4 Social Media Lessons From Tallahassee Food Truck

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Before John, my husband-to-be, and I started our food truck in 2010, I cyber-stalked food trucks on the West Coast and in New York City to find out how they were using Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

For the most part, they posted their daily routes and specials of the day, and while that alone attracted them hundreds of customers, I knew that wouldn’t fly for us.

Our town, Tallahassee, is mostly known for politics and football, and certainly doesn’t have the population of cities like Los Angeles and NYC. We knew we were going to have to get creative.

Though we were early adopters of Twitter and used Facebook when it was just a site for college students (the wonder years), up until 2010 we were merely bystanders of the social media sphere. But the food truck forced us to not only become active participants, but content creators, too. Here are four of the most valuable lessons Lazarus, our food truck, taught us about social media.

1. SoLo is the Motto

SoLo (not to be confused with YOLO), a combination of social media and location-based technology, is the motto for food trucks.

2. Get Creative

Most brands recognize that a part of the whole social media strategy is to engage fans — and that often means getting their feedback or crowdsourcing.

3. Nail Customer Service

“The wait for @CravingsTruck is ridiculous!!!! I’m never coming back here again.” “@CravingsTruck gave me a chargrilled red velvet waffle.” I remember seeing tweets like this and panicking.