11 Mar Food Trucks Share Social Media Tips [SXSW Panel]
The food truck phenomenon has been spreading across America recently in large part due to social media. I sat in on a fantastic panel with three contestants from Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race: Daniel Shemtob of Lime Truck, Stephanie Morgan of Seabirds Truck, and James DiSabatino of Roxy’s Grilled Cheese. The panel discussed how essential social has been to their success. I live-blogged the event earlier this morning. Start at the bottom and work your way up and it will be just like you were there!
10:30 am – I asked the panel about instances when their customers comments had an affect on their business. Shemtob commented about a time he immediately fired an employee because of a bad review.
10:20 am – DiSabatino – doesn’t really measure his analytics, doesn’t feel like you can really quantify relationships with his followers
10:13 am – DiSabatino – has noticed how restaurants that have opened food trucks have been nearly as good, seems to be a lack of passion
10:08 am – Shemtob – at the beginning, they changed their menu every day, so you had to follow them to know what they had on their menu
10:06 am – Morgan – Avoid politics at all costs. Innocently posted a picture of some Occupy protestors, which then caused a political discussion on her Facebook page.
10:05 am – Panel scoffs at the idea of using Groupon. Much more valuable to build long term than offer a few dollars off.
10:03 am – Morgan – She tries to be proactive with your fans (ex: thanks them for visiting her truck before they tweet about it).
10:02 am – Shemtob – The were barred from using social media during the show, but because of their fans, there were huge lines at the locations that they showed up at.
9:59 am – Morgan – Uses Facebook for general updates, photos. Uses Twitter for one-on-one interaction. Much better to use a few social media avenues really well than struggling to update many.
9:58 am – Shemtob – “Yelp is THE MOST powerful tool.” Gets catering business from people who have never seen his truck on the show or follow it on Twitter.
9:56 am – Morgan searches for things like “vegan” and “sustainable” on Twitter, starts following the people who tweet about those things and they follow back
9:54 am – Shemtob – reaches out to food bloggers, reads Yelp reviews, always retweets people who talk about them
9:53am – Morgan and her crew (the birds) made a lip dub of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” just for fun, was extremely successful with her fans. Emphasized not always executing social media efforts with some goal in mind. Just do something fun and creative and if it’s good enough, your fans will share it.
9:49 am – Morgan – a lot of her customers know all the crew by name because of her social media efforts
9:47 am – DiSabatino – does his own social media because of trust reasons (tone was somewhat tongue-in-cheek but also somewhat serious)
9:46 am – Shemtob – even though he switched over, says it’s very important to start it yourself so you know your business and the fanbase
9:45 am – Morgan – manages all social herself, “My brand is an extension of me and my personality.”
9:44 am – Shemtob – used to manage his own social media but there were so many gramatical errors he switched over control to a friend and blogger
9:43 am – DiSabatino – the way he got attention was from transparency, sourcing food, how it’s prepped, all the trials and tribulations associated with the business
9:41 am – Why is social media so important to food trucks?
- Shemtob – ability to tell people where you are located
- Morgan – ability to share pictures on Facebook and Twitter; has seen so much more engagement from showing produce, dishes, crew, etc.
9:39 am – James DiSabatino – Before the Great Food Truck Race aired, there was no infrastructure in the city of Boston that supported Food Trucks. Now that’s all changed. Shows how social can affect legislation to aid businesses.
9:38 am – Food trucks have a culture similar to start-ups in that they have a much lower barrier to entry than restaurants and use digital forums to establish an audience.
9:36 am – Guest speakers are Daniel Shemtob (Lime Truck), Stephanie Morgan (Seabirds Truck), James DiSabatino (Roxy’s Grilled Cheese), and panel host Bob Madden (General Manager and Senior Vice President for the Digital Food Category at Scripps Networks Interactive).
9:34 am – Panel begins with showing a clip from Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race.
