SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR FOOD TRUCK OWNERS
Murray Hillbilly, a vegan and gluten-free food truck launched in November of 2017 in Jacksonville, FL. Just over a year later owners Da-Vi Em and Ryan Strandjord transitioned the business from truck to restaurant, with their permanent location now residing in the Murray Hill at 1044 Edgewood Ave S. With an extensive background in marketing and social media outreach, it was Ryan’s task to boost the company’s social media strategies upon joining the company in mid 2018.
Tell a story. It was evident early on that people were interested in more than just the food. As an all-vegan food truck in a not-so-vegan-friendly city we were attracting a niche market who was intrigued by us as business owners, but also each other as customers. The more we showcased our faces, our personality quirks, our passion for the business, the more people engaged with us.
Pictures on Facebook and Instagram are great, video clips on Instagram Stories were even better. It helped people who had never met us feel like they knew us, and that familiarity carried over when they visited the truck for the very first time. These practices pushed us to feature ourselves in the feed on both platforms as well and in this way we were able to carry on conversations upon first meeting people like we were already friends!
Through featuring our customers on our feeds it also helped our followers to see what a diverse crowd we were bringing in. Because the vegan scene operates on the fringe here, it can be hard to know as an outsider if you’ll fit in or not. By seeing that people from all walks of life were coming up to the truck, smiling with their food as they posed for pictures or speaking kind words about their experience in short video clips, our followers started to understand our menu was a hit with everyone.
Select your platforms carefully. I can’t really stress this enough. Personally, I don’t like Twitter. I’m a visual storyteller so it doesn’t fit well with my style, so we never used it. Instagram and Facebook are much more my jam.
Facebook is wonderful because the Events feature is an easy way for people to understand where/when you’ll be setup, and the events you create are shared in a number of “public” spaces on Facebook so your ability to reach thousands of people with each one are quite realistic. Seriously, if you’re gonna setup somewhere make a Facebook event page for it, and have your events for the next 2–3 weeks listed out. This is vital.
Instagram is a great way to showcase your food because of the way your feed is laid out on your profile. Invest time in creating drool-worthy images and your feed becomes a de-facto social media menu. We literally had customers coming up to the truck holding out their phones saying this is what they wanted. If you don’t know how to take amazing food pictures do some research online, or hire someone who does to teach you how. It’s really not that hard if you have a little bit of time, a decent smartphone, and good light. Also, avoid using graphics in your feed. People like Instagram because it doesn’t have all the ads the rest of the internet and most social media platforms have, so by using graphic/text heavy images you’re surely to see a big drop in engagement and follower growth. Trust me on that. Or do your own research and come to the same conclusion. You’ll grow faster focusing on appealing images of your food (and people, see #1 above).
If you want to take your social media strategy to the next level dive into creating Instagram Stories. It’s a wonderful way to showcase the day-to-day activities of your truck as they happen in the moment. The spontaneous and intimate feel these images/video clips can possess generate an affinity with your followers you can’t easily replicate anywhere else. Make it fun, showcase your personality quirks, be goofy, but most important of all be yourself. And if you’re really camera shy hire someone who isn’t to work with you, or simply get over it. I’d recommend the latter. Also spend time creating images with fun GIFs that showcase your schedule for the week. Do the same with your menu. Find a good balance between the personal and informative content streams. Have someone on your team talk up your top menu item in a video clip, then post a fire image of it with the name prominent in the image.
Do your research. This is so crucial and should not be skipped until you feel like you have a handle on the entire process, which only occurs with a great deal of experience. Even then, do your research. Steal from the best. Literally. Look at how other trucks are showcasing their food and to the same thing with yours. Did someone come up with a clever way to highlight their events on Instagram Stories? Copy them. Notice another truck launch a very successful giveaway post on Instagram, do the exact same thing. Seriously. This doesn’t have to be rocket science. Study from those who are farther along than you are and test what works from them with your followers to develop best practices. You’ll only figure this out through repetition and you may as well start with ideas you know work well in the wild.
Plan out the content you’d like to create. I use a calendar, or more specifically I have a spreadsheet with dates, asset titles, post copy, hashtags, theme, etc. This helps me to look at our approach over time and makes our feed feel less reactive. Through this system we’re able to plan out which assets we’re going to be using on specific dates, and helps us understand where there are holes. If you’re adding a new menu item next week, take a picture several days before to tease it out. Have a big milestone coming up, make sure you have an image that pairs well with it. You should be continually organizing images you’ve taken for your business in a folder that’s easily accessible. Telling a compelling story is as much about content creation as it is curation.
Don’t link your Instagram and Facebook accounts. I know a lot of entrepreneurs do this, but I am vehemently against it. It may prove some short term gains for your company early on, but over time those returns will diminish significantly. More importantly, if you’re only really paying attention to one platform, but posting on two of them, there’s a whole community of people you are ignoring. When people comment on your posts you need to interact with them. When they ask questions in direct messages you need to reply. If they are posting about and tagging your business, show them some love! Yes, this does take up more of your time by devoting time to more platforms, but if will pay off if you’re diligent. After all you want your business to be a success, right?
