Building Your Personal Brand On Twitter

If you want to transmit a one-way message to your food truck customers, a billboard is one option. Radio or newspaper ads work as well. However, if your goal is to build your personal brand and food truck business around loyal customers, a better option is to use a marketing channel like Twitter, where engagement is one-to-many and one-on-one.

7 Tips For Building Your Personal Brand On Twitter:

State your name. Include the name of the owner of the food truck in the truck’s bio by name. This will help when your Tweets start with “I” to make a little more sense and be more meaningful.
Use your business as a canvas. If you have a smartphone, you’re officially obligated to post photos. Is there something new on your menu? Are you preparing food in your commercial kitchen? What’s on the menu today? How full is the line of your truck? These are all opportunities for photo bragging rights.
Actively listen. Use social media monitoring tools to chime in when someone talks about you. Don’t let a mention go unnoticed or unappreciated. Always try to respond when people talk to you, even if you aren’t thrilled with their message.
Be a voice, not an echo. Cross posting to both Twitter & Facebook, or having Facebook feed into Twitter is the biggest pet peeve of Twitter users. Use each platform separately and to their greatest individual strengths.
Jump in on hashtags. There are a lot of Tweet chats and hashtags to join. There’s #foodtruckchat for discussing your truck and issues around it.
Be their guide. Your customers are following you because they think you’re cool, they like your food truck, and they want to hear about specials. Be a resource to them about the topics related to your mobile food business and the food truck industry in your area.
Provide customer service. Listen to what your customers are saying on Twitter, and respond to them no matter what the feedback. It’s just like how in real life a great service window attendant can get someone to buy half the menu, while a poor one sends customers off to their next destination quickly. Resolve complaints, and be gracious of compliments.

The Bottom Line

One of the biggest hurdles that anyone who’s just joined Twitter will come across is the question of how to interact. However, for food truck owners, the question is more complex. This is because you’ll need to build a digital personal brand that acts as both a brand and a likable person.

Do you have any additional tips for food truck owners that want to build their personal brand by getting more personal on Twitter? Share your ideas in the comment section below or on social media. Facebook | Twitter

By Richard Myrick|2019-02-07T08:51:25-05:00Feb 7, 2019|Social Media|

About the Author: Richard Myrick

Richard Myrick is an architect by degree (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan) who began his career in real estate development and architectural planning. In September of 2010 he created Mobile Cuisine Magazine to fill an information void he found when he began researching how to start a mobile hotdog cart in Chicago. Richard found that there was no central repository of mobile street food information anywhere on the internet, and with that, the idea for MCM was born. Richard also wrote the "Running a Food Truck for Dummies" available in bookstores everywhere and Amazon. You can reach out to Richard by email at: [email protected].