • The reason this works just as well for a quick bite as it does for a long catch-up
  • Why your next date night should be here
  • Why people stay longer than they planned to
  • The little things guests notice that we never advertise

These posts do the job an ad would, without sounding like one. If you are not sure of the answer, ask your regulars. Their words make better captions than anything you will write about yourself.

Workbook page: Community and personality. The customer order we can recognize before they even say it. The thing customers say so often we could put it on a T-shirt. The menu item each staff member would fight to keep. The story behind a name, photo, sign, recipe, or piece of décor. The local connection behind something we serve or use. The tool we reach for constantly and what it actually does.
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Community & personality

  • The customer order we can recognize before they even say it
  • The thing customers say so often we could put it on a T-shirt
  • The menu item each staff member would fight to keep
  • The story behind a name, photo, sign, recipe, or piece of décor
  • The local connection behind something we serve or use
  • The tool we reach for constantly and what it actually does

People come back to places where they feel known. Posts about your staff, your regulars and your local suppliers show that side of the business, and they tend to connect with followers. It is the same approach we took with Callister's Country Kitchen, a local favourite whose personality was already there.

Workbook page: Behind the kitchen. The first thing that happens in the kitchen every morning. Meet the person making your favourite dish. The plate that takes the most hands to put together. What the kitchen looks like before vs after a dinner rush. What busy actually looks like from inside the kitchen. What gets made fresh every single day.
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Behind the kitchen

  • The first thing that happens in the kitchen every morning
  • Meet the person making your favourite dish
  • The plate that takes the most hands to put together
  • What the kitchen looks like before vs after a dinner rush
  • What “busy” actually looks like from inside the kitchen
  • What gets made fresh every single day

Kitchen content is made for short video and stories: a few seconds of prep, a timer, a pass full of plates. Nobody expects polish. They want to see real people making real food, and it quietly tells them everything is made with care.

Workbook page: Food and menu. The dish people come back for again and again. Show a dish being made start to finish. The dish that tastes way better than it photographs. The meal we'd recommend to someone coming in for the first time. The most underrated item on our menu. What we make differently than most places.
Slide 5 of 5

Food & menu

  • The dish people come back for again and again
  • Show a dish being made start to finish
  • The dish that tastes way better than it photographs
  • The meal we'd recommend to someone coming in for the first time
  • The most underrated item on our menu
  • What we make differently than most places

A first-timer's order is one of the most useful posts you can make. Someone deciding where to eat tonight is looking for exactly that answer, and it makes their first visit an easy yes.

How to use the prompts

Pick one prompt from each tab every week and you have four posts that do four different jobs. Shoot them during a normal day, not a special one, and keep the look consistent so every post adds to the last. Our Benedict Real Estate Group case study shows what a steady content plan did for one account's numbers.

Would rather someone else handled it? Our social media content service plans, designs and writes branded posts for you, built around your restaurant and your voice.

The short version

Never stare at a blank caption again.

  1. Four tabs, four questions. Why visit, who you are, how it is made and what to order.
  2. Real beats polished. A few seconds of the kitchen on a busy night beats a staged photo.
  3. Consistency builds recognition. One prompt per tab per week is four posts a week, and the 24 prompts last six weeks.

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