Have you ever ate at a restaurant and watched the table next to you hold up a camera light and take a million photos of the food while the food gets cold? If you live in a big city like New York City, you’ve probably witnessed a food Instagram influencer trying to get the perfect shot. Or if you’ve eaten with someone like me, you’ve probably rolled your eyes waiting for the okay to start eating. New York City is a treasure chest for foodies, but more importantly is home to thousands of food Instagram influencers.
With an Instagram account with over 10K followers, I get invited to restaurant openings, attend launch parties, receive packages and deliveries from food companies, stacks of gift cards and have consumed plenty of meals on the house. I am what the industry calls a micro-influencer, someone who does not have a huge following, but has an engaged following. Food is a passion of mine. Food Instagram-ing for me is a hobby, not a job, so I really don’t care if I get paid or not or how many invites I get. However, maintaining an Instagram account is not easy. Followers can be fickle and you have to keep them engaged. There are a million other food accounts so why follow mine? Staying top of mind in a saturated market is difficult. I have to keep the photos top notch and the content fresh and relevant and continue to engage regularly to “beat” the Instagram algorithm. When school and work gets busy for me and I don’t go on Instagram for a few days, there’s a clear drop-off in Instagram engagement, so constant maintenance is key, whether that is spending half an hour a day commenting or making sure to post at least every other day. It’s a love hate relationship. I love getting free omakase but with it comes a price of capturing great content and sharing it.
So how effective is it for restaurants to work with influencers like me? Well, it is probably the cheapest and most effective method to target a specific group of consumers. Younger, well educated, high earning millennials that live in the city is not a bad audience for restaurants. That is why micro-influencers can sometimes be more attractive than macro-influencers that have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers. For restaurants, they key is finding the right influencers to work with, and the upfront research is crucial to getting the best ROI. Today, there's food influencers, beauty influencers, fashion influencers, lifestyle influencers, travel influencers, you name it. Influencer marketing is party of everyone companies strategy. As a result, Instagram has been fighting back with requirements on posts to have #ad and #sponsored etc, as influencers take away from Instagram revenue.
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