By Matt Plapp, CEO, America’s Best Restaurants
Last night, I received the following text from a pizza shop owner who happens to be a client of mine:
That’s right—a simple updated profile pic drove sales! Pretty easy, right?
They updated their Facebook profile picture, and it literally got someone in the door. Not an ad. Not a boosted post. Not a giveaway. Just a profile photo showing two proud owners holding a fire tray of delish-looking lasagna. Here it is:
Which brings me to my first point, and it’s simple: Money follows attention. We live in a time where attention is currency. The issue? Most restaurant owners aren’t spending enough of it.
You make a simple change that triggers an update in your customers’ feeds, and boom—they see you, remember you and act on it. Best of all, the cost? Zero.
You’ve got a buffet of attention platforms in front of you:
- TikTok
- X
- Snapchat
- YouTube
And they’re all free! Yet most of you skip posting for days, sometimes weeks, and then wonder why sales are flat.
Here’s What Not to Do With Your Marketing
Last week, I did a social media audit for a restaurant owner who asked, “What could I be doing differently with my marketing?” I could have created a crazy plan, but instead I looked first at the lowest hanging fruit: his Facebook page.
I started by asking myself two simple questions:
- Is he taking enough action?
- Is that action actually any good?
Here’s what I found: On the positive side, he made 22 posts in the last 31 days. But he’d recently missed 15 days entirely. That’s 15 days of silence.
Here’s why that matters:
- For 15 days, his competitors got attention, and he didn’t.
- There were 15 days when his customers forgot he existed.
- He lost 15 chances to post something that drove traffic, and those days are now gone.
In today’s world, attention is the new rent. If you’re not paying it daily, you’re getting evicted from your customers’ minds.
Now, here’s the second problem I found: the posts’ quality. Of the 22 posts he made, the vast majority were just food pictures. No face. No story. No energy. No engagement.
He didn’t:
- Show videos of the owner making food
- Highlight one of his team members
- Run a contest to drive customer engagement
- Ask a question to his audience
- Give anyone a reason to stop scrolling
It was all menu pics. And if that’s all you’re doing, let’s be honest: You’re not doing enough.
What’s the first word of social media? Social. Stop just recreating your menu and 1980s Valpak ads on Facebook. Start creating conversations, telling stories and exciting your community.
Instead, let’s look at what you should be doing—every week. People don’t just buy food. They buy stories. They buy people. They buy a connection.
If you’re a local pizza shop or family-run restaurant in a sea of big-box chains, the most powerful thing you can do is show the faces behind the food.
That’s why the above profile pic post worked so well. It wasn’t the lasagna (though that didn’t hurt). It was Cindi and her husband, the owners, proudly holding it. It made people stop. It made people feel something. And it made people show up.
My New Year’s Gift to You: A Free Weekly Content Plan
If you want to stop guessing and start showing up with purpose, here’s a free resource my team uses with 2,500-plus restaurants nationwide. Download the free Attention Plan here.
This download will not only give you a systematic way to plan your monthly marketing, but also your one-off promos and weekly social media posts. It tells you exactly what to post, when and why, so you can finally make social media work like it’s supposed to.
Final Thought
If a single profile picture can bring in a lunch customer, imagine what seven days of high-impact content could do. Stop leaving attention (and money) on the table. Start posting like the star of your own show. Because in this game, the loudest restaurant wins.
My name is Matt Plapp. I’m the CEO (chief energy officer) of America’s Best Restaurants. I’ve worked with thousands of restaurants since 2008 when I started this company, and over the next 12 months, we will help 2,500-plus restaurants with their marketing. This is the latest article in my biweekly column for PMQ to help restaurant owners understand the gold mine we have to market in 2026—and beyond.
