WHAT THE TRUCKERS SAY
Tamara Jensen
El GastronÓmo Vagabundo
Tamara Jensen, co-owner and operations of El GastronÓmo Vagabundo developed a social media page before even starting the business. She states, “we started using social media before opening our food truck just to see who was talking about street food and to see what type of events were out there.”
Social media is Jensen’s number one marketing method for her business to get the message out immediately and to keep people updated. She states, “we get people almost everyday who say we found you on twitter. People will most pictures and tag us on Instagram or Facebook—so it’s instantaneous feedback. It is an easy way to ask a question and get an answer.” Without a website, El GastronÓmo Vagabundo is going strong with their social media pages. Not only has it provided their business as a great interaction tool among customers, but also caught the eye of Food Network television show Eat Street. People track their truck from all over the world and travel from different countries just to try their food. They have even had customers come all the way from India to try their food. Jenson modestly states, “we have been fortunate to be appearing in various media consistently since we opened for one reason or another, so it’s just keeping out name out there.”
Jensen utilizes Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to interact with their fans. Jensen states, “we don’t do any traditional marketing. We’ve never done a print ad, television or radio—everything is very organic.” Jensen believes that Twitter has been the number one social media platform for her business. She states, “Facebook is great for sharing event information and photos and that sort of thing but in terms of day to day operations Twitter has been number one.” Jensen makes it a point to create a relationship with her customers through her social media pages by trying to engage discussion. She believes it is essential to keep the businesses name out there. She says, “I try to be very diligent with answering peoples questions and following up comments. I answer 99% if not 100% of people.” With such a large and loyal “foodie” following, Jenson has her work cut out for her.
Jensen shared her observations of a community growing within the food truck industry with competitors teaming up. She explains, “lots of trucks collaborating together and getting together in different cities for events and not just relying on trade shows and carnivals.
Kevin Finch
Big Grill Catering & BBQ and Kevin’s Burger Obsession
Kevin Finch, owner of Big Grill Catering & BBQ and Kevin’s Burger Obsession, discusses the importance of social media for promoting major food truck events and rallies, as well as everyday locations. He states, “ social Media is very important as far as rallies and events because there are so many food trucks accounts out there so it’s good to keep fans up to date on locations.” Food truck events are usually tracked with the use of hashtags so users can engage in the conversation and see what is going on.
Finch also uses a website when promoting Kevin’s Burger Obsession, always ensuring that their website is high in the rankings. Each of his social media pages have a link to his website, and vice versa. Other than his website, social media is the only marketing and advertising used for Kevin’s Burger Obsession.
With social media being the significant supplier of food truck information, there are more food truck fans within a younger age bracket. Finch outlines, “ We generally have a younger crowd that follows us on social media—there is not a large demographic of older people.”
Finch states that Twitter is his social media tool of choice. The reason is due to the short and simple access through mobile phones for people on the go. He says, “Twitter is a lot easier for people to use on mobile devices. It makes it easier to follow posts.”
Terrilea Pitton
Southern Smoke Truck
Social Media pages are typically the first step in launching a food truck business. Terrilea Pitton, owner and special events coordinator from Southern Smoke Truck, stated “when we realized we were going to launch the truck the same day we created a Facebook page and a Twitter handle.”
The Southern Smoke House website launch came a few weeks after they started their food truck business. Their website further articulates the location of the truck with the use of an embedded Google Calendar to outline their schedule. Southern Food Truck also takes their website on the go with the use of iPhone technology. Pitton outlines, “On our iPhones we have a dashboard that shows us the views on our website, a hit counter on a site is a thing of the past so it’s just for us to see.” Over the last year the Southern Smoke House website has had an explosive view count, especially on the menu page. This was the only marketing investment venture made by Southern Smoke House that had a cost attached to it and Pitton speaks very highly of this decision, and would recommend it to any food truck starting up.
Pitton raves about the visual and interactive ways of the web. When enough buzz is created around a page it attracts more attention to the business. Pitton describes the typical process of a new fan, “When you can have people write on your page all of these great things about your food it’s a feel good thing but it’s also a visual thing for other people who are like ‘what’s southern smoke all about? Let me put them in Google’ and then you see Facebook, Twitter, Website.”
Another essential tool Pitton outlines is the Street Food Toronto App. With this app users have the ability to search for their favourite food truck schedule and location. Not only is this helpful for food truck fans, it also benefits the owners. It costs absolutely nothing to be on the app, and has the ability to bring in crowds. Pitton states, “The Street Food Toronto App is a huge value and there is no charge to the food trucks to be on it, so as far as Facebook, Twitter and the Street Food app, they are all huge tools for where the food trucks are.” With the app, users have the ability to mark their favourite food trucks. This gives the user easy access to information about a trucks location that day. Pitton outlines, “the app will pull up their favourite trucks and then it shows you when we are open and you can map a route to us, which is quite effective.”
As a food truck just starting out, Pitton emphasizes the importance of building contacts within the industry. Southern Smoke Truck developed a relationship with well renowned Hamilton food truck Gorilla Cheese. With a huge social media following, once Gorilla Cheese followed Southern Smoke Truck on twitter they were beginning to gain a following. Pitton reflects, “We introduced ourselves to the Gorilla Cheese crew and engaged in some fun banter between our account and theirs, and all the sudden it was like new follower, new follower, new follower, it was wild actually.”
image courtesy of: www.facebook.com/elgastro
image courtesy of: www.facebook.com/elgastro
image courtesy of: www.twitter.com/KevinsBurgerObs
image courtesy of: www.twitter.com/SouthernSmokeTk
image courtesy of: www.facebook.com/SouthernSmokeTruck