Let’s actually start with the fine print and put all the caveats on the table before getting started: ‘Gordos’ is a restaurant that has received a lot of attention since its establishment. It has been covered more than once in various media outlets, and its menu and concept provide fertile ground for story after story. This article will focus on the restaurant’s Facebook page, and first of all, one must consider the chicken and the egg and set the record straight: naturally, the success of the business and the success of its page go hand in hand. I don’t imagine that social media managers of just any business can bring about such attention, because food—especially over-the-top food—is perhaps the most talked-about and sexiest topic the web has to offer. I do believe that between the lines, page managers from a variety of fields will be able to adopt some insights into their daily work routine. In this review, I will present five main conclusions, based on the page’s activity, which since going live exactly a year ago has gained more than 21,000 followers through organic activity alone.
Let me entertain you
If I were limited in words and still wanted to equip you with one essential insight, I would settle for this: people want you to entertain them. I am not in a position to point to the explicit reason; I tend to believe it’s the demanding and stressful Israeli lifestyle. Entertainment feeds the curiosity of followers and encourages sharing with more friends. Content that is ‘funny’ is a joke that, if I was the first to be exposed to it and tagged my friends, I essentially take ownership of, and can even claim it slightly for myself. If the humor is good, our followers have the motivation to expose it to more friends. That’s how a fairly simplistic post about diners celebrating a birthday reached almost 12,000 people, and a hot chocolate called ‘Chocolata Stirrer’ reached over 200,000. Most of our messages carry humor, even if subtly, and it can be integrated into any possible platform. I recognized the humor tactic on several business Facebook pages that took it a step further and published many posts that did not carry any concrete marketing message at all, in an attempt to generate purely viral content.
Speaking from the Field
Most of Gordos’ audience is young. It’s hard for me to pinpoint the exact moment the tables turned, and it’s very possible that it was Snapchat or live streams that reshuffled the deck and redefined the rules, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that without hands-on field work, a Facebook page (or the person behind it) has no right to exist. The younger generation that consumes new media on an ongoing basis has developed the tools to easily identify where they are exposed to authentic, fresh-out-of-the-oven, first-hand material, and where things are managed remotely. Without filters, in the broad sense of the word, and with as few barriers as possible: mobile photos, background noise in video (and some would go as far as including spelling mistakes)—the more authentic, human, true to the original you were, presenting the original experience as it is, the wider the exposure you would receive. One could systematically see how ‘studio’ style food photography received less engagement (and exposure) than photos taken right on the spot, and the page’s most-watched videos were of diners eating the dishes (with their reactions heard in the background as well).
Hands-on New Media
Large advertising agencies highlight the advantage of having a broad network of professionals and resources for potential clients (photographer, graphic designer, copywriter, and more). Opposite them stands the alternative of a new media manager who is a one-man show, orchestrating everything together. Facebook and Instagram allow us, the social managers, to evolve, branch out, extend our reach into every necessary area, and manage pages packed with content and activity at a high quality using a simple mobile device. We need to know how to stand behind this revolution and state it clearly: the rules have changed. One person with the right mindset and patience for learning can do just as well as an entire agency when it comes to page management—they can shoot, edit, communicate, provide customer service, and perhaps even outperform what an entire team delivers by being direct and accessible to the business they work with. The principle of authenticity from the previous section corresponds well with this principle. Our videos that received many views (usually a reach of between 100k and 200k) were filmed on my mobile device featuring one of the restaurant’s employees, and many photos were taken the exact same way. In the same vein, I was not surprised to discover that the Instagram page of the singer Mariah Carey, which has over 5 million followers and was reviewed by Time Magazine under the title “25 Times Mariah Carey’s Instagram Was More Fabulous Than Yours,” is managed by just a 14-year-old girl.
Collaborations
Two are better than one, and much of ‘Gordos’ definition as the undisputed queen of sweets and desserts can be attributed to the collaboration with the Facebook page of the popular ‘Sweet Statuses’—throughout the summer menu, a milkshake inspired by the page was offered, and mutual tags and mentions brought exposure to both pages alike. Here, too, it was a completely organic collaboration that did not require any unnecessary waste of resources from either party.
Recalculating Route
Ending with a significant tip that could have easily topped the list. When ‘Gordos’ started out, it came with a very clear DNA dictated to me, as its new media manager, from above. I operated within a fairly free framework, but like any brand, there was a certain language I was required to speak. We were attentive to the audience’s sentiments, and what stood out in particular was the cynical reference to us being ‘healthy’ and ‘dietetic’. Several posts written in that tone received great interest, and we saw that it was good. Just like Waze recalculates a route, it is healthy and right to be attentive to new directions and gather mindsets from the consumer audience. We will never be able to fully put ourselves in their shoes, and their perspective is immeasurably important. Today, the original agenda coexists alongside the language that evolved along the way in a fairly harmonious manner.
About the Author
Gal Kolog holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders from Tel Aviv University, is a former deputy editor of ‘BaMahane’ newspaper, and former commander of the military correspondents course. Gal is the new media manager of a restaurant group including Gordos, Silo, and Cafe Gan Sipur in Holon.