Contributors:
Amol Ghemud Published: August 14, 2018
Summary
Here’s a range of creative contest ideas designed to enhance social media engagement and brand visibility for restaurants. These ideas include unique and engaging ways to involve customers, such as photo contests, trivia, recipe contests, and social media challenges, each aiming to increase interaction, customer loyalty, and online presence.
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What are Contests in Social Media Marketing context?
Social media marketing contests are the most effective form of communication between your brand and the audience!
You absolutely need a proper social media campaign in addition to your conventional marketing campaign. Unlike traditional marketing, digital platform gives a social marketer’s audience the liberty to communicate, give feedback to your brand!
Social media marketing contests or cookery competition ideas are a great way to promote your restaurant business on social media. It helps your customers to get engaged with the restaurant, sets a trend and gives a high presence of your brand name in their mind.
Ultimately the reason behind the presence of any platform for social media for a brand is the commendable revenue that is generated, especially with the engaging post and ideas for contests.
Contests can boost your restaurants’ online presence over social media marketing channels, it can create a ‘wow’ factor needed to differentiate your restaurants from the others.
How are contests done through Social Media Marketing?
For each social media marketing platform, the contests or contest posts are crafted individually depending upon the objective of the contest.
For example:
Objective: Create Noise for your restaurant
Flea Café is doing a tagging the photo contest, where they post for social media which is ideal for Instagram/ Facebook.
If they want to have a poll for their best menu, twitter will be the apt platform.
But also it depends where you’re the target audience is active on which platform.
FIRST, get your Basics right to get an astounding result!
1. Decide the objective of the contest: What do you want the end results?
Be clear with your marketing social media strategy. Whether you want the drive in traffic on Zomato site, create buzz around your restaurant location, generate more traffic in a restaurant during weekdays, get user- generated content, increase services, social media marketing presence etc. Now that your objective is clear, you have the liberty to strategize the contest.
2. Before you start the contest: Think how you will reward the customers
What do you want the customers to take away at the end of the day? Make sure you have attractive offers that will motivate them to participate in the contest. Also, it should be your target audience’s point of interest
3. Hosting a contest includes technicalities too!
See that you have a clear picture of your contest strategy and details
Choose the day and date wisely, along with the duration that the contest will last
Contests are a great way to build momentum, hence decide how often will you run them
Rules, terms and conditions are must to have a clarity from both the participant and the host end
4. Host a contest that is interesting and fun conduct
Know what your audience is interested in and use that knowledge to create a well-rounded engaging contest!
Now back to business!
Here are the different kinds of engaging ideas for contests
1. Website Treasure Hunt
If you want your target audience to lure back to your website from your Facebook traffic, this is a perfect giveaway!
Example:
California Spice is a well-known restaurant, hosted a contest where they had hidden pictures of the dishes on their website and the participants had to find them and post it in the comment section.
2. Shout Out to favourite menu dish
Ask your followers to share with their most loved dish in the comment section on Facebook/ Instagram
3. Caption this Dish
Simply post an attractive picture of your signature dish or a picture of from the kitchen, or even a snap of a willing customer and ask the followers to caption it.
4. Facebook live giveaway
Create a situation in the restaurant where you will be going live and after a specific snap of time, there will an end result. The followers have to guess what will be happening in the end! It will drive the users attention, engagement and interest towards the restaurant
Example: Buzz feed created a Watermelon Explosion Viral Video Live!
The followers had to guess how many elastic bands it would take to before the watermelon exploded. Can you believe it was watched by 11 million people!
5. Snap it
Ask your followers to check-in on Facebook and post pictures of their favourite dishes, at the end of the month. Three best clicked pictures will be featured and will get a reward.
6. Guess the Dish
You may create restaurant competitions e.g. Hide a dish in a sizzler probably and ask the users to guess the dish! Reward the winners with a certain amount discount to motivate them to visit the restaurant.
7. Vote for your favourite menu
Give your users a chance to choose for your upcoming menu. It will have around 3-4 options and they will decide by commenting under the post.
8. Fill in the blanks
There should an interesting graphic with text overlay. Basically your followers have to ‘fill in the blanks’ to complete the statement.
Example:
What goes best with coffee………..
