Personalize your social media to build meaningful connections
In today’s business environment, it is necessary for companies to be on social media. If your pizzeria doesn’t have a presence online, it may as well not even exist (at least to anyone younger than the Millennial generation).
When my pizzeria opened in 2011, we didn’t have social media – we didn’t even take phone orders! I established our Facebook page in early 2012 and soon after created an Instagram account. Social media not only helped my business grow, it also thrived!
By using social media to connect with customers, inform them about specials and post images of menu items, our customer base broadened and sales skyrocketed.
How Did We Do It?
Our social media accounts started with the goal of connecting with our audience and providing what customers wanted to see from us. With no online ordering at the time (2012), photos of our pizzas were the most ideal way to capture customers’ attention.
Fast forward 15 years, and things look quite different. However, the goal is still the same: connect with the customer.
Curious how you can create this type of connection in 2026? The key is finding your voice. Here are a few things to consider when creating the social media voice of your pizzeria:
1. What does your brand represent?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. How do you want your audience to interact with your brand?
Your brand can represent anything; maybe it’s community, demographic or culture. For example, if you’re a native to your town/city, then focus on being a local. People love supporting brands that are sewn into the community. Say you played basketball at Johnson High, and you support the basketball team every year: instant connection!
Your audience should be a realistic representation of who actually eats your food. If your seats are filled with teens on Friday nights, you might want to consider using Tik Tok and Instagram instead of Facebook. In general, Gen Z and Millennials are on these two apps, and they need videos of less than 15-30 seconds to capture their attention.
The point of having social media is connecting with people and creating community. As a business, it’s a way of relating to your customers and putting butts in seats so you can keep your doors open.
Send the right message
It’s important to send the right message using the best tone for maximum brand engagement, Ideally, you want everyone to comment, like and share your posts. But if you don’t reach your target audience, you won’t benefit from using these applications to your full advantage.
To make sure you’ve got the right tools in place, think about your brand as a person – perhaps as a customer of yours. Imagine how they would talk, what type of language they would use (slang, acronyms, humor, sarcasm, etc.) and what food they would get excited about. Remember, this person can be you, but they also can be fictitious. A good rule of thumb is to create a persona that is not yourself so you can have separation from the brand.
Once you have this persona, consider how this character aligns with your concept. Think about how they would post on your social media accounts and what they would say about a particular menu item, special or your staff. Think about the emotional connection and what responses you may receive from your customers.
For the sake of this exercise, we’ll create a character: Jodi is 27 years old, just finished nursing school and loves music. She has a solid group of friends who meet up three times per week for meals, concerts or trivia night. Her favorite cuisine is Thai food, and she loves a good New York cheese slice.
As my imaginary face of socials, I’m going to consider how Jodi would post. For example, she might share cool photos of food, like the noodle pulls at her favorite Thai place with a book next to the bowl and the caption, “Catching up on (insert book title) with my fav (insert dish name) at (insert Thai place).” She would geo-tag the restaurant and mention the company in her tag so it could be shared to their page.
Jodi’s post is public so that friends and potential followers can comment and possibly push her content to more users. As a business, we want this interaction!
When it comes to pizza, Jodi would snag shots of your slice counter or create a reel of herself walking into the slice shop and greeting her favorite staff members before asking about the specials (even though she’s probably going to stick with her regular cheese slice). The raw footage will engage the audience, who wants to see what she does next. Jodi might caption this reel: “Grab lunch with me at the best slice shop in (insert town/city). I’m usually a cheese slice girly, but today I snagged the special … it’s absolute fire. Run, don’t walk! IYKYK”
Remember that Jodi is the customer, but she is also you. She speaks for the customer yet also sells to the customer. In essence, she is the brand.
Now, let’s take this example one step further and target the demographic. Jodi uses youthful slang to communicate with her friends – the same language she’d use in social posts to connect with other 27-year-olds. You wouldn’t see her post on Facebook because her age group isn’t there.
If Jodi were 45, however, she would post to Facebook once or twice daily with a photo of her favorite slice and caption it something like: “I love this cheese slice from (insert your pizzeria). I’ve been coming here for three years, and it never lets me down. If you haven’t tried this place, what are you waiting for?” Notice that the terminology is simple, suggestive and provides Jodi’s followers with a sense of this place.
No matter the age or story of your brand’s “character,” that person is speaking to potential customers, engaging with them using relatable language and opting for the most viable social media app to draw attention and build community.
For inspiration about how to connect with your customers and find your voice on social channels, here are a few accounts that do an outstanding job: @CaminoRealChevy, @VanWonderenStroopwafels, @Beis and @Chipotle.
Nicole Bean is co-owner and president of Houston-based Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana.
