Chefs become Hot Property On Instagram
Food and drink photography has become a huge trend on the mobile app Instagram in recent times. For example, users love to post pictures of their main courses when both eating out and at home. However, more importantly, Instagram has proved to be a fantastic medium for telling stories and provides a candid view of brands and personalities from behind the scenes. A great example of this is Genaro Contaldo’s Instagram page at www.instagram.com/genarocontaldo. From his recent travel cookery shows with Antonio Carluccio, he has honed a reputation as a celebrity chef with a devilish sense of humour. On his Instagram profile page you’ll find everything from shots of his latest culinary creations, rude veggie pictures, behind the scenes kitchen photos or candid-camera shots taken from on stage at his live demonstrations. His fan base goes wild for his antics and he gets a massive number of shares for his content. He’s got that magic combination of a great personality married with fantastic quality content.
So how can hospitality brands use Instagram?
In the near to longer term, I see Instagram becoming a hot platform for chefs and restaurants. The recently launched Instagram profiles now also allow PC, laptop and tablet users to view Instagram content. The top section of the profile shows a checkerboard selection of your most recent photos with a gallery of monthly photos further down. If you have interesting photos, this onscreen arrangement can look incredibly attractive. Stories from each month can also start to stand out. The mobile version of the application allows you to instantly keep up with photos from the accounts you follow and you can explore and start following new accounts as and when you wish.
What it’s good for
It’s the perfect medium for telling photo stories as its crisp, clean interface allows you just to focus on the pictures first and foremost.
It’s the perfect place to speak to the movers and shakers, influencers and trend spotters.
It’s also a great platform to attract the celebrity followers who will watch your TV show, buy your DVD, chef books and more.
If you want to go global with your brand, Instagram is also a great space to hang out as it’s still not so saturated with content that you cannot be found
What it’s not good for
It’s not the platform to use for offers or discounts. Style, story-telling, interaction and sharing are the defining features of this channel.
To try it out for yourself the Instagram App can be downloaded from iTunes or the Android store on your smartphone or online.