LinkedIn is a great place to talk about the successes of your restaurant. You should be proud to share those stories online. And it’s even more powerful when you also talk about how you got your success.

Unlike Instagram and other consumer-facing platforms, LinkedIn is home to a large network of business owners, industry thought leaders, and others looking to learn and network. If you think LinkedIn is just for finding jobs or workers, then you haven’t logged in for a while. Your business might have a profile, but is it updated? When did you last post about yourself?

Do you and your business a favor and log back on today. What you’ll find nowadays is a thriving ecosystem of fellow restaurateurs and entrepreneurs looking to help and be helped. LinkedIn was founded in 2003 a few months before Facebook. That makes it one of the oldest social media networks. And it’s still growing.

The social media network for professionals is a powerful tool for restaurant owners to network by sharing not just the story of their business, but their own story with graphics, works, videos, and other features.

LinkedIn is a great place to talk about the successes of your restaurant. You should be proud to share those stories online. But it’s even more powerful when you talk about how you earned your success.

Don’t just post the video of you on the local news. Write a post to go along with that video explaining how you got on the news and WHAT you did when you were there. Those are powerful stories and lessons to share with others like you. You can meet people from all over the world when you share your story online.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships

At my media company Cali BBQ Media, we like to say, “a rising tide lifts all ships.” Why do we say ships and not boats, as the quote often goes? Well, it comes down to the difference between a ship and a boat: A ship can hold other boats. That means more people to take aboard your ship as the tide rises.

LinkedIn is a place where other ship captains (other restaurant owners like you) are spending time on their journey along the choppy waves of business. Why not pull up a seat and tell your tale?

You can’t truly learn from others unless you’re willing to put yourself out there and connect with someone new. Start making meaningful connections with other business owners by following this brief guide to LinkedIn for restaurant owners:

Step 1: Get on LinkedIn. Even if you already have a LinkedIn account, now is your chance to give it a critical look and update it. If you don’t have a profile, then definitely go to https://www.linkedin.com and sign up right now (make sure to download the app for your smartphone too). Social media platforms are also search engines, so fill out your page with up-to-date and relevant details so you can be discovered.

Step 2: Use a personal account. Don’t worry about first setting up a business account if you don’t already have one. It’s more important that you have a personal network of other people like you than maintaining a promotional business account. What you will find is that your personal page will help you build deeper business relationships simply by sharing your personal story as a #restaurantowner and seeing who comments and engages you.

Step 3: Build your network. LinkedIn makes it easy to find people you will want to connect with from their hundreds of millions of users. You can even import all your email addresses and sync your contacts from other platforms like Facebook to grow your professional network quickly. From there, you will start to be recommended to people you might know and others you can meet in your industry and beyond. Go ahead and start tagging them on your posts and commenting on their posts as well. Social media is a place to be social.

Step 4: Post short videos about you and your crew. The best way to share your story online is with a short-form video. We know short videos (one minute or shorter) perform better than longer ones due to the modern attention span and other content options available online. It’s also important that your video is about you or another person. We relate to true personal stories much more than a simple promotion. It’s easy to turn your cell phone camera on yourself and press record.

Step 5: Start a conversation. When you post to LinkedIn, make sure to also tag those who you respect or who might be interested in your story. Don’t be scared to meet new people. That’s what social media is all about. Because LinkedIn is business-to-business social media you can often reach more owners, CEOs, managers, and other senior-level decision-makers than you might on other platforms. That’s a lot of powerful, interesting, smart people you can introduce yourself to right now if you’re willing to put yourself out there.

Source: Shawn P. Walchef, RestaurantOwner.com