A Case Study of TikTok’s Influence on Restaurants

Can a single customer bring a restaurant chain to their knees? In the age of social media, anything is possible.

In July 2022, TikTok user @wyaleena posted a now-deleted video about a hack to get a Chipotle burrito for $3. She ordered a single taco through the app with toppings and a tortilla on the side. The hack spread like wildfire, so much that Chipotle removed the option from the app, citing poor guest and staff experience.

That’s all to say – TikTok is powerful. It can boost unknown musicians to stadium performers. It can fast-track the growth of emerging cookie brands. And one video is enough to cause panic for a QSR giant. It’s not just for dancing teens anymore

The Platform

How is TikTok different from other social media platforms?

While TikTok is no longer home to just Gen Z, it certainly has its own culture. TikTok users know when they’re being sold to. They want authentic, relatable content from real people. It’s great news for small businesses and those who don’t have a lot of resources.

Why You Should be on TikTok

Vertical short-form video has quickly become a popular way to consume content, and TikTok is likely to blame. The platform has joined the ranks of sites like YouTube and Pinterest, where users socialize with others and search and discover. This discoverability makes reaching a wider audience easier when you don’t already have a following (compared to other platforms like Instagram or Facebook).

Take East 81st Street Deli in Cleveland. The owner, Wael Herbawi, posted a 15-second video of his friend eating their chicken salad. It went viral, with TikTokers and celebrities using the clip’s audio for duets and lip-syncs. With 24 million views, Herbawi has seen the deli’s sales triple.

TikTok’s growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon—it’s expected to hit 1.8 billion monthly active users by the end of 2022. 38% of users have visited and/or ordered food from a restaurant after seeing it on TikTok. Posting videos to TikTok could unlock millions of eyes on your restaurant. If you’re ready to get on the platform but unsure where to start, read on.

Create Your TikTok Account

1. Download the TikTok app for iOS or Android.
2. In the app, click Profile in the bottom right.
3. Sign up for an account using your phone number, email, Google, Facebook, or Twitter.
4. Enter your birthday.
5. Choose your username (keep it consistent with your other social media accounts).
6. Edit your profile to upload a photo and add your name and bio. You can also link your Instagram and YouTube.
7. You’re done! Try following some accounts and liking some videos related to your cooking or location.

Lip Syncs

Your hairbrush shower concerts have come in handy. Lip syncs are when you mouth the words to an audio, but it’s not your voice. People usually lip sync to songs or someone else talking. They can tie into TikTok trends, but they don’t have to. Find a sound that relates to something in your restaurant (a menu item or a customer service experience), film a lip sync to the audio, and use on-screen text where needed.

On-Screen Text

An easy way to introduce your video’s topic is to add title text. In the first 3 seconds of the video, add a title like “How to Sear Ahi Tuna” so users understand why to continue watching. If you hate the sound of your voice, you can also use on-screen text to represent what’s happening in the video. There’s also a text-to-speech feature to have an AI voice narrate.

1. Add text using the button in the right-hand menu.
2. Choose the font, color, and alignment.
3. If you want to use text-to-speech, click the head icon.
4. Move the text or click on it to set its duration. Make sure to avoid putting text near the bottom or far right of the screen so it doesn’t get covered.

What to Post on TikTok

The beauty of the platform is that anything can go viral. While it can be hard to predict what type of posts will perform well, here are some best practices.

Sound

If you scroll the For You page for 10 minutes, you’ll hear the same sounds across different videos. Using trending sounds is an excellent way to be discovered. These include lip-syncs, popular songs, and trending themes.

Popular Songs

Songs that go viral on TikTok often top real-life music charts. You can use them as background music, but they can also have a ‘trend’ component. A classic example is a short dance choreographed for a song. Another version is where users create videos with similar themes and visuals. Here are a few examples:

The trend below used on-screen text to show a pledge that someone made and then broke. It was set to a snippet of “Hope” by Twista ft. Faith Evans.

@sweetgreen raise your hand if you’re having the harvest bowl for the 100th time 🙋‍♂️ #sweetgreen#harvestbowl#sg ♬ original sound

Another trend used a snippet of “It’s Corn” to illustrate something people like and why. (The song originated from a viral video of a child talking about his love for corn. The Gregory Brothers then autotuned it into a song.)

