Social Media for Calgary Restaurants: What a Month of Content Looks Like
What a well-run month of Instagram and TikTok looks like for a Calgary restaurant — the shoot day, the calendar, Stampede and patio season, and the report at the end.
Most restaurant owners know they should post more. Few have the time, and fewer have good photos to post. Here is what a month looks like when someone else runs it properly, using Calgary's calendar as the example.
Week one: the shoot day
One planned session in the restaurant covers the month: the new dishes, the drinks, the room, the team, and the short vertical clips that do the heavy lifting on Instagram and TikTok. Everything is shot with a plan for where it will be posted, so nothing is left to be cropped later.
The calendar
A content calendar is a list of posts with dates, captions, and the asset for each. You approve it once. A Calgary calendar follows the city: patio season from May, Stampede in July when the whole city is out, back-to-school in September, holiday parties and markets from mid-November. Plan the content for those moments two to three weeks ahead, not the night before.
What gets posted, and where
- Reels and TikToks: the pour, the sizzle, the first bite, the chef's hands. These reach new people.
- Carousels: the menu, the specials, the room. These convert followers into bookings.
- Stories: daily, informal, the behind-the-scenes. These keep regulars close.
- Google Business Profile posts: the same specials, because that is where people search 'restaurant near me'.
Replies are part of the job
Comments and messages are where bookings and complaints both arrive. Someone should answer them within hours, in your voice, and pass anything that needs the owner to the owner the same day. Ignored messages cost more than missed posts.
The report
At the end of the month you should get one page: reach, followers, saves and shares, the posts that worked, and three things that change next month. If the report needs a meeting to understand it, it is the wrong report. This is how our social media management runs, with the studio doing the shoot.
When to add ads
Once the organic content is consistent, a small, geo-targeted ad budget around the restaurant puts your best posts in front of people within a few kilometres. That is a separate service with its own tracking; see performance marketing for how we set it up.