Taco Truck Twitters To International Stardom
You check your cell and a Twitter text message reads: “Kogi truck at the Brig around 10:40”. When the Kogi truck arrives on the scene, there’s a long line of hungry customers waiting. How does a couple of obscure L.A. Korean taco trucks become internationally known? Through the combination of modern 21st century technology and the almost primitive simplicity of a “Tweet”(brief message) on Twitter. Two Kogi trucks in Los Angeles serve a fusion of Mexican tacos and Korean barbecue, and have successfully marketed their business by using Twitter as a kind of internet bulletin to “Tweet”customers with of the latest menu items and the trucks location. Now Kogi BBQ has over 17,000 followers on Twitter, that’s a lot of customers for two taco trucks.
From New York to Los Angeles, these street wagons have become the latest Foodie craze serving high-end fast food to taste savvy consumers. For Foodies this is light years away from the bland quick fix of Burger King or McDonald’s. For Kogi, it’s free high powered brand street marketing that corporate take-outs can only dream of. “McDonald’s Corp and Burger King do not yet have corporate Twitter accounts. Representatives for the companies said explorations are ongoing”.
Starbucks Corp has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter. According to Reuters, “Michael Breed, senior marketing manager at Brinker International Inc’s Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant, has attracted more than 3,000 followers since mid-February with help from small giveaways. Quinn Hatfield, of Hatfield’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, tweets the ins and outs of creating dishes, punctuated with the occasional mouth-watering picture. In another part of town, Tender Greens’ co-owner Erik Oberholtzer uses Twitter to keep tabs on hardcore fans and to take online marketing to the next level. Rush Street’s Nick Kaufman likes to reward people who tweet while they are dining at the Culver City eatery with things like free drinks”
“There is nothing faster for communicating than Twitter,” said Aaron Allen, chief executive of restaurant consulting firm Quantified Marketing Group. “You have to be a complete moron to ignore it”
But like Reuters’ Lisa Baertlein points out, there’s also nothing faster to bring a restaurant down, as Domino’s Pizza recently discovered after a Domino employee prank became YouTube’s latest viral video hit. To mitigate the damage, Domino’s launched a Twitter account.
“It [Twitter] serves as a bellwether for mainstream blog conversations,” said Shiv Singh, global social media head at advertising and marketing firm Razorfish.
“It does take time and effort and care and feeding,” said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing company. “If you go silent it shows. It’s like not answering the phone.”
The use of Twitter is a great way for restaurants to communicate and build a customers base, but for attracting instant customer recognition to begin with you can’t beat sites like FriendsEat. With our own succinct Tweet-style reviews, we serve as a world-wide hub for Foodies seeking restaurants or restaurants seeking Foodies. The FriendsEAT network is international and welcomes everyone to join. People from all different corners of the world discuss their favorite restaurants, cuisines, cooking methods, recipes, restaurant reviews, Foodie blogs, videos and even forum questions.
Korean tacos served up via Twitter