Pizza Today - May 2018 - 18

Man on the Street
SCOTT WIENER

food do the talking. And make sure
you tag local food accounts, press and
colleagues in the image and tack on
some hashtags to draw more people
into your feed.

If You Pic It - We Will Come
Pretty food pictures are key

wo chef friends were recently
talking about what I imagine they
always talk about - how to stay
relevant in an increasingly fickle food
world. The conversation was interesting
because the two participants exist at
opposite ends of the career spectrum. One
is quite famous, with a history of successful
restaurants, an active consulting career and
some major television appearances under
her belt. The other chef, whose restaurant
experience is extremely limited, recently left
the marketing world to open his first restaurant in New York City. They talked a bit
about food, service and staffing, but the real
takeaway for him was her suggestion that
he "Instagram the hell out of everything"
he's doing.
The degree of surprise from this former
marketer upon hearing that he needs to
do a better job marketing his restaurant
really hit me. I can only imagine how many

1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / M AY 2 0 1 8

pizzeria owners must be equally oblivious
to the fact that, beyond producing quality
food, they are in the marketing business.
Judging by the pizzeria Instagram
accounts I see every day, it's clear that
there's a disconnect between what operators
think their customers want to see and what
we actually want.
On the simplest level, pretty food pictures are key. Instagram users scroll through
their feeds, stopping at images that stick
out. Stock images of pizza are a total no-no
and flat coupon text is just boring. Give
us real shots of your real food; if you pic it
we will come. Your phone probably has a
decent enough camera for on-the-fly posts,
so there's no need to go crazy with a professional setup. Just bring the pizza over to the
window for some delicious natural light,
turn off the flash and snap away. Watch out
for shadows and make sure you're in focus.
No need to go crazy with filters, let the

INSTAGRAM HAS SOME KILLER
VIDEO OPTIONS YOU ABSOLUTELY
MUST USE. You can post a video up to
60 seconds in length, which appears in
your followers' feeds. Today I watched
a pizza maker pull wet dough out of
a storage bin after bulk fermentation.
It was engaging because it showed
me the degree of care he puts into
his dough. After watching that video,
I'm more inclined to recommend the
pizzeria.
Even more interesting is Instagram's
Stories tool. This lets you post a series
of one- to 15-second videos that vanish after 24 hours. Unlike the photos
and videos that appear directly in your
followers' feeds, stories fill the entire
device screen once clicked. You can
embed text, filters and tags to these. If
you have a business account with over
10k followers, you can even embed a
link so users can purchase the delicious pizza they just saw in your post.
Now that people are accustomed to
seeing food shows on every network,
they want to see what is happening in
your kitchen.
In the case of my former marketer
friend with a young NYC restaurant,
he should be Instagramming the hell
out of his gelato-making process. He
should be Instagramming the hell
out of his starter feeding routine. He
should be Instagramming the hell out
of the mill he uses to produce fresh
flour every day. If you're not blabbing
about it on your menu, on your walls
or in the press, nobody will ever know
it's happening.

JOSH KEOWN

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - May 2018