Commission-free ordering for pickup, delivery and dine-in — with your own free website included.
Australian-built restaurant POS — orders, payments, inventory and staff in one user-friendly platform.
Contactless table ordering. Customers scan, order and pay from their phone — no app required.
A loyalty program built into the till — one points balance across online, QR and the counter.
A restaurant reservation system in the till — your rules, your booking page, and guests who change their own bookings.
Cut queues and lift average order value with a touchscreen kiosk that runs your real menu.
Replace paper tickets — POS, online, QR and kiosk orders on one screen, routed by station.
Foodship-tested POS terminals, printers, kiosks and tablets — plug them in and they pair instantly.
Pass surcharges to your customer — keep 100% of every sale. Free terminal, Foodship-integrated.
Commission-free ordering for pickup, delivery and dine-in — with your own free website included.
Australian-built restaurant POS — orders, payments, inventory and staff in one user-friendly platform.
Contactless table ordering. Customers scan, order and pay from their phone — no app required.
A loyalty program built into the till — one points balance across online, QR and the counter.
A restaurant reservation system in the till — your rules, your booking page, and guests who change their own bookings.
Cut queues and lift average order value with a touchscreen kiosk that runs your real menu.
Replace paper tickets — POS, online, QR and kiosk orders on one screen, routed by station.
Foodship-tested POS terminals, printers, kiosks and tablets — plug them in and they pair instantly.
| Quick Summary |
| ✔ Social media is one of the best & most affordable ways to grow your restaurant in Australia right now. |
| ✔ Instagram, Facebook & TikTok are the three platforms I recommend starting with. |
| ✔ Having a clear plan with a content calendar works so much better than just posting whenever you feel like it. |
| ✔ User generated content, local influencer collabs & geo targeted ads are working really well for Aussie restaurants. |
| ✔ Always check your analytics so you know what is clicking with your audience & put more effort into that. |
| ✔ Connecting social media activity with a good Restaurant POS System lets you see which promotions actually drove sales. |
I have spoken to many restaurant owners across Australia & most tell me the same thing. They know they should be doing more on social media but do not know where to start. The good news is that social media is one of the most powerful & affordable marketing tools for restaurants today.
More than 70% of Australians check social media before visiting a restaurant. So if your restaurant is not active on Instagram or Facebook, you are likely losing customers to competitors that are.
In this guide, I will show you how to choose the right platforms, build a strategy & create content that actually brings in customers. Whether you run a small cafe or multiple restaurants, you will find practical tips you can use.
I remember when people used to ask friends for restaurant recommendations or look in the local newspaper. That world is basically gone now. Social media has completely changed how Australians discover & decide where to eat.
These days someone in your suburb can be scrolling through Instagram, see a beautiful photo of your pasta & make a booking within minutes. That journey from discovery to decision can happen incredibly fast. That is why having an active & visually appealing social presence is so important for any restaurant in Australia right now.
When a customer takes a photo of your food & shares it on their own account, that is free marketing reaching real people who trust that person. We call this user generated content or UGC. It is gold for restaurants. I always say the best thing you can do is make food & an environment so good that people cannot help but share it.
I have seen it happen. A restaurant in Fitzroy posted a video of their ridiculous dessert platter & it went semi viral overnight. They were fully booked for weeks after that. You do not always need a huge following for something like this to happen. Good content finds its audience.
If your restaurant has not posted anything in three months, a potential customer who finds your page is going to wonder if you are even still open. An inactive social profile can actually work against you. It signals to people that maybe nobody cares about this place.
Okay so this is the question I get asked the most. And my honest answer is: you do not need to be on every single platform. Trying to manage Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn & everything else at once is a recipe for burnout & mediocre results on all of them. Here is how I think about it.
| Platform | Best For | Content Type | Effort Level |
| Food photos & brand building | Reels, Stories, carousels | Medium | |
| Local ads & community | Events, posts, paid ads | Medium | |
| TikTok | Reaching younger crowds | Short videos, trends | High |
| Google Profile | Local discovery & SEO | Photos, reviews, updates | Low |
| Recipe & menu inspiration | Pins, boards | Low |
This is where I tell most restaurant owners to start. Food photography is massive on Instagram & Reels are getting incredible organic reach right now. If your food looks good & most food does with decent lighting & a clean background, Instagram is the place to be.
