Advertising a food truck business has its advantages over those businesses more rooted to an actual building; however, getting the word out about your meals-on-wheels business can take some extra work. One great marketing strategy is to provide your employees with mobile technology.

You Want Me to Do What?!

Granted, providing mobile technology to your staff may seem extravagant. But, if you set up a network system and guidelines with these devices, then you’ll be able to enjoy a whole new kind of marketing department.

More likely than not, everyone on your staff already has a mobile device and is addicted to social media. You can bet that at least some of your staff is part of the 67 percent of mobile phone owners that constantly check their phones for incoming texts, calls and emails even when they don’t get an alert, notes Pew Research Internet Project. Additionally, Adinch states that people check their phones 150 times a day (that’s once every 6 to 7 minutes).

So, instead of scolding your staff for using their phones at work, encourage them to use them to advertise the business. They can spread the word about today’s specials, your location and any rewards or deals on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This gets your brand out there two to four times more over social media, and those little breaks won’t irritate you as much.

Mobilize Your Mobile Business

It is predicted that by 2018, 70 percent of mobile technology owners will do their work from their personal mobile devices, claims Ascent Data. Thus, it is advantageous for you to get your staff on board with mobile advertising. Consider keeping your employees on a basic BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system, and offer to pay part of their phone bills in exchange for them implementing a certain amount of posts about the brand during their shifts.

If some of your employees aren’t equipped with mobile technology or have limited access to the Internet, one idea is to provide them with mobile phones. This benefits the workers because they receive a smartphone that can be used at work and at home, and it benefits you as the business owner because it enables them to do their job well and promote your business.

For example, the LG G Flex phone is a new smartphone that is ideal for mobile advertising. It features a 13-megapixel camera that can produce crisp shots at night and clear action shots, which makes for a great tool to capture an employee flipping your signature burger or posting a close-up of those awesome sweet potato fries. Photos and videos are proven gold mines with mobile advertising, and according to Social Media Examiner, posting a photo with your content over Twitter can boost your retweet potential by 35 percent. Furthermore, the G Flex is durable and flexes enough to withstand 88 pounds of pressure over 1,000 times, according to Consumer Report’s experiment. This makes it great for a chaotic work environment like a food truck where items may get dropped, knocked over or stepped on.

One caution, however, is that you’ll have to manage and monitor all of your business’ social media sites. You’ll need to watch for spam, negative feedback and inappropriate posts. Before adding your employees to the administrative list, set up guidelines as to what are acceptable and unacceptable posts.