It's one of the things we hear most often when we walk into a restaurant on the island for the first time: “we've been posting for two years and it's pointless”. It's almost never true that it's pointless. What usually happens is that the wrong things are being measured, or a piece of the journey is missing.
Let's take it step by step, with the five causes we come across almost every time.
1. Your followers can't come to dinner
It's the number one problem and the quietest. Many restaurant profiles in Tenerife have thousands of followers scattered across half the world, gained through giveaways, mass following or badly targeted campaigns. People who tap the heart and are never going to catch a plane to try your pizza.
The number that matters isn't how many people follow you, it's how many of your followers are less than half an hour from your door. A profile with eight hundred local followers is worth more than one with eight thousand spread around the planet, and it performs better too: the algorithm shows your posts to people similar to those who already interact with you.
A big profile with an empty dining room is no use to anyone.
2. You post whenever you remember
The typical pattern: one week with five posts, then a busy weekend, and ten days with nothing. When you come back, your reach has dropped and, on top of that, it looks as if the place has closed.
You don't need to post every day. You need to post consistently, even if it's three times a week. Consistency matters more than quantity, and to be consistent you need the calendar ready before the month starts, not decided at eleven at night.
3. The photos don't make people hungry
This is hard to hear, but it's the most common cause of all. An excellent dish photographed on a phone, against the light and under the yellow ceiling lights, looks like something else. And the customer looking at you before deciding where to eat doesn't know how you cook: all they see is the photo.
What's more, that same material is what then feeds your campaigns, your website, your menu and your Google Business Profile. When the material is weak, everything else pushes an image that doesn't sell. That's why, when we start with a new venue, the first step is almost never advertising: it's a decent photo shoot.
4. There's nowhere to go next
Look at your profile as if you were a tourist who's just arrived in Costa Adeje. Are your opening hours there? Is it clear where you are? Is there a link to book or to message you on WhatsApp that works with a single tap? Is the menu there?
A huge number of restaurant profiles show beautiful food and don't say how to book. The interest you've sparked is lost within five seconds, which is how long it takes someone to go back to Google and find the place next door that does say it.
- Direct link to bookings or WhatsApp on your profile
- Address and area in the bio, not just the name of the venue
- Up-to-date opening hours, especially on bank holidays
- Menu available without having to ask
5. You're asking Instagram to do something it can't do on its own
Instagram is where people fall in love with your place. Google is where they find you when they're already hungry. They're two different moments, and the second is the one that fills tables on the same day.
A restaurant that only works on Instagram and has neglected its Google Business Profile —three-year-old photos, wrong opening hours, unanswered reviews— is letting slip precisely the customer who was about to walk in. The two have to be worked on together, or neither works fully.
So what do you look at to know whether it's working?
Not followers. Not likes. These four things:
- Profile visits: how many people, after seeing a post, wanted to know more about you.
- Taps on the link or the phone number: how many people took the next step.
- Messages received: how many conversations have started.
- Growth in local followers: not the total, but those in your area.
If those four numbers go up month after month, the work is paying off even if the likes don't show it. If they don't move, something in the journey is broken, and it's usually one of the five things above.
One last note, on patience
Paid campaigns move things in the first week. Community building, good material and search rankings take between three and six months to really make a difference. Anyone who promises you the second in thirty days is selling you the first under another name.