A cup of tea is served best with………
The best flavour for ice-cream this summer is…………
Choose a random player and reward him with relevant price. It will help to spread awareness and pump up new interest in the audience
9. Trivia Contest
There are series of questions in this digital contest, each answer has a hint hidden in the previous question.
Social media Contest Examples:
Name one ingredient from the previous post that has a secret ingredient in this dish
Previous Post: Had featured Apple Pie (Added cinnamon powder in it)
Current Question: Guess the secret ingredient in this sweet dish
Answer is Cinnamon Powder
10. Guessing Game
Create a contest posts where the followers will guess and comment to the nearest answer.
Example:
“Think how many gems are in the jar?” or
11. Recipe Contest Idea
For restaurants that have their in-house food products for sale, can ask their customers to make a dish with those products and send their recipes. You can make the audience vote for their favourite recipe shared.
Example: Cafe’ Mozilla sells grounded coffee powder, they hosted a contest to share a recipe using their coffee powder [like Coffee Cake, Coffee Sundae, Coffee Toffee]. The best recipe wins a reward.
12. Tag-a-Friend Contests
In order to hike the graph of your reach on social media, ask your followers to tag their friends in a post or comment. Reward them with few percent discount on their next restaurant visit.
Example:
13. Hash TAG Contest:
Host a online contest on Instagram where the followers have to use a specific hashtag to share their own photograph. Use of hashtag will make it easy for you to track your entries. Choose the winner by going through the hashtag at the end of the digital contest.
13. Re-post Giveaway!
Ask your customers to re-post their own photo or picture of the dish/resto, or tell them to retweet a particular post and then you can choose the winner by going through the retweeters. Restaurant giveaways idea works like a charm.
While on Instagram, ask have to ask the followers to re-post a specific picture, along with the mentioned hashtag to track the entries.
Conclusion
Such Contests and competitions ideas make your restaurant’s brand reach exponentially on social media; at the end of the day, you have more people knowing about you and more people visiting your restaurant.
Also, make sure you promote your contest. If people are not aware of your contest, they won’t participate or spread a word about your restaurant – especially the people you want to reach.
If you have more great examples you can share them below in the comment section.
FAQs
1. How is social media used in the restaurant industry?
One of the quickest ways to tell customers about your restaurant is through social media, which can also be used to share news like menu updates, daily specials, temporary holiday hours, one-time events, promos, etc.
2. How can restaurants improve social media marketing?
Tips for social media marketing to advertise your restaurant
Develop your film and photo skills.
Include hashtags linked to food in your posts.
Promote Facebook messages to both residents and visitors.
Hold contests and polls to engage your community.
Make booking a table and viewing your selection simple.
3. What are some best social media contest ideas?
Gift Card Raffle. Restaurants should use gift card marketing for several factors.
Like, Follow, and Tag for a Chance to Win.
Win by Sharing.
Write a Review to Enter to Win.
Allow customers to select menu items.
A naming competition.
“Caption this photo,” “Customer of the Week,” or “Customer of the Month.”
4. How do you attract people to a contest?
Five suggestions for eatery competitions to draw participants
Facebook and Instagram are social media sites, but they differ significantly in planning and carrying out competitions. Here are some concepts for eatery contests that everyone on Instagram will want to enter:
Invite a friend to join you for a free dinner to win.
Recognize the newest menu option to receive a free item.
Submit a caption to receive a $50 gift card.
Share your preferences with us for a chance to receive a chef training session.
Describe your affection for your partner and enter to win a free romantic dinner by doing so.
Post about it to be entered to win a free meal for you and a companion.
Write a comment to enter to win a night out for a quartet of people.
Get the meal of your choice for nothing
Share this article, and you’ll receive an invitation to a special tasting session.
5. How do you attract people to a contest?
Thirteen Ingenious Restaurant Competition Concepts or Food Competition Ideas
Giveaway of Gift Cards
Follow, Like, and Tag for Prizes
Share to Win
Post a Review to Enter to Win
Allow patrons to select menu items
An awarding of names
“Add a caption to this picture!”
