How To Start & Grow Your Food Instagram Influencer Business

Are you new to the business and want to make a statement on social media as you embark on your professional journey? Or do you already own a food business and want to create an online presence?

In either of these cases, you have to understand the basic difference between owning a physical shop and running a business online. To get to the bottom of this, we have the perfect strategy and tips for you!

Sign Up On Instagram!

The best thing about opening an Instagram account – It’s free! As soon as you sign up for Instagram, you open a door to thousands of opportunities for yourself. But you can only reach your target demographic quickly and efficiently if you make a profile that makes you stand out, and makes your brand memorable to people.

Having A Niche Is Never A Cliché!

You have to have a niche. If you don’t specify what your food brand is about to people, people won’t be interested in knowing. One of the biggest drawbacks of running a food business online is losing the liberty to let your visitors figure your brand out. Everyone is in a hurry, everyone is constantly scrolling down and scrolling away. If your account is ambiguous about what kind of foods you produce, your followers will lose interest in getting to know more about it.

So for example, if you own a bakery brand, and mostly sell cookies and different types of cookie-related snacks, make it clear to your followers through your bio and username.

Pick A Username!

Your username is going to be your identity on social media, so choose it wisely. Having your brand name as your username is essential, and make sure that if it’s a new business, you choose a brand name which is social-media-friendly. Which means, it should contain at least 1 or 2 keywords related to the food business or food industry. For example, “The Cookie Factory”, “Right From The Oven” or “Cake n’ Bake” could work for you. Pick a name that your food brand can identify with!

Make It Fit!

Customizing your social account is like furnishing your “house” to turn it into a “home”. It’s like tailor-fitting your account to the concept of your business. No don’t worry, you won’t need scissors or any tailoring skills for this one. Just a pen, paper, and a plan!

To do this, you can come up with a theme for your account that you can follow throughout your posts, or use cool features on Instagram like Reels, IGTV, or create interesting carousels and use them to your advantage!

The other part of customizing your account is more long term than only posting. Like any other online platform, Instagram algorithm favors content that is relatable to a larger audience, is easily understandable, something that will get people to talk and respond, and is frequent or at least consistent in nature.

Make It Click!

Taking good pictures of your food products for your Instagram account is very important. Instagram is an app primarily made for pictures and not text. No matter how good your captions are, the photographs you post should be even better. You have to remember certain things while posting a photograph which are:

1. Make It POP!

Using attractive colors in your posts is perhaps the most effective way of making people notice your account. Use of bright and fresh looking colors is always better than using dull shades or color tints that may go unnoticed. For example, if you’re clicking a photograph of your cookies or bread, match up the background to the color and tones of your object i.e. the cookies or bread. Better yet, use some garnishing with your foods, just a couple of coriander leaves can do wonders to a plain bowl of soup!

2. Use Popular Food Filters

Speaking of making things pop, Instagram also has a nice array of filters and features to edit your photos. While you don’t want to over-edit your pictures as people prefer more natural-looking pics, try using these filters to make your food look more appealing!

Skyline
Normal
Helena
Slumber
Aden
Brooklyn
Vesper
Sutro
Willow
Inkwell

3. The Light Never Goes Out!

Keep a close watch of the kind of lighting you use in your photographs. Natural lights help the most. Don’t be scared to try out new things and new filters, but always remember that people love candids more than edited photographs.

4. Angles Matter!

The angle of a photograph decided whether the end result is going to be Chef’s Kiss or just another miss! So always be careful of what angles you use. You wouldn’t want the texture of your cookie to get lost in a picture, right? So make sure you get the angle right.

Captions Are The Way To Go!

Yes, we mentioned that Instagram is primarily an app for pictures, not text. But that doesn’t mean you ignore captions altogether.

Your captions are where you get a chance to expand on your ideas behind your post, it’s where you get to be honest, truthful, and close to your followers. You can add something like “We will love to treat you good, with our delicious food” or “Our priority is to serve you with what you deserve – the best quality food!” instead of being dry and monotonous in your captions, try to make the followers feel welcomed and included.

Everyone Likes Stories!

Stories are the easiest way for your account to get noticed as stories are placed on the top of the app, stories are also where all of your live videos are shown, so make sure you use these features to your advantage. Go live as often as you can, and interact with your followers, read their live comments and talk to them, keep engaging with them. If you have over 10K followers, use the “swipe up” feature to promote your website and online store facilities and maintain good relationships with your followers.

Everything Falls In Place!

Soundtracks and locations listed in the post are the best way to find other posts that have the same location listed or the same soundtrack used in them. It’s a very efficient way to get noticed by the local crowd or the people that have visited the same places as you, or even your customers who have visited your bakery recently.

Show Your Emotions! (Use Emojis)

Using emojis is the best way to make your feed interactive and attractive. Using emojis makes people look at your brand as “relatable and interactive” instead of only being interested in selling products and services.

All Platforms Go Hand In Hand!

Use your other social media platforms to share and repost your posts on Instagram. It’ll result in redirecting more people to your feed and your website. Use your followers base from different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and get them to follow you on Instagram by using your Facebook stories, tweets, snaps, etc.

Always Keep Trending!

Food trends come and go, but some of them last for a long time. Just like Dalgona Coffee ruled the Internet for almost the entirety of 2020, some trends stay for a while. Always keep an eye out on what trends you can use to your advantage. Trends are a great way to reach thousands of people at the same time with less efforts. So always keep your feed trendy.

#HashtagItWell

Use your hashtags wisely. Hashtags are the key to the algorithm. Hashtags are supposed to be the organization tool for Instagram. Use popular hashtags related to food and your hashtags will get you right where your audience is waiting for you!

Contests And Giveaways To Spice It Up!

Everyone loves winning things! So use this to your advantage and organize contests and give-aways for your customers. A free pack of some freshly-baked cookies can make anyone happy!

Consistency Is Key!

The most important part of making a strong social media presence is having consistency in your posts. Your upload schedule must be consistent to gain loyal and long-term followers and keep your social media relationships healthy and strong.

Never Fear Experimenting!

Keep on exploring and experimenting with new features. Always remember, whenever Instagram launches a new feature, the algorithm gives preference to it.

So these are our tips and strategies for you to start and grow your own Instagram food business! We hope you loved this article, let us know what you think about these tips!