{"id":17345,"date":"2023-10-25T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/?p=17345"},"modified":"2024-03-19T15:01:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T20:01:03","slug":"how-to-become-a-foodie-influencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/food-entrepreneurship\/how-to-become-a-foodie-influencer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Food Influencer"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you said you wanted to be an influencer 15 years ago, you\u2019d get some very confused looks. But today, becoming a food influencer isn\u2019t only possible, it\u2019s also a potentially lucrative endeavor.<\/p>\n

The chance to create exciting content for viewers or readers, build relationships with brands you love, and control your own daily activities is appealing to many. However, making your meals look perfect isn\u2019t as easy as the top influencers make it look!<\/p>\n

For one thing, to be influential in a topic of interest, you have to establish some form of authority and credibility. We’ll talk about how you can do that in a moment, but for now, if you have dreams of living the life of a food influencer, here are the steps you should take to get started.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\u201c<\/div>\n\t\t\t \u201cWhen I first started posting on Instagram, this was a creative outlet because I was a stressed lawyer. I don\u2019t think the word \u2018influencer\u2019 existed then. When I heard it for the first time, I was like, \u2018What is that?\u2019 Someone was like, \u2018You\u2019re an influencer.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019 This was definitely not something I envisioned. I think that\u2019s okay.\u201d*\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Nisha\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNisha Vora<\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFood Influencer and Founder of Rainbow Plant Life\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n

Select Your Style and Build Your Brand<\/h2>\n

There are several unique types of creators under the umbrella of \u201cfood influencer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some influencers develop their own recipes<\/a> and share corresponding instructions and photos online. Others promote local restaurants and take mouthwatering pictures of chef-prepared dishes. And some combine food with travel, jet-setting across the world to find the best food in every country.<\/p>\n

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Honing your personal style can help you create a unique brand people will recognize.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many also choose to focus on specific niches like vegan restaurants<\/a>, local coffee shops, or quick, weeknight recipes. Selecting a narrow niche can help you connect more intimately with your target audience. If you share gluten-free recipes, for example, you can become a go-to influencer for people with gluten intolerances. If you\u2019re all about the latest superfood fads, you could carve your niche in that area as people engage with your content.<\/p>\n

As you figure out what interests you and what might become your niche, you should always be thinking about branding. The more you know about how you want to present yourself to the world \u2014 a color palette, a logo, etc. \u2014 the more readily an audience will recognize your work and remember you. When Dan Pelosi, food influencer and founder of GrossyPelosi, talks about his brand, you can hear how clearly he understands it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of it is driven by my aesthetic. It\u2019s colorful. It\u2019s bright. It\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s very imperfect. I think that is what creates my brand. It\u2019s playful. I think about not just what the food will look like, but what I\u2019m going to serve it in. What the linens, what the knife, what the fork, what the whole experience is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choose Your Medium<\/h2>\n

Once you\u2019ve decided what type of content you\u2019ll create, you need to decide how to share it. There are a variety of platforms out there that you can use to build your audience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A written blog on your own website will let you go in-depth with descriptions, explanations, and storytelling, since there\u2019s no word limit. Plus, you can customize the look of the site with your own designs.<\/p>\n

On YouTube, you can make detailed \u201chow-to\u201d videos to demonstrate cooking techniques, or you can take your followers with you as you eat your way across your city.<\/p>\n

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A critical part of establishing your influencer brand is selecting a medium, like video or images.<\/p><\/div>\n

A food podcast<\/a> is a great way to interview cooks and chefs, dive into food science, share food pairing tips, and more. Plus, your listeners can follow along as they complete prep work in their kitchens or commute to work.<\/p>\n

On social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, you can post photos and videos of your recipes or meals you eat. Instagram is popular with food influencers and restaurants alike, due to its highly visual nature. If you hope to do collaborations with restaurants, consider using Instagram!<\/p>\n

Instagram is where food blogger Nishi Vora started posting photos<\/a> before her brand, Rainbow Plant Life, took off. \u201cI started posting photos of food I was cooking on Instagram back in 2016 when Instagram was a very different platform,\u201d observed Nisha. \u201cIt started to take off. People were inspired by what I was making or interested in what I was doing. I started to grow to the point where I thought, \u2018Maybe I can channel this budding Instagram account into a job of some sort.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

TikTok is another very popular social media platform, exclusively for short-form videos. Limited to under a minute, these videos are ultra-digestible. Particularly loved among the age 16-24 crowd, this may be a good platform for younger users trying to reach their own demographic.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind you\u2019re not limited to one platform. In fact, a multi-platform approach is often better for reaching a larger audience. You may decide to start a cooking blog and use Facebook to build a following and promote your blog.<\/p>\n

If you have a YouTube channel, you could cross post your videos to IGTV on Instagram. Or pull short snippets from the longer video to repurpose on Instagram or Facebook. And you can turn the transcript from your video or podcast into a blog post.<\/p>\n

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There are several great platforms on which you can place your influencer videos.<\/p><\/div>\n

But don\u2019t think you have to start everything at once! It\u2019s okay to start with one primary platform where you\u2019ll host most of your content, and add other marketing channels as you progress.<\/p>\n

Start Creating Content<\/h2>\n

As an influencer, your \u201cvalue\u201d to brands or possible collaborators is in your followers. And to grow your audience, you need to create quality content. And the first step in that process \u2014 actually creating that content \u2014 can be a tough one.<\/p>\n

If you write your own recipes, start documenting your process and taking pictures along the way. Make sure you write easy-to-follow instructions so your readers can recreate your dishes at home. (When you first start, ask a friend to try the recipe before you post to make sure you didn\u2019t miss any steps.)<\/p>\n\n\t

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\u201c<\/div>\n\t\t\t\u201cEscoffier really helped with understanding all the steps that go into a final product. And as a photographer, my job is capturing that final product, but it’s not complete till you do all those other steps that go beforehand. The food doesn’t magically appear.\u201d*\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Rhonda\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRhonda Adkins<\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFood Photographer and Escoffier Online Culinary Arts Graduate\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n

If you\u2019re sharing your own food adventures in restaurants, practice capturing the perfect photos when your food arrives. While it may sound a little silly, you\u2019ll need to let your phone or camera eat first! Or, as Dan Pelosi puts it, \u201cI think it\u2019s really just about allowing yourself to take up space. I would force my friends not to eat their food for two minutes so I could snap a picture. I was doing that for eight years. Now, I\u2019m like, \u2018Guess whose career is to do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re new to food photography<\/a>, one tip is to take your photos in natural light. A recent-generation smartphone will be enough to get started, but as you grow you may want to upgrade to a digital camera.<\/p>\n

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You probably have some of the tools to become an influencer already at your fingertips, like a smartphone camera.<\/p><\/div>\n

If all this sounds overwhelming, take a deep breath and turn to your love of food for inspiration. While it may seem like your content won\u2019t attract any followers, remember that even the top food influencers started with zero followers. In fact, TV star Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) started out as a blogger with zero readers.<\/p>\n

No matter the platform, consistency is a major part of building an audience. Generally, you should share longer-form content like blog posts and videos at least weekly and share social media content (posts, stories, or videos) daily. Keep track of new ideas as they arise, and build a backlog of completed content so that if you need to take a few days off here and there, you\u2019ll still have media to post.<\/p>\n

As you grow your skills, the quality of your content will improve. This should always be your main focus as an influencer. Great content is the foundation of any influencer\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Culinary\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Take the Culinary Career Survey<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t

We\u2019ve compiled a checklist of all of the essential questions into one handy tool: career options, culinary interest surveys, educational opportunities, and more. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

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