Tips for Making your Restaurant or Bar more ‘Instagrammable’

Even those who aren’t on Instagram and who don’t actively use it for their business, know how important it is to modern consumers. From recommendations and reviews to first looks and behind the scenes peeks at new releases and exciting new places, when a physical place or brand is on Instagram and other social media platforms, they instantly make themselves easier to find and memorable in the eyes of customers.

To have a restaurant, dining space, or bar which is ‘Instagram friendly’ means to have some kind of visual presence that customers want to photograph and share with their friends. It could be in your décor; it could be in the customer journey, the menu presentation, or the team who you employ to make drinks and serve dishes. It could even be in the washrooms.

The point is, whether or not you use Instagram as a business, it’s important to recognise that your customers absolutely are – and that if you offer something worth sharing, they will share it and take on the brunt of your word of mouth marketing without even being asked.

Here are some restaurant/bar design tips to help your own business stand out and be more ‘Instagrammable’.

Branding

If, when a customer takes a photo of your business, it is not instantly recognisable or at least mildly linked to your branding, then you haven’t done a good enough job at implementing your brand across the space. From branding colours to the implementation of your logo on the menu, the wall décor, and more, finding creative ways of letting your branding influence the design of the space is key.

TOP TIP: If you want to nurture the perfect Instagram photo spot in your restaurant or bar, encourage customers to share photos and tag you.

Lighting and atmosphere

Have you ever noticed how most of the photos on Instagram are the perfect snapshot of a moment which feels completely natural (even if it’s 100% staged)?

If the lighting and atmosphere in your restaurant or bar isn’t high quality and photo friendly, people won’t share the photos that they take. Remember, Instagram is an example of a perfect scene or scenario, and so the lighting and other aesthetic yet functional features need to make customers look and feel good.

Displaying food and drinks

If possible, having one standout item on the menu or drink at the bar that creates a visual depiction of your brand, creates a shareable and memorable moment for diners and guests. It could be the way that the dish or drink is served; it could be the use of fine details and decorative touches which elevate a dish and give it a little extra wow.

Whatever it is, finding a spotlight dish and marketing it as such will give those looking for a show, permission to order that photo-perfect dish and revel in its design.

It’s all in the details

Finally, to the little details which transform a business venue, and which give it a little memorable flair. Everything from the toilets to the doorways can and should be considered in the presentation of your venue, as customers are increasingly looking for the perfect playful selfie anywhere and everywhere within a space they visit.

Some other ideas include:

• Male and female signs for the bathrooms, and how these can be linked to your branding
• Consider the flooring across your restaurant or bar, and enable the foot selfie
• Implement different seating areas for different groups
• Bring the outside in, and the inside out. Hybrid dining options are every on trend
• Molecular food is huge on Instagram, with dishes which look like one thing and taste completely different

How to bring these tips together…

The more you can surprise and delight your customers, the higher the chance that they will pay attention and deem your business worthy of a share on their social media. If you haven’t already factored your branding into the colour scheme, and some clever puns and plays on words into the menu and signage around your business premises, then this is your sign to do so.

Finally, share a hashtag with your customers so that all of those Instagram posts and social media shares are compiled into a single search tag – and take the time to set up a business profile so that you can start sharing the photos that your customers take.