Take Control Of Your Food Truck Social Media Marketing

As most experienced food truck owners can attest, Social Media Marketing is a must in their long list of daily tasks. Unfortunately, for new food truck owners, many are still struggling to fully understand the power of social media marketing for their food truck. I speak with a lot of new food truck owners, and more often than not, they aren’t sure where to even begin when it comes to social media marketing.

Should I just copy what the other trucks do? Or post picture after picture of employees doing funny things? And how do you even begin to measure ROI? If you count yourself among the many food truckers that are a little put off by social media marketing, don’t worry about it . Social media marketing is not that hard to gain control of.

3 Steps To Take Control Of Your Food Truck Social Media Marketing

Set sensible expectations

Social media marketing is not the secret to unlocking millions in food truck revenue. Instead, look at it as an inexpensive, useful way to connect with your customers. It is understandable that you would like to track its ROI; but remember that there is no magical formula such as every re-tweet gets you another dollar in sales.

Social media marketing has less to do with direct customer sales, but more to do with increasing your food truck’s brand recognition. The great part is that this will eventually lead to increased food truck sales.

When you first start out into social media marketing it can seem like you’re talking to yourself. I always suggest to new food trucks to start with the big three food truck social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). Then start talking to people. Find others in their local food truck market, talk to them, and engage with the wider community. Give users (prospective customers) a reason to follow you, and they will. It doesn’t take long before people begin telling you they’re seeing you everywhere.

Use social media to talk to people

Social media is, first and foremost, a place to communicate with your customers. It’s perfectly acceptable to use it to plug sales and market your food truck business. Just remember that you shouldn’t look at social media as your digital billboard. People will want to interact with your food truck profile. Also take the initiative and talk to other people across the country in the mobile food industry.

Social media marketing is fast becoming an indispensable networking tool. Share content, and interact with people. You’ll find your presence grows faster than if you use social media solely to flood your followers with updates about your next location.

Grow a thick skin

Whatever you do, don’t let anger get the best of you. At times it can seem hopeless since you want your web presence to be as close to spotless as you can get it. After all, plenty of potential customers are going to be looking at your profile. Facebook and Twitter are not the best places to resolve problems. It’s easy to get drawn into a public battle on social media.

When you receive a complaint (it happens to the best), try as hard as you can to take the problem offline. Look them up, send them a private e-mail, ask them to call you. Do anything in your power to keep from giving an issue more public attention than it needs.

The Bottom Line

Social media marketing can be confusing. Very few food truckers have any sort of training in new media. But you can handle it, as long as you remain patient, produce good content, talk with customers, and stay calm. Your food truck’s early online presence will be small, but if you begin to network and share good, useful content with the right people, your brand presence will grow. A solid, positive, active social media presence is exactly what your potential customers are going to want to see.

Are you a new food truck owner? We’d love to hear how you’ve begun your social media marketing for your truck. Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter