6 Steps to Leveraging Social Media Marketing for Restaurants and Bars

In 2020, if you’re not leveraging social media marketing for your restaurant, you’re missing out on an important tool to promote your business and an excellent way to open up communication with your customers.

While traditional advertising will always have its place, restaurants that use social media marketing have access to a much less expensive and much more direct way to reach audiences. In other words, there’s no reason not to do it.

With that being said, a lot of restaurants aren’t using social media, or they’re not using it to its fullest potential. If you’re in that boat, read on for the what, why and how of leveraging social media marketing for your restaurant or bar.

Why is social media relevant to restaurants?

According to QSR Magazine, 89 percent of U.S. diners have at least one social media account, 36 percent of them follow restaurants on social media and 39 percent of them use it to help them decide where to eat when dining out.

That means that, here in 2020, having an online presence is much more than maintaining a website. Sure, your site is a great way to enhance your discoverability, but it doesn’t provide much of an opportunity for interaction.

And therein lies the key benefit of social media: the right platform(s) will allow people to not only discover your brand, but to engage with it — and assuming you make the experience a positive one, that can be an incredibly effective way to draw in new (loyal) customers.

Another great thing about social media is that it costs nothing to get started. Should you choose to put a spend behind your content (which isn’t a bad idea, especially as you’re trying to grow your following), it doesn’t take a big budget to launch an effective paid social campaign. Plus, targeting your key geographies and demographics is easy on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. And unlike print, television, radio and billboards, you can easily measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.

6 steps to creating a social media marketing plan for your restaurant

Before you start creating social media accounts and randomly posting content, you need a restaurant social media marketing plan. Here are 6 steps to creating and executing the right social media marketing strategy for your restaurant or bar.

1. Choose the right platforms

Trying to decide which social media platforms to use for your restaurant social media marketing can be overwhelming. There are more than 75 different social media platforms, from Tumblr and WhatsApp to LinkedIn, Snapchat and Pinterest. You don’t need to maintain an account on every single one.

When trying to choose the right platform, consider your ideal customer and where they’re likely spending their time.

Here’s a quick rundown of the top three platforms restaurants tend to use.

Facebook: While Facebook has started skewing toward a slightly older demographic, most restaurants would be wise to maintain a company page for their restaurant, at the very least. Facebook is a great option for restaurants and bars that may not have the time or resources to get a website up and running. On your company page, you can post hours, address, contact information, links to menus, and of course regular content and updates for your followers.

If you’ve got a budget to work with (even if it’s small), Facebook ads are a great way for restaurants to geo-target their audience. Facebook ads allow you to advertise to people in specific ZIP codes, so you won’t waste your marketing budget advertising to people who likely won’t be visiting your restaurant. You can use other criteria to target your audience, too — like age or income level. If you use Facebook, make sure you take advantage of Facebook Business, which has a whole range of advertising capabilities.

Instagram: With more than a billion users, Instagram was created to tell stories through beautiful images. And what better way to promote your food, friendly staff, or hip dining space?

While this is subject to change, Instagram currently seems to offer some common ground in terms of demographics: Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and even Baby Boomers are all active on the platform. Here again, if you’ve got a budget, you can run paid Instagram campaigns in tandem with your Facebook ads.

Twitter: Twitter is less image-focused than Facebook and Instagram, but it’s a go-to choice when it comes to real-time interaction between users. Restaurants that leverage Twitter often use it to address questions and complaints, or to keep their audience updated on their latest specials and deals.

2. Select a social media manager

You may be thinking, “I don’t have the time nor the staff to manage this!” And you may be right.

That’s why a lot of restaurants designate a point person to manage their social media marketing. Not only does that ensure that it actually gets done; it also will help to maintain brand consistency and alignment.

Depending on your budget and the scale of your campaign, you may choose to have an existing employee or manager run your social media marketing. Or it may make sense to hire an in-house marketer who can handle social media along with other marketing needs. Some restaurants leverage agencies that do this work day-in and day-out — which makes sense if you’re planning to make a sizable spend or if you want to constantly be testing and optimizing your campaigns. Another lower-cost option is to look for a freelancer or even an intern; college-aged people, for example, tend to be pretty tech-savvy and are more likely to be familiar with multiple social platforms.