@yogurtland For me, I really like #Yogurtland 😬 #itscorn#frozenyogurt#froyo#dessert#toppings♬ original sound – Tariq (Korn Boy)

Note: If you have a business TikTok account, you’ll only be able to use sounds without a copyright. That rules out commercial music, but you can use most user-generated sounds.
Trending Sound Bites
Songs aren’t the only audio that can blow up on TikTok. A strange or memorable statement can take the app by storm. Typically, these quotes are applicable to numerous situations so other users can remix them with their own spin. For example, what you say to a kitten could also be said to a cookie.
Voice-overs
You can record a voice-over on top of your video to add a personal touch. Say you want to post a video about the process of making guacamole. Instead of explaining what you’re doing while you chop avocados, you can film first, then record the narration afterwards.
How to Find Sounds
The easiest way to find trending sounds is to scroll your TikTok ‘For You’ feed. When you find one that you like, or one that you hear multiple times, click the text under the caption after the music note. Then you can see all of the other videos that use that sound and add it to your favorites to bookmark for later. The number of videos that use the sound indicate how popular it is.


Visual Effects, Stickers, Filters
There are overlays you can add to spruce up your video, but don’t go overboard. Stickers work similarly to the ones from Instagram stories, but it’s not common to use them.
Publish
Congratulations, you’re almost done with your video! To post it, click Next. There are a few things to add here.
Caption
Stay in your brand voice, but avoid sounding overly corporate or formal. Use slang if you understand it. A couple of emojis are encouraged!
You can signal what your video is about with relevant hashtags. As you type a hashtag, TikTok will show you how many views have been created from videos using each hashtag. Try to use a blend of popular hashtags (millions of views) and niche ones (less than 100k views). As always, test to see what works!
Video Cover
Customize the video preview when a user looks at your profile. Choose a visually interesting frame from the video as your cover photo and write a short title to inform people what the video is about.

Posting Cadence

Unlike email or Instagram marketing, you can post to TikTok multiple times a day without irritating your followers. In fact, TikTok recommends posting 1-4 videos a day. The algorithm doesn’t play videos in chronological order, so your followers won’t see all of them at once. You can even share multiple videos with the same topic, trend, and clips. The Ritz-Carlton in Montreal often reuses clips – and no one’s the wiser.

Using TikTok Influencers

Using influencers for TikTok marketing in a restaurant can be an effective way to reach their established audiences. Influencers have a large following on the platform and their endorsement can help boost the restaurant’s credibility. Additionally, influencers can create engaging content that showcases the restaurant’s food, atmosphere, and ambiance, which can help to attract potential customers and drive more traffic to the restaurant.

Step 1

Identify relevant TikTok influencers in your local area. You can do this by searching for hashtags related to restaurants and food (like #austinfoodie) and checking for a high amount of followers and engagement on users’ profiles.

Step 2

You aren’t able to message TikTok users that don’t follow you, so look for an email or another social media profile linked in their bio. You can also comment on their videos to reach out. Pitch your restaurant to them, highlighting any unique or interesting aspects of your food, ambiance, or location that would make for good content.

Step 3

Offer a complimentary meal or other incentives in exchange for featuring your restaurant in a video. If you would like to promote specific menu items, offers, or hashtags, ask the influencer to mention them.

Step 4

Engage with the influencers’ content by commenting, liking, and sharing.

Step 5

If you notice good feedback or more foot traffic after the videos are posted, rinse and repeat! You can also build ongoing relationships with the receptive influencers and invite them back periodically.

Conclusion

There’s no playbook you can follow that will guarantee your TikTok will blow up. The key is to post videos frequently and consistently with a wide range of content until you find what your audience likes. While it is possible for a small account to go viral, don’t get discouraged if traction is slow at the start. Keep it light and fun – don’t overthink it.

If you already have great video content from social media marketing on Instagram or YouTube, try posting that to TikTok as well. Or do the reverse – repost your TikToks to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Lastly, use these factors as guidelines, not rules. The platform changes all the time, so be creative. TikTok is a weird place – don’t be scared to experiment!