A week or monthly customer of the week
Make an assortment
A Month or Year of Free Meals
Giveaway of Items
Themed competitions
Contests with a Time Limit
6. What are some effectivecontest ideas for social media marketing in the restaurant industry?
Ideas for Restaurant Contests to Increase Sales and Customer Engagement
Giveaway of gift cards.
Follow, Like, and Tag for Prizes.
Win by Sharing.
Submit an evaluation to win.
Enable menu item selection by customers.
A naming competition.
“Add a caption to this picture!”
Week or monthly customer of the month.
7. How can businesses ensure that their contests are engaging and incentivize participation?
12 Creative Strategies to Promote a Contest to Increase Customer Engagement
Encourage customers to participate
Develop A Sound Plan and Use Quality Visuals
Utilize a brief video
Create A Funnel
Use Consumer Submissions in Your Marketing
Request online votes on social media
Increase Contestants’ Entries for Tags
Use an Eye-Catching Hashtag
Use influencer marketing.
Get Reddit to Promote It
Make use of TikTok
Assign a name and a unified look and feel to it.
8. What are some best practices for promoting contests on social media platforms?
Regardless of the social media platform you decide to use for your competition, stick to these guidelines to conduct a fantastic contest:
Clear your goals.
Choose What You Will Give Away.
Identify the rules of the contest.
Your social media contest should be promoted.
Follow the contest and declare the winner(s)
Analyze the results and UGC.
9. How can businesses measure the success of their social media contests?
Measurement of Social Media Campaigns in 5 Simple Steps
Identify your social media objectives.
Make the appropriate social media measurement tool selections.
Choose the KPIs you’ll use for measurement.
Benchmarking: How did your campaign compare to others’?
Produce performance reports for social media.
10. How do you write a giveaway post?
Catchy headline: Highlight the prize and urge participation.
Compelling visuals: Use attractive images or videos.
Set an end date: Generate excitement with a deadline.
Mention contest rules: Be transparent and avoid confusion.
11. What is social media contest?
A way to engage your audience by offering prizes for specific actions like following, liking, or sharing content. It increases brand awareness and promotes interaction.
12. Can you post a contest on Instagram?
Yes, Instagram allows contests but follow their guidelines. Avoid misleading claims and clearly state rules and disclaimer.
13. How do you announce a contest on social media?
Create a dedicated post with eye-catching visuals.
Briefly explain the prize and entry requirements.
Use relevant hashtags to reach a wider audience.
Encourage sharing and tagging friends.
Pin the post to your profile for better visibility.
14. How do you announce a new contest?
Post teasers beforehand to build anticipation.
Utilize your email list and other platforms to spread the word.
Collaborate with influencers for wider reach.
Create a countdown to the official launch.
Remember, clarity, excitement, and clear instructions are key for successful social media contests!
This is just a sneak peek. How about we take your social media presence by storm!
Social media contests directly translate audience engagement into measurable business outcomes, creating a clear path from interaction to revenue that traditional advertising often lacks. They build an active community that is more receptive to promotional messaging. This strategy turns passive followers into potential patrons by incentivizing actions tied to sales, such as visiting your Zomato page or ordering a specific dish. Key revenue-driving benefits include:
Driving Off-Peak Traffic: You can structure a contest, like one by Flea Café, where the prize is a weekday lunch special, directly addressing slow business periods.
Promoting High-Margin Items: A “Shout Out to your favourite menu dish” contest can be tailored to feature and popularize your most profitable dishes.
Building a Marketing List: Requiring an email to enter a contest provides you with a list of warm leads for future email marketing campaigns and special offers.
By making participation fun and rewarding, you gather valuable customer data and drive specific behaviors. Explore the full article for a breakdown of how to calculate the ROI of your next contest.
The platform you choose should be a direct extension of your campaign's primary objective, as each social media channel encourages different types of user interaction. An objective like driving weekday traffic requires a strategy that builds desire and provides a clear call to action, which is better suited for a visual platform. Aligning the contest format with the platform's native behavior is critical for maximizing participation. For instance, a Flea Café photo contest on Instagram is perfect for generating user content and visual buzz, while a Twitter poll is better for quick market research, like gauging interest in a new menu item. For driving traffic, an Instagram contest asking users to post a photo with a specific hashtag for a chance to win a weekday dining voucher is more compelling and shareable. This visual engagement creates a stronger desire to visit than a simple poll result. To learn how to select the optimal platform for every goal, read the complete guide.