When it comes to choosing the online face of your restaurant, you want the person or agency to check a few boxes:

Communication skills: Your social media point person doesn’t have to be a novelist, but they need to have solid writing skills, and they should be able to present content (text and images) in a way that’s engaging and on-brand. Which brings us to our next point…

Familiarity with your business and brand: This is more than knowing your menu, hours, and policies (although that’s important, too). They should also be able to capture the personality of your restaurant. A fine dining establishment isn’t going to be posting the same content as a dive bar.

Experience with key platforms: The person running your social media marketing should have, at the very least, personal experience with the platforms you’re using. Ideally, they’ll also have experience running a business page or account.

Emphasis on data: A key advantage of social media marketing for restaurants is the ability to measure effectiveness. You should expect regular reporting on metrics that show growth in followers and engagement over time.

Accountability: Whoever has the keys to your social media platforms needs to be 100% trustworthy. Make sure everyone is clear on what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to posting — because as we all know, what happens on the internet stays on the internet. You don’t want to go viral for the wrong reasons!

3. Create guidelines

Social media is an extension of your restaurant, which means that anything you post online will need to meet and maintain your brand guidelines and image. To ensure your point person is able to do this properly, create specific guidelines that codify the tone, voice and visual elements of your brand. It helps to provide consistency in messaging and extends the personality you want your restaurant to portray. For guidance, here are three great resources:

How to Create Social Media Brand Guidelines

Building Your Restaurant’s Social Media Presence

5 Steps to Create a Social Media Style Guide for Your Brand

4. Implement a social media calendar

Set up a social media calendar to keep you consistent in your posting and plan ahead so you can align your social media posts with upcoming specials and events. Hubspot provides 10 different calendar templates and tools to help you create a well-organized social media calendar.

5. Leverage automation tools

Save time by taking advantage of automation tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social to schedule your posts ahead of time. But social media automation doesn’t stop there. Use chatbots to automatically reply to customers online when you’re not able to. And utilize social listening tools like Hubspot (Hootsuite and Sprout Social also offer this function) to monitor any online interactions with your social media accounts.

6. Utilize user-generated content

User-generated content, or USG, includes photos, tweets, and other social media posts created by your followers that highlight things like the quality of service, your food and beverages, or other aspects of your restaurant.

USG is essentially free advertising for you because your patrons are posting about their positive experiences at your establishment. You can then repost that content from your own account, as long as you credit the original author of the post. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and allow them to hear from their peers about why your place is so special. Here’s a great guide on how you can encourage your followers to create USG that you can use for your benefit.

Bottom line: Creating a social media plan for your restaurant doesn’t have to be time-consuming or expensive. Once you’ve got a plan in place and your accounts are set up, it’s all about being consistent and authentic with your content — and, of course, letting data be your guide. If you’re not seeing the impact you hoped for, reassess and refine your plan as you go.

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Product and Company News

Kickfin Named to Deloitte Technology Fast 500 List for Second Consecutive Year

Kickfin is proud to announce that we have once again been named to the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 31st year.

Kickfin is the only company on the list purpose-built for restaurants and bars to automate tip management — marking another major milestone for our team, our partners and the thousands of restaurant operators who trust us to modernize their tip-pooling and payout workflows.

Why it matters

When it comes to tipping out employees, cash is no longer king — and needs are changing fast. Hospitality workers demand (and deserve!) faster, cashless payouts; burned-out managers need more hours in their day; and now more than ever, operators care about visibility, compliance, and employee satisfaction.

Kickfin delivers on all of those fronts by:

Freeing managers up from bank runs and the back office, so they can focus on everything that can’t be automated.
Ensuring employees walk out the door with their earnings already in their existing bank account, no waiting, no detours.
Helping operators stay compliant, track everything, and uncover new efficiencies.

What sets Kickfin apart

There’s a reason Kickfin is the best-in-class tip management solution.

Broader POS integrations: We’ve expanded our direct integrations with leading POS brands, including Toast, Square, SkyTab, Genius POS, Union, and more — so managers can pool and pay out tips in a matter of clicks.
Enhanced tip-pool logic and flexibility: Our platform automates even the complex tip pool policies, with more tip pooling and automated reconciliation features than any other solution, while keeping the end-user experience simple and intuitive.
Instant, cashless payouts: With fewer cash drawer runs and real time bank deposits, teams experience faster shift-close, fewer errors and improved satisfaction.
Built-in compliance and reporting: As tip-pooling regulations continue to evolve, Kickfin empowers customers with robust features like digital paper trails and payroll integrations to ensure accuracy and compliance from end to end.
Customer success focus: Our fully U.S.-based Customer Success team is partners with customers to make onboarding fast and easy, no matter how tricky your tip policy may be, so you get ROI right away.

