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Intro to social media for QSRs
Workstream Blog

Intro to social media for QSRs

By Workstream

July 11, 2022 | 3 min read

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Today’s hourly workforce lives online. They share their lives, connect with their communities, and most importantly, search for information on social media. In fact, 79% of job seekers use social media during their job search, and 92% of companies are already using social media for hiring.

Quick-service restaurants have been slower to jump on the social media train. But with hiring a top challenge for restaurants nationwide, there’s never been a better time to start building up your social media presence and attracting employees to your business. 

4 steps to creating and maintaining a social media presence that attracts applicants 

1. Start with one social media page 

Social media is overwhelming, but everyone starts somewhere. If your QSR doesn’t have a social media page yet, create one. You don’t have to be on every single platform on day one. Pick a platform you think your target audience is on, and master it. 

TikTok is the trending social media platform, which has now surpassed Instagram in popularity among Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) in the United States. Users are also majority female, coming close to 61% for TikTok users in the U.S. 

On the other hand, Twitter is the most popular among Millenials, where men between 25-34 years of age make up the largest age demographic, followed by men between 35-49. 44% of U.S. adults aged 18-24 use Twitter. 

2. Master the platform you’re starting with 

The best way to know what gets attention on any social media platform is to get on it yourself and see what catches your eye. Create a personal account if you don’t have one already and start playing around. 

For example, you’ll notice that TikTok is filled with short-form video content and trendy music. Posts are short with attention-grabbing visuals and captions. Instagram allows single-photo posts (rather than purely video content) and provides more flexibility for lengthy captions, which is great for storytelling and explanations. 

We’ve curated tips for recruiting on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram to give you a headstart on the best strategies and features on each platform. 

3. Create content

Now that you know the types of posts that are successful on the platform you’ve selected, it’s time to start creating your own. Throwing up the equivalent of a “now hiring” sign is not going to get people to stop scrolling and pay attention to you.

Here are some tips:

1. Keep it simple: Use imagery with striking colors, photos, and designs that are consistent with your branding. Keep the words short on the image itself. 

2. Use platform-specific features: Many platforms have their own unique features. From Instagram Stories and Reels to Twitter Spaces and YouTube Shorts, these features help your content go out to non-followers’ explore pages, getting you in front of a larger audience.

3. Engage with the community: Post polls and Q&As to get your audience interacting with you. Remember to reply back as well so they feel like they’re talking to a person, not a corporation. 

4. Always include captions: Captions should be concise and include brand-relevant hashtags. The tone of the caption should also be in line with your brand personality. 

5. Add a call-to-action: Social media shouldn’t be a dead end. It should push people to keep engaging with your brand. Remember to always link the post back to your website or hiring page. 

6. Sponsor posts: Building a following organically takes time and patience. If you’d like to jump ahead, sponsored posts and paid ads are a way to pay to put your post in front of people outside your current follower base, increasing the chances you gain new followers.

4. Determine a posting schedule

if you’re starting from zero, your main goal is to build followers. Posting every day (or almost every day) gives you more opportunities for people to see your content. 

And while that frequency might sound time-consuming, it doesn’t have to be. There are many tools online that let you schedule posts in advance. Set aside some time once a week to schedule your content and it won’t feel like a daily burden.

Keep in mind that posting frequently in the early days is a good strategy as long as the content is good. If your posts are repetitive or boring, you could lose followers.

Social media will become second nature in no time 

After a while, creating compelling content, scheduling posts, engaging with your community, and sticking to a posting schedule will get easier and take you less time. Once you’ve successfully maintained your social media channel for six months, you can even start building up a second channel to attract more customers and prospective employees to your business.

If you want to learn more about how to use social media as a hiring tool for your QSR, check out this on-demand webinar with restaurant marketing specialist Bruce Irving. 

 
By Workstream
Workstream is the leading HR, Payroll, and Hiring platform for the hourly workforce. Its smart technology streamlines HR tasks so franchise and business owners can move fast, reduce labor costs, and simplify operations—all in one place. 46 of the top 50 quick-service restaurant brands—including Burger King, Jimmy John’s, Taco Bell—rely on Workstream to hire, retain, and pay their teams. Learn how you can better manage your hourly workforce with Workstream.

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Before we discuss the right to limit and the right to opt-out, we must first define personal information and how it relates to sensitive personal information.

Personal information is any data that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked to you or your household. A few examples of personal information include:

  • Name or nickname
  • Email address
  • Purchase history
  • Browsing history
  • Location data
  • Employment data
  • IP address
  • Profiles businesses create about you, including pseudonymous profiles (“user1234”)
  • Sensitive personal information

Sensitive personal information or “SPI” is a subset of personal information, defined as:

  • Identifying information (e.g. social security number, driver’s license)
  • Financial data (e.g. debit or credit card numbers)
  • Precise geolocation (within a radius of 1,850 feet)
  • Demographic or protected-class information (e.g. race/ethnicity, religion, union membership)
  • Biometric and genetic data (e.g. fingerprints, palm scans, facial recognition)
  • Communications and content (e.g. mail, email, text messages)
  • Health and sexual orientation (e.g. vaccine records, health history)

Right to Opt-Out

Californians have the right to opt-out of the sale and sharing of their personal information. That means you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties (e.g. data brokers, advertisers). You also have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information to prevent the targeting of ads across different businesses, websites, apps, or services.

CCPA-covered businesses must provide a link to allow you to exercise this right. It is usually found at the bottom of a webpage and will say “do not sell or share my personal information” or “your privacy choices.” Sometimes businesses offer privacy choices through a pop-up window or form

To opt-out of the sale and sharing of your personal information, click on the link or use the toggle provided by the business and follow the directions. Doing this on every website you visit can feel burdensome, but to ease the burden you can automatically select your privacy preferences for every website by using an opt-out preference signal, or OOPS for short.

An OOPS is a user-friendly and straightforward way for consumers to automatically exercise their right to opt-out of the sale and sharing of their personal information with the businesses they interact with online. An OOPS, such as the Global Privacy Control. It can either be a setting on your internet browser or a browser extension. With an OOPS, consumers do not have to submit individual requests to opt-out of sale or sharing with each business.

Right to Limit

Californians also have the right to direct businesses to limit the use and disclosure of their sensitive personal information.

Businesses covered under the CCPA must provide a link on their website that allows you to request the limiting of your SPI, if they plan on using it in certain ways. That link will also typically be at the bottom of a webpage and will say: “limit the use of my sensitive personal information” or “your privacy choices.” Once you send this request, the business must stop using your SPI for anything other than to:

  • Provide requested goods or services
  • Ensure security and integrity
  • Prevent fraud
  • Maintain system functionality
  • Comply with legal obligations

Bringing it Together

In summary, the CCPA gives you the right to opt-out of the sale and sharing of your personal information and gives you additional rights to further limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information.

When you exercise these rights together, you exert greater control in protecting your personal data which is important for your identity, safety, and financial health.

If you are on a business’s website and you can’t find the links to exercise your rights, remember to check their privacy policy. The privacy policy should tell you how you can exercise your rights under the law.

If you find your rights being violated, you can submit a complaint to CalPrivacy.

Next in the LOCKED series, we will explore the right to correct and right to know. Follow us on social media to get live updates or check back in one week for the next post.

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