Social Media helping restaurants fight COVID.
Tags: Covid 19, Social Media, Innovation, Videos, Restaurant

COVID has impacted the entire world in more ways than we can count. With the exception of remote areas, every single person in a modern civilization is aware of COVID-19 and the impacts it’s had on all of us.

In the USA, COVID hasn’t had any mercy either. COVID has impacted every industry in one way or another. Restaurants, however, have been impacted a little harder than most others. In the US there are over 600,000 restaurants. At least 300,000 of those are small and locally owned restaurants. It’s these local restaurants that are really feeling the pain.

These locally and small owned restaurants are feeling it more, because they have less resources and tools at their disposal to work with and survive. Most of these restaurants are owned by individuals or families that operate all on their own. This means that when things get as bad as they have, they are all on their own with practically no help. Recently there were some government aids/funds, but many local restaurants did not receive them; even those that did were only able to do so much with them.

We are already 9 months into the pandemic, that’s an extremely long time for any business, but more so for a business like restaurants that rely almost entirely on customers walk into their brick and motor location. To combat such hardships, restaurants are getting creative and doing everything they can to pivot and adapt to these trying times. Many adapted through things like outdoor dining, others creating unique options like DIY food kits and focusing on food to-go. One particular method that most restaurants started adopting was marketing through social media.

It has become more important than ever for restaurants to have and build a an online and social media presence. It’s important because now that customers and potential new guests aren’t out and about to casually stop at a restaurant or spot a new place to spontaneously walk into. Restaurants now need to work harder than ever to make sure that customers remember them and know that they are open and available to serve them their favorite meals and drinks. Social media has become the perfect channel for restaurants to accomplish this.

Many restaurants were already adapting to social media pre-pandemic, but COVID has made sure that almost all restaurants made the final push into the social media world. Restaurants are doing a great job of promoting their brand, dishes and special touches that they are well-known for. Restaurants are posting and updating their customers/followers through everything from classic food pictures, posts about their sanitation procedures and daily operations to get followers more involved, and even memes that entertain their followers and keep them engaged with the brand. One particular method that helps restaurants is through the use of videos.

SeeFood (www.seefoodapp.com) has been partnering with many local restaurants in the Monterey County and South Bay Area. They have been helping restaurants to create unique videos that tell the restaurants’ story. The videos are created in collaboration with the restaurants and have a goal of making viewers feel more connected with the restaurant and showing them what the restaurant is all about. Video is a great way to capture a viewers attention and if done in the right way, it can be incredibly powerful. The beauty of the videos done by SeeFood is that they truly focus on telling a heartfelt story. You won’t find too much flash, crazy spins or outrageous special effects. What you will find (and feel) in each video, is a real story, about real people and the restaurant they have built out of passion.

Check out the videos that SeeFood has created in partnership with restaurants on their Instagram account.

SeeFood is a new app/platform that helps restaurants create beautiful visual menus. The goal of SeeFood is to help restaurants showcase their menu and food in a way that traditional and PDF menus have never allowed. With SeeFood, restaurants improve the dining experience for their customers and customers can better decide what to order.