A big thank you

We’re honored to be recognized by Deloitte, and even more excited about what comes next. For restaurant operators, managers and employees alike, the future of tip management is here, and we’re thrilled to be your partner.

Ready to see what automated tip pooling and instant payouts look like in action? Book a demo today!

Product and Company News, Technology and Software

New Kickfin Feature Alert: Blended Payouts Are Here!

Brand new feature, coming in hot!

As part of our latest product release, Kickfin now offers Blended Payouts for even easier, fully automated tip management and reconciliation.

Why Blended Payouts Matter

Now more than ever, restaurant guests use credit cards or digital payment methods instead of cash. For many operators, that means there isn’t enough cash on hand at the end of a shift to pay out tips. But employees still want to receive their payouts immediately after clock-out.

As our customers know, Kickfin solves for those cash shortages by automating and digitizing the payout process — giving you the power to send instant, cashless payouts directly to your employees’ bank of choice, 24/7/365.

The result: minimal cash handling and risk, better accuracy and tracking — and of course, fewer bank runs.

However, digitizing payouts often results in some leftover cash in the drawer. Over time, we’ve heard from customers who prefer to use up that cash to pay out tips, then distribute the remaining tip amounts via Kickfin.

With Blended Payouts, you can do just that — and still account for every penny paid out, quickly and accurately, within the Kickfin platform.

How Blended Payouts Work

As always, all Kickfin customers can still choose to split individual payment amounts between instant payouts and payroll. Once you enable the new Cash Payouts feature, you will now be able to account for any cash tip payments that were also distributed.

Note: This feature lives within Kickfin’s Tip Calculator, which means you must have an active POS integration to use it.

Once it’s enabled, you’ll see the new “Cash Payouts” button on the Payment Review screen.
After clicking the button, users will be able to enter the individual cash amounts that were distributed to employees.
Back on the Review screen, you’ll see instant payout, payroll, and cash payment amounts for each employee. All three payment methods will have their own line items and be accounted for under your Payment Details.

Watch here for a full walkthrough of the new feature.

Ready to enable Blended Payouts?

If you’re a current customer, in touch with our Customer Success team at support@kickfin.com to activate this new feature.

(Not a customer yet? Click here to see Kickfin in action and learn how you can automate tip pooling and payouts!)

Product and Company News, Technology and Software

Kickfin Partners with Union POS to Automate Tip Distribution for High-Volume Bars and Restaurants

Kickfin is excited to share the latest addition to our integration marketplace. Read on for all the details around our partnership with Union POS. (If you’re a current Union POS customer and you’d like to learn more about how Kickfin automates tip pooling and payouts, schedule a live demo here.)

AUSTIN, Texas (August 13, 2025)—Kickfin, the leading tip management software, today announced the launch of its integration with Union, the purpose-built POS and engagement platform powering the nation’s busiest bars, nightclubs and restaurants.

Thousands of operators use Kickfin to eliminate tedious tip calculations and remove cash from the tip distribution process so managers can move faster, track everything, and ensure accuracy and compliance.

By activating the Kickfin-Union integration, we eliminated clunky spreadsheet formulas and fully automated our tip pooling process. After going live, we reduced our time to close out by an average of 30 minutes after every shift.

The Kickfin-Union integration gives Union’s customers the power to auto-calculate tip pools in a matter of clicks and send payouts directly to employees’ bank of choice—no cash or pay cards required.

“By integrating with Kickfin, we’re giving operators the power to choose best-in-class tools that work seamlessly with their Union POS and data,” said Alex Broeker, the CEO and founder of Union. “This direct integration brings automated tip management to our operators while unlocking new opportunities for operational efficiency, employee satisfaction and simplified compliance.”

KPG Hospitality, which operates experiential bars and unique concepts throughout Texas and Tennessee, was among the first operators to activate the Kickfin-Union POS integration.