A “Caption this Dish” contest is far more effective for generating user content, while a “Website Treasure Hunt” excels at driving web traffic. The best choice depends entirely on whether your priority is content creation or website engagement. A caption contest directly asks for creative input, giving you authentic, relatable marketing material. In contrast, a treasure hunt, like the one hosted by California Spice, guides users to explore your website but the content they submit (e.g., a screenshot) is uniform and less versatile for marketing. Consider these factors when deciding:
Content Quality: “Caption this” generates unique, witty, and often brand-aligned text you can repurpose.
Participant Effort: Captioning is a low-barrier-to-entry activity, encouraging higher participation rates.
Primary Objective: If you need photos for your feed, a photo submission contest is better. If you need testimonials or clever taglines, a caption contest is ideal.
A caption contest builds an immediate repository of engaging material. For a deeper look at different contest types and their specific outcomes, check out the full article.
The “Website Treasure Hunt” by California Spice succeeded by gamifying website exploration, which is a powerful way to increase user investment beyond a simple “like” or “comment.” This strategy transforms passive social media consumption into an active, goal-oriented website visit. Instead of just posting a link, the contest created a compelling reason for followers to click through and spend significant time navigating different pages of the website to find hidden images of dishes. This directly boosted a key metric: average time on site. The effectiveness is shown not just by the increase in website traffic, but by the enhanced menu familiarity among participants, which is a crucial step in the customer's journey from online discovery to placing an order. This method ensures your audience engages deeply with your brand's core offering. Uncover more case studies of successful contest mechanics in the complete analysis.
A “tag a friend” contest creates a viral loop by incentivizing your existing followers to become brand advocates, extending your reach exponentially at no additional cost. Flea Café's photo tagging contest taps into social proof, as a recommendation from a friend is more powerful than a branded ad. This mechanic turns a single participant into a distribution channel for your marketing message. Each tag introduces your restaurant to a new, highly relevant potential customer within the same social circle, dramatically lowering your customer acquisition cost. To measure its success, you must track these key metrics:
Reach and Impressions: Monitor how many new accounts see your contest post.
Engagement Rate: Calculate the percentage of people who interact with the post, paying close attention to comments (tags).
Follower Growth: Track the net increase in followers during the contest period.
Profile Visits: See how many tagged users click through to view your restaurant's profile.
This data provides clear evidence of your expanded brand presence. Learn how to optimize these viral mechanics by reading the full guide.
Launching your first Instagram contest is a strategic way to introduce your brand and build an initial community of local patrons. A well-structured giveaway can rapidly accelerate your follower growth and create immediate interest. Your goal is to make participation easy, the prize desirable, and the rules crystal clear to maximize engagement. Here is a simple plan to follow:
Define a Clear Objective: Start with a specific goal, such as “gain 200 local followers and drive 20 prize redemptions in one month.”
Choose an Attractive Prize: Offer something compelling, like a “dinner for two” voucher. This is more effective than a generic gift card.
Set Simple Entry Rules: A proven formula is: Follow our page, like this post, and tag two local friends in the comments.
Create a High-Quality Visual: Post an appealing photo of the prize, for instance, your signature dish, with clear text overlay explaining the contest.
Outline Terms and Conditions: In the caption, clearly state the contest duration, winner selection process, and eligibility.
Promote the post for a few days to a targeted local audience to amplify its reach. For more advanced implementation tips, including collaboration strategies, explore the full article.
The most common pitfall is offering a generic, high-value prize like an iPad or cash, which attracts contest-chasers instead of genuine potential customers. A stronger approach is to offer an experiential prize directly related to your restaurant. A well-chosen prize should act as a filter, attracting participants who are genuinely interested in your dining experience. Instead of a prize that has broad appeal, focus on one that reinforces your brand identity and encourages a visit. For example, instead of a $100 gift card, offer a “VIP Chef's Table Experience” or a private cooking class featuring a signature dish. This type of reward appeals specifically to food lovers who are more likely to become repeat customers, like the loyal patrons a place like Flea Café wants to attract. By making the prize an experience, you are selling your restaurant's atmosphere and quality, not just giving away money. The complete guide details how to brainstorm prizes that build brand loyalty.
