Social media has transformed the world of business marketing. Roughly 5.24 billion people worldwide are on these socially connected platforms (out of a total of 5.56 billion internet users), and viral moments can spread across millions of audiences within hours.

As a restaurant, creating a viral social media campaign is the equivalent of landing the prime time ad spot on TV (or, dare we say, even better).

Whether it’s a tweet, TikTok video, or Instagram reel, a popular post can transform an obscure dish or a tucked-away restaurant into an overnight sensation.

Learn how to gain traction and turn a viral moment into long-lasting business success with these 5 strategies.

1. Plan for a Traffic Spike

The first rule of viral restaurant marketing is to be prepared. Going viral should result in a significant surge in traffic, both in-person and online.

Look at Chili’s as a great example of viral marketing done right. They’ve created social media stirs on numerous occasions for all the right reasons, including their now iconic Triple Dipper menu item and the Chili’s cheese pull.

After going viral, they saw a meteoric rise in growth of almost 15% across US stores, with the Triple Dipper accounting for 40% of the boost.

If you’re exploring how to go viral on social media, you need to be prepared for the same level of rapid growth and increase in customers.

This means ensuring your website is ready to handle a spike in traffic for online orders. If you’re worried about too many requests crashing your system, look into autoscaling. As hosting professionals at 20i explain, autoscaling enables your site to “effortlessly adapt to any spikes in traffic, reducing the possibility of downtime so that you can cash in on your viral surge.”

It’s also a brilliant idea to review your inventory management and ask yourself:

  • Do we have enough stock to deal with a sudden increase in traffic?

  • How will we manage replenishment?

An automated inventory management system will take the stress out of a spike in orders by carrying out tasks like re-ordering supplies and monitoring product popularity.

Other tips to prepare for a viral moment and capitalise on your popularity include:

  • Cross-training staff so that they can jump into different roles and tasks when needed.

  • Partnering with a temp agency to quickly increase staff numbers.

  • Strengthening your customer support with FAQs and AI chatbots.

With quick adjustments to your business processes, you can get ready to go viral.

2. Capitalise Quickly

The very nature of a viral trend is that it moves quickly. What’s all over social media one day might be gone the next, meaning that you need to act immediately to avoid missing out on a viral moment.

This includes viral moments for your own restaurant, such as one of your dishes gaining a lot of attention, as well as capitalizing on other social media trends.

To avoid missing out, ensure you’re carrying out social media monitoring. Have alerts set up for brand mentions and consistently check your feed for relevant trends.

Once you see a viral moment, don’t wait. Repost relevant content as soon as possible and use a clear call-to-action (CTA) where appropriate that drives your users to engage further with your business.

For example, if you own a donut shop, your raspberry cronut creation might suddenly go viral thanks to a popular creator posting about it. Repost the original content and add your own caption that guides people to your website or shop so that they can try it for themselves.

3. Add Viral Dishes to Your Menu

Not adding viral dishes to your menu? You could be missing out on a huge boost in brand engagement and traffic.

Engaging with viral food trends is a brilliant way to cash in on viral moments without having to make them yourself. By creating your own version of a popular dish, you can entice new customers to visit your business and curate an on-trend, social media-savvy restaurant identity.

Take, for instance, the viral Dubai Chocolate recipe that recently swept social media. It caused huge demand for the chocolate itself as well as pistachio-related items. By adding a Dubai Chocolate dessert to your menu, your restaurant can tap into the buzz and become part of the conversation.

This also gives you fresh content to share across your social media channels. Show off your new dessert and encourage customer reactions to build engagement and boost visibility. With the right timing and presentation, your take on this viral trend could spark your own wave of attention, positioning your restaurant as both relevant and innovative.

4. Collaborate With Viral Influencers

Sometimes viral moments involve other businesses, influencers, or even customers. To leverage these relationships and reach new audiences, let’s take a look at a few different approaches:

  • Collaborate with creators: Invite the food creators or influencers who made the viral post to your restaurant for a unique opportunity, such as trying a new dish you’ve made based on their hit content.

  • Partner with other businesses: You might go viral alongside another business as part of a recipe or combo. Collaborate on a promotional product that ties your viral items together.

  • Work with micro-influencers: Reach out to local foodies or lifestyle influencers to do review-style content or collaborate on a new dish, creating your own viral trends.

  • Work with global content creators: When influencers are too far away to visit your restaurant, send them new items to try alongside branded merch and solidify your collaboration.

Working with partners can help you reach bigger audiences and boost your brand awareness, all while creating and capitalising on viral moments.

Regardless of the viral trend, engaging with your community (including customers, influencers, and other businesses) is a must to capitalise on the moment.

For example, if a competing restaurant has a viral video, you can respond with your own parody of their content, bringing humorous, lighthearted competition. You might even get involved with a simple comment, following the example of Wendy’s social media team and their witty comebacks that lead to viral moments.

By engaging directly with viral content, you can drum up a lot of attention and create your own buzz. Not sure how to get started? Here are our top tips:

  • Start or join hashtags.
  • Don’t just scroll, but add clever comments that are on-brand to trending posts.
  • Use trending formats or memes to create your own content.
  • Repost customer content with captions that add personality and humor for an active dialogue.
  • Use polls, questions, or emoji sliders to invite input.

Final Thoughts

A viral moment can catapult your restaurant to the dizzying heights of success, transforming your business overnight. Hopefully, the tips and strategies shared in this article have given you the confidence to tap into online trends, attract new customers, and build a buzzworthy brand that thrives both on and offline.

Looking for more insights into how to increase restaurant sales? Take a look at the latest on our blog.