Making your business ‘Instagrammable’

Social media consultancy Immediate Future account director Theresa Santos said: “[Instagram] is such a visual platform – it’s all about the image.

“Humans are quite visual in the way they interact and that is why Instagram is so important, because we like looking at pretty pictures.”

Showcasing products

She outlined how pubs should showcase their food offer on the platform to entice customers in to dine.

“If yours is a pub that does food or that has a nice atmosphere, Instagram is the perfect place to showcase that. In terms of food, it’s a foodie’s paradise. Everybody posts pictures of their dinners on there. There is research that says people follow pubs because it helps them pick where to go and what food to have when they get there,” Santos added.

Multiple operator Nick Livingstone who runs the 7 Saints in Prestwick, near Glasgow, and the recently opened venue of the same name in Kilmarnock uses social media as a tool to push brand promotion as well as product promotion.

Food margin

He created a sharing-style dish including various options on different themes, including Mexican. He added: “We have sold 3,300 trays since January this year. Food GP has increased as smaller portions on the tray has meant less kitchen waste. It is at the highest in two years.”

Livingstone explained that he tracks the correlation between sales and promotion by just posting deals on social media and does not advertise it anywhere else, as this is what he did with the promotion of the trays.

He added: “In the past four months, we have had 73% GP and this is being driven by trays as they are such a big part of the food margin.”