A lot of people write off Facebook but I think that is a mistake, especially for Australian restaurants. The 35 to 60 age group is still very active on Facebook & the local ads targeting is genuinely impressive. Events, community groups & paid promotions all work really well here.
TikTok is growing fast & younger Australians are using it the way older generations used Google to find places to eat. Behind the scenes kitchen content, day in the life videos & even just showing your team having fun can get serious reach. If you are comfortable on camera, I would encourage you to give it a go.
I always bring this one up because most restaurant owners forget about it. Keeping your Google Business Profile updated with fresh photos & responding to every review has a massive impact on how often you show up when someone searches for restaurants near them. It is completely free & it works.
My suggestion: Start with Instagram & Facebook. Get those running well before you add anything else. And always keep your Google Business Profile maintained regardless of what other platforms you use.
I want to be straight with you here. Posting randomly & hoping something takes off is not a strategy. I have seen a lot of restaurant owners waste months doing this & getting frustrated with the lack of results. A real strategy does not have to be complicated but it does need to exist. Here is how I would approach it.
One thing I find really useful is connecting your social activity to your actual sales data. A good Restaurant POS System makes this easy. You can see which promotions & posts actually translated into more covers & revenue, not just more likes.
The biggest mistake I see restaurant owners make is treating social media like a megaphone. It is actually a two way conversation. Post with intention, reply to every single comment & watch how quickly your community grows. James Okafor | Head of Digital Strategy, Hospitality Growth Co, Sydney |
Here are the social media tips I share most with restaurant owners across Australia. These are practical strategies that actually work.
I know one of the hardest parts of social media is just knowing what to post. So here is a bank of ideas you can pull from whenever you are stuck.
Running a proper campaign is different from just posting regularly. A campaign has a goal, a creative idea & a way to measure if it worked. Here are five campaign types that I have seen get great results for restaurants in Australia.
Create a fun branded hashtag & invite your customers to use it. Something like #MyBurgerArt where you ask customers to photograph their burger in a creative way & tag you. Feature the best entries on your page. This generates UGC, grows your hashtag & makes your customers feel part of something.
Invite four or five local food influencers for a hosted dinner. Ask them to share their experience in their own words & on their own timeline. The key is choosing people whose audience actually lives near your restaurant & who genuinely fit your vibe. One of my favourite things about this approach is that it feels authentic because it is.
Ask your customers to post a photo at your restaurant using your hashtag for a chance to win a prize. Even a fifty dollar gift voucher as a prize can generate dozens of genuine posts from real customers. You also end up with a huge bank of UGC content you can reshare for months.
Create something that is only available to people who saw it on your social media. “Show us this post at the counter & get a free house made lemonade” for example. This drives people into the restaurant, rewards your followers & gives you a clear way to track how many visits social media actually generated.
Partner with a local charity or community cause. For every post shared with your campaign hashtag, you donate a meal or a portion of sales. This kind of campaign resonates deeply with Australian audiences & gets shared widely because people feel good participating in it.
The restaurants doing best on social media right now are the ones thinking like a local community member, not a brand. Think human first, think local & think about what your specific neighbourhood actually cares about. Priya Nair | Food & Beverage Marketing Lead, Queensland |
Here are some common mistakes I see on restaurant social media accounts across Australia:
All of these are very fixable mistakes. Getting the strategy right on social media, combined with the right tools to improve restaurant sales, is honestly one of the best investments you can make in your restaurant business right now.
I hope this guide gave you a clear idea of how social media marketing for restaurants works in real life. It may feel overwhelming at first, but it becomes easier once you build a system.
Do not try to do everything at once. Pick two platforms, create a simple content plan, post consistently, engage with your audience & track your results.
The restaurants that grow the most on social media are not always the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones that stay consistent, connect with their community & keep improving.
Your food, team & restaurant already give you plenty of content ideas. Start with one small step today & build from there.
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