“Our venues run at a very fast pace. When you consider the time it takes managers to manually calculate tip amounts every day, after every shift, across every location, it’s a lot of unnecessary admin hours,” said Troy Cramer, the managing partner at KPG. “By activating the Kickfin-Union integration, we eliminated clunky spreadsheet formulas and fully automated our tip pooling process. After going live, we reduced our time to close out by an average of 30 minutes after every shift.”Key Features of the Union + Kickfin Integration:

Automated Tip Pool Calculations: Calculate complex tip pools in seconds, saving managers hours of administrative work while ensuring accuracy and transparency.
Instant Cashless Payouts: Pay out tips directly to employees’ bank of choice instantly, eliminating the need for cash handling and bank runs.
Simplified Compliance: Maintain a digital record of every payout, making tip reporting and tax compliance straightforward.
Enhanced Tracking: Easily track tips by pay period with comprehensive reporting capabilities.
Streamlined Operations: Implement complex tip policies with just a few clicks through an extremely easy-to-use interface.

“Our integration with Union, a leading POS system built specifically to support the busiest venues in the industry, makes perfect sense,” said Kickfin co-CEO Brian Hassan. “Together, we’re creating a solution that saves time, reduces errors, and delivers a better experience for both operators and their staff.”

Available immediately through both Union and Kickfin, venues can integrate their systems and begin leveraging these capabilities today. To learn how this partnership can transform your tip management operations, schedule a demo at GetUnion.com or kickfin.com/demo.

About Union
Union powers a first-of-its-kind venue operating system purpose-built for the nation’s busiest bars and restaurants. More than a point-of-sale, Union connects 1,500+ establishments with 5M+ consumers and leading brands through real-time consumption data. The platform drives operational efficiency, enables frictionless mobile ordering, and facilitates brand-patron interactions that enhance venue loyalty. With $2B+ in annual transactions, Union creates a virtuous cycle where venues improve customer experiences, brands gain direct consumer engagement, and patrons enjoy personalized rewarding hospitality—transforming high-volume operations into next-gen guest experiences. To learn more about Union, visit http://www.getunion.com

About Kickfin
Kickfin is a leading digital tip management platform that automates tip pool calculations and delivers cashless tip payments directly to employees’ bank accounts. Designed to eliminate the administrative burden of tip management, Kickfin helps restaurants, bars, and hospitality venues save time, reduce errors, and improve employee satisfaction. With features like instant payments, digital record-keeping, and simplified compliance, Kickfin is transforming the way venues handle tip distribution in today’s increasingly cashless economy.

Industry Trends, Restaurant Management

Kickfin vs. TipHaus: Which Tip Management Software is Best for You?

If you’re in the market for tip management software, you might find yourself comparing Kickfin and TipHaus.

Kickfin is the largest provider of instant tip payouts on the market and has processed more than $2 billion in employee payments for all kinds of restaurants, from “mom-and-pops” to national franchises — and everything in between.

Kickfin and TipHaus are both designed to digitize tip distribution for restaurants. However, there are some significant differences between the two platforms that you’ll want to consider before making a decision.

Kickfin and TipHaus: Compare at a Glance

Why Do Operators Choose Kickfin Over TipHaus?

Kickfin Offers Better Pricing

Kickfin’s direct-to-bank transaction fees are more competitive than the transaction fees TipHaus quotes their customers.

This is primarily due to the fact that Kickfin is the largest provider of instant payouts in the country (validated by Visa and MasterCard data), with more than $2 billion in employee payments and multiple payment processor relationships.

Employees Prefer Kickfin

Kickfin was built to make life easier not just for operators, but also for their employees.

No app downloads: Kickfin only requires a one-time, 30-second enrollment for employees. (No app downloads or extra phone storage needed!) Payment history and reporting data can be viewed as needed simply by logging into their browser.
No paycards required: Kickfin also doesn’t require pay cards, while TipHaus offers “HausMoney” as a primary payout option for employees. HausMoney is essentially a pay card that employees’ tips are loaded onto. Funds aren’t available to use until the following day. HausMoney may be free for operators, but many employees don’t want to be forced to use a pay card due to the hassles of transferring funds to their own bank accounts, as well as the transaction fees and wait times they may incur. They’d prefer their earnings streamed to their accounts instantly, after every shift—which is how most Kickfin customers choose to pay out their employees.

Zero Prefunding* With Instant Payouts

With Kickfin, customers can send instant, direct-to-bank payouts with zero prefunding required.* While TipHaus does offer zero prefund, employee payouts must be sent to a TipHaus paycard (HausMoney). In other words, if you want to use a zero prefund option with TipHaus, you won’t be able to offer instant, direct-to-bank payouts to your employees.

