Reels vs Image Posts: Social Media Marketing for Restaurants

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don't think it is. But your videos, a Reel. A TikTok, a YouTube short, might be worth a lot more than your standard image post. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is.

Say you're a restaurant. You take a picture of your food and go into your social media app, put some funky, whimsical text on it. You post it. Good job you did your social media work for the day. Pat yourself on the back. Now you're admiring your work and you see that your competition from down the street posted a video on what in God's name is that? And they're getting many more views and you are with your standard image post. What's up with that? And my response is Toyota Corolla.

A Toyota Corolla is the most popular car in the world. They're inexpensive to work on. The cost of ownership is way down. Your image is a Toyota Corolla, and not many people are going to remember that car if a Lamborghini parks next to it and stays in that parking spot for days or weeks longer.

All right, let's start with reels. A Reel will be more than twice as likely to have an interaction than an image post. Instagram Reels are shown to more people who don't know about you, but you share the same interest. The common interest can be food and events, your location and other things.

Instagram Reels are great for gaining new audiences and help you grow a following. A Reel will also last longer on someone's feed than a static image. The average lifespan of a static image on someone's feed is about 20 hours, while a real can be active for weeks, months and if it's popular, can be even longer. Another benefit of using short form vertical videos is you can take the same video and put it on another platform. Meeting your potential audience where they watch their content.

But the main reason why vertical videos work so much better than standard image posts when gaining a new audience is because, like, it always is... the man. The man in this case is actually meta Google and TikTok, and they're feeling some serious competition and they're all battling out for your customers attention.

It's the attention economy, dude. And the longer someone's eyeballs are glued to their social platform, they feel like they're winning the attention battles. But hey, this competition helps your business engage with new customers like never before in history.

So Dan? Does this mean that standard image posts are dead? No. Like I said before, the standard image post is a Toyota Corolla. Reliable. Dependable, doesn't require much upkeep. A video requires a lot more time, a lot more planning, and a lot more work. So when you do use your Corolla, the Instagram algorithm for a standard image post will be shown more in the feed of the people who already follow you. With that in mind, you should use an image post to convey information to your established customers.

It's an easy way to share consistent value, and it keeps you in their mind, potentially building brand loyalty. And we all want some loyalty.

It's also worth keeping in mind it's easier to sell to someone who's already bought from you. That is a Corolla. That is a standard image post.

So what are some of the cons of an image post? It's not as fun. Algorithms won't enhance it because they want to keep eyeballs on their platform for as long as possible, so therefore it's not the greatest at building new audiences.

If you're a restaurant in the real New England area. Not Connecticut, NOT CONNECTCUT . We do free media and social consultations. If you need help with content social media planning drop us a message and we'll get back to you with an offering and price sheet. All right. That's a full plate. - Dan