As algorithms favor live content, restaurants must shift from static posts to dynamic, real-time events like Facebook Live giveaways. This format creates urgency and a deeper, more personal connection with the audience. Future contest success will depend on your ability to create interactive, entertaining live experiences rather than just simple entry forms. Instead of a “guess the number of jellybeans” photo, host a live event where your chef prepares a dish and viewers guess the final ingredient in the comments to win. The trend is moving towards participatory entertainment. Anticipate a need for more spontaneous, unpolished content that feels authentic, and platforms will likely introduce more integrated tools for live commerce and contests. A restaurant like California Spice could host a live virtual tour of its kitchen, with giveaways for viewers who participate in real-time polls. Staying ahead means mastering live video engagement. Discover more future-forward strategies in the full article.
Successful brands treat contests as precision marketing tools, not just fun activities, by starting with a specific, measurable objective. This clarity prevents wasted effort and ensures the contest mechanics directly serve a business goal. Instead of vaguely aiming for “more engagement,” a sharp marketer will define the goal as “increase Zomato page visits by 30% in two weeks.” Once the objective is set, every element of the contest is designed to achieve it. For example, to boost Zomato traffic, the entry requirement would not be to “tag a friend,” but to “find the secret code on our Zomato menu and comment it below.” This forces participants to perform the exact action you want to drive. This reverse-engineering process, used by savvy marketers like those behind Flea Café, transforms a simple giveaway into a strategic campaign that delivers a quantifiable return on investment. The complete guide offers a framework for setting and achieving these specific goals.
Clearly defined terms and conditions are the foundation of a fair and successful contest, protecting your restaurant from disputes while ensuring participants understand the rules. This structure is crucial because it establishes transparency and manages expectations, preventing confusion and building trust with your audience. Think of it as the official rulebook that guarantees a level playing field for everyone involved. Key details you must include are:
Contest Duration: Specify exact start and end dates and times, including the time zone.
Eligibility Requirements: Define who can enter (e.g., age, location).
Entry Method: Provide explicit instructions on how to participate, just as California Spice would for its treasure hunt.
Prize Details: Clearly describe the prize and its approximate retail value.
Winner Selection: Explain exactly how and when the winner will be chosen and announced.
Having these technicalities in place from the start ensures a smooth process. Our full article provides a checklist for crafting airtight terms and conditions for your next contest.
A “caption this dish” contest is a brilliant tool for crowdsourcing marketing copy and understanding customer sentiment, going far beyond a simple engagement metric. By asking followers to caption a photo of a signature dish, you get direct insight into how they view your food. The language they use—be it “comforting,” “adventurous,” or “perfect for sharing”—is authentic marketing gold. This feedback is more genuine than a formal survey and provides you with compelling phrases and angles for future advertisements. For example, if a dish from a restaurant like California Spice receives dozens of captions describing it as the “perfect weeknight treat,” that becomes a proven marketing message. You can analyze the submissions for recurring themes and emotions, which can inform everything from your menu descriptions to your next ad campaign. Discover how to analyze this qualitative data in our complete guide.
Using a Facebook Live giveaway to launch a new menu creates a sense of event-driven excitement that a static post cannot match, driving immediate engagement and interest. The key is to build suspense and make the audience feel like part of an exclusive unveiling. This approach transforms a simple announcement into an interactive and memorable brand experience. Here is a proven three-step strategy:
Pre-Launch Teaser Campaign: A week before the live event, post teaser photos or videos of the new dishes under wraps. Announce the date and time of the “Live Unveiling & Giveaway” to build anticipation.
Execute the Interactive Live Event: During the live broadcast, unveil each new dish one by one. Ask viewers to comment on which one they are most excited to try. The giveaway mechanic can be to randomly select a winner from the comments.
Post-Event Amplification: After the broadcast, post a recording of the live video and announce the winner. Offer a limited-time discount on the new menu items for everyone who watched, encouraging immediate orders just as a brand like Flea Café would to convert viewers into customers.
This method maximizes viewership and translates that excitement into tangible sales. Dive deeper into advanced live-streaming tactics in the full article.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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