Option to Manually Input Tip Data

With TipHaus, a POS integration is required, and all tip payment data is generated by the software’s tip calculator.

Kickfin was designed for ultimate flexibility. While many customers use Kickfin’s POS integration to auto-calculate tip amounts, some restaurants don’t need automated tip calculations and prefer to use Kickfin unintegrated. That isn’t an option with TipHaus.

Additionally, some Kickfin customers use Kickfin to auto-calculate tip pools, then manually upload other tip data on an as-needed basis. This comes in handy when you need to pay out “extra” staff, like entertainers, security guards, etc.

Easy, Accurate Distribution of Auto-Gratuities and Service Charges

Kickfin tracks Tips and Auto-gratuities separately. As a result, you can report those types of payments to payroll separately and handle them independently for tax purposes.

Why does that matter? In light of the 2025 “No Tax on Tips” legislation, tipped employees no longer have to pay federal income tax on the first $25,000 in tips earned each year. However, they do need to pay taxes on earnings from services fees, autogratuities and other compulsory charges that are not considered tips by the IRS.

(If 100% of your service charges does not go to your employees, Kickfin allows the “house account” to retain a portion of service charges, while the rest is distributed to your team.)

Enhanced Tip Calculation Functionality and Features

Kickfin’s Tip Calculator was designed to be both highly robust—so it can handle the most complex tip pooling policies—while also being incredibly simple and intuitive to use.

A few unique things about Kickfin’s Tip Calculator:

No data sync delays: Tip calculations are immediate and on-demand. With Tiphaus, a data sync process is required which can add extra time to your tip calculation process.
Built-in flexibility: Kickfin releases new Tip Calculator features on a regular basis based on feedback we regularly source from customers. For example, Kickfin now offers check splitting for both individual checks and groups of checks, making it easier to handle large parties and events.
Ease of use: Customers regularly shout out our sleek, high-quality user interface compared to other platforms. Notably, we’ve made it easy for managers to review all details before hitting “submit,” ensuring the accuracy of every payout.

Cash Tip Tracking and Payouts

Many operators choose Kickfin because they don’t have enough cash on hand to pay out credit card tips, and they want to reduce the amount of cash handling in their restaurant altogether.

However, we know cash will probably always be (a small) part of the equation. Kickfin makes it easy for you to handle that with some added functionality:

Tips left in cash: If a diner leaves a pile of cash at your table, it might not get recorded in your POS. However, Kickfin allows you to record it and distribute it through our platform.

Cash payouts: Many operators may want to distribute all of the cash left in their register at the end of a business day to avoid bank runs. Again, that’s easy to do with Kickfin.

Multiple Payment Processors for Guaranteed Deliverability

For many employees, especially those living paycheck to paycheck, it’s critical that they receive their tip earnings and that they’re instantly accessible/ready to use.

TipHaus uses only a single processor. Kickfin uses multiple payment processors to ensure deliverability of payouts should a processor experience a disruption or become insolvent.

Direct POS Integrations

All of Kickfin’s POS integrations are direct API integrations, while TipHaus has been known to utilize third-party software to integrate with some POS systems. The problem with third-party software is that it can be susceptible to more connectivity issues, creating problems with data reliability.

Top-Ranked Customer Support

Kickfin has an award-winning Customer Success team that is exclusively focused on helping our operators get the most value possible out of Kickfin.

Every member of our team is based in the U.S. We provide free, personalized training and onboarding for your whole team, and when questions or issues arise, we can be reached by phone, email, text or chat. We also have a robust library of support documentation and videos that provide step-by-step guidance for every aspect of the platform.

Credibility and Recognition

At the end of the day, Kickfin’s large and fast-growing customer base speaks for itself, as do their rave reviews of the platform.

For multiple years, Kickfin has been the only tip management software that is recognized on both the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 lists. Kickfin has received recognition from peer software review sites like G2 and Capterra for consistently high customer rankings and reviews.

*Zero prefund is available to select customers after a credit review to confirm their fit with the zero prefund program.

Ready to take the next step?

See why thousands of restaurant pros use Kickfin to auto-calculate tip pools and pay out tips in real time, no cash or math required! Get a demo today.