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Key Takeaways YouTube is a discovery engine that can help restaurants reach new audiences.
Short clips grab attention, but long-form content is where brands turn viewers into loyal guests.
Metadata and geolocation tagging are just as important as the content you post.
Restaurants don’t need content to succeed. But it makes winning a lot easier.
For years, restaurants competed on location, menu and word of mouth. Now, they also compete for attention. And increasingly, that attention is being earned on YouTube long before a customer ever walks through the door.
Inside Google’s offices in New York City, that shift was impossible to ignore: People are watching content on YouTube before they visit. Farah Shirzadi, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Travel & Local Search at Google, sees YouTube as one of the most powerful tools restaurants have today.
“There are a lot of different ways that you can use YouTube,” Shirzadi says. “You can have your long-form video, you can have YouTube Shorts, you can do YouTube Lives, you can record podcasts like we’re doing right now.”
Restaurants are no longer limited to a single type of content or a single way to connect with guests.
There is a restaurant in London called Fallow that proves the point. Its YouTube channel goes beyond just showing plated dishes. It brings viewers into the kitchen, into the process, into the personalities behind the food. By the time someone books a table, they already feel like they know the place.
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