Instagram Influencers

This week, Like Bite & Share is being taken over by NYC food Instagrammers. Our roundtable discussion from some of New York’s most popular culinary Instagram account holders will equip you with the knowledge you need to take Inastagram by storm.

  • Alexa Mehraban is the brains behind the Instagram account EatingNYC. In under two years she has amassed over 130,000 followers, collaborated with national food publications, has been featured in Cosmopolitan, AMNew York, and the Wall Street Journal, and now works as the Social Media Manager at Bullfrog & Baum, a hospitality marketing agency that in the interest of full disclosure represents our sponsor Schweid & Sons.
  • Rayna Greenberg runs the OneHungryJew account on Instagram. Her account has shown exponential growth since starting in earnest less than a year ago. Rayna is now a Product Launch Specialist for Amazon Restaurants, Amazon’s Prime Now-based restaurant delivery service which is in the process of launching in 20 major metropolitan areas across the U.S.
  • Dara Pollak has been making people hungry with her SkinnyPigNYC blog for over seven years, and has just about doubled her Instagram following in the last three months from 10 to 20 thousand followers. She recently published her first article on Food Network’s blog.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Like Bite & Share is a podcast about marketing in the food business. Each episode includes an insightful interview with food marketing professionals.

SHOW NOTES

Key Takeaways:

  • There’s no set amount of followers to hit before you start putting yourself out there to PR firms and restaurants. The important thing to do is keep up momentum on your account, and eventually the firms and restaurants will begin reaching out to you.
  • Posting a photo here and there that you know won’t get the same level of engagement as your more popular photos is okay, as long as your voice is consistent and you’re telling a story with the photo that is worth telling.
  • It’s tempting and desirable to post more about one’s self when running a food account, but knowing that the followers care more about food than about the person behind the account, it can be scary and difficult to make that leap.
  • Knowing that posts about the person behind the account will perform more poorly than food posts is likely to make you hesitate to do that. However, doing so could make your follower base more loyal because they have a better idea about who you are.
  • Responding to as many comments as possible is also a great way to build a strong connection with your followers.
  • Taking consistently strong photos is a great way to grow your followers.
  • When starting out, finding a prominent food-related hashtag and engaging with photos and users that use that hashtag is a good way to get their attention and create a community of relevant followers. Liking photos from the Explore page on Instagram has the same effect.
  • While buying likes and followers could make your account look appealing to new followers and to brands who don’t know how to identify that that is happening, the long-term detriment of trying to game the system probably outweighs the short-term benefits.
  • Brands and restaurants are usually looking to increase awareness rather than increase their follower count when they do takeovers with Instagram influencers. It’s rare that they will expect a certain increase in likes and followers to their account when working with an influencer.
  • Getting paid to review or post about a restaurant turns a review or a post into an advertisement, which is a grey area ethically. A more transparent way to make money on Instagram is to post about a product and make it clear that it is a sponsored post.
  • Even if your meal is comped, you must tip.
  • If you eat multiple dishes at a restaurant, it’s smart to bank photos and use them at a later date. It reminds people about the restaurant and let’s you change things up in a way that you can plan for.
  • It’s hard to pinpoint the best time of day to post, but posting more than once a day keeps you fresh in your followers’ feeds, and posting at times when people probably aren’t socializing will likely get you more likes.
  • To take better photos, eat close to the window during the day, making use of natural light. Have patience; it might take a dozen shots before you get the one that works. If it’s night, have someone else light your photo before using the flash function on your iPhone. Don’t hesitate to use photo enhancing apps and the gear functions on Instagram.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Learn more about Alexa Mehraban:

Learn more about Rayna Greenberg:

Learn more about Dara Pollak: