What to Expect From a Restaurant Social Media Agency
What a social media marketing agency should actually do for a restaurant, and the questions that separate a real one from someone who just posts.
“Social media marketing” is one of those phrases that can mean almost anything, which is exactly why it gets sold so easily. Two agencies can quote you the same number for wildly different amounts of work, and you will not find out which one you hired until month three.
So here is what the job actually consists of, in the order it happens, and what to ask about each part.
The five things that have to happen
Every post that works has been through all five of these. When you are comparing quotes, find out which ones are included and which are quietly yours.
1. Filming. Someone has to show up and get footage. Ask how often, and for how long. “We’ll come by” is not a schedule. A restaurant usually needs a shoot every two to four weeks to stay stocked with content.
2. Editing. Cutting, captions on screen, colour, pacing, sound. This is where most of the hours go, and it is the part that decides whether a good clip actually holds someone for eight seconds.
3. Writing. The caption, the hashtags, the location tag. Ask directly who writes these. A surprising number of arrangements hand you finished videos and leave the writing to you — which means it happens at eleven at night or not at all.
4. Posting. Someone has to publish it, at the right time, on each platform. Ask whether they post or you post. This single question predicts more failures than any other.
5. Reporting. What did it do. Not a screenshot of the follower count — reach, saves, shares, and a view on which posts to make more of.
If a proposal does not name all five, you are buying a folder of files and calling it marketing.
Deliverables, translated
Proposals hide a lot in vague nouns. What you want written down:
| What they say | What to ask |
|---|---|
| “Content creation” | How many finished posts per month? |
| “Social media management” | Do you publish, or do I? |
| “Engagement” | Are you replying to comments and DMs, or just posting? |
| “Strategy” | Will I see it written down, and can I disagree with it? |
| “Reporting” | Monthly? Which numbers? Sent, or do I log in? |
Get the post count and the posting interval in writing. “Twelve posts a month” and “three posts a week” sound similar and behave completely differently — twelve dumped in the last week of the month is worse than nothing.
What a good agency will tell you that a bad one will not
That it takes months. Short-form compounds. The account has to build a body of work before the algorithm decides who to show you to. Anyone promising results in thirty days is selling you something.
That they cannot fix the business. Video makes more people aware of you and makes you look like the better choice. It does not fix slow service, a bad location or food that is not what it was. An honest agency will say this on the first call.
When a post flopped, and their best guess why. You want the ones who bring up the bad month before you do.
Who actually does the work. On a small account, find out whether the person on the sales call is the person holding the camera, or whether you are being handed to someone you have not met.
The questions worth asking on the call
- Can I see three accounts you currently run? Not a highlight reel — the live profiles, so I can scroll them.
- How many posts a month, on what interval, on which platforms?
- Who writes the captions?
- Who presses publish?
- Do I approve posts before they go out?
- What happens to the raw footage — do I own it?
- What does month one look like, versus month six?
- What is the notice period if I want to stop?
The answer to number one tells you most of it. An agency doing good work will have live accounts it is proud of and will send them without hesitating.
The thing that actually goes wrong
It is almost never strategy. Restaurant social media strategy fits on a napkin: film the thing only you do, get close, shoot vertical, post three times a week, forever.
It is the word forever that breaks. Week seven arrives, service was bad, someone quit, and editing a video is the eighth most important thing that day. The feed goes quiet for a month, and a month of quiet undoes more than a good post builds.
So when you are choosing between agencies, weight everything toward whichever one makes the posting happen without you. That is the part you are actually buying.
We run exactly this for restaurants across Dearborn, Detroit and metro Detroit — filming, editing, captions, scheduled posting and monthly reporting, with you approving everything before it goes live. See what that includes for restaurants, or book fifteen minutes and ask us the eight questions above.
Want this handled for you?
We shoot, edit and post short-form video for restaurants and local brands across metro Detroit — on a fixed schedule, tracked every week.