How do you connect with brands on social media in a meaningful way? Whether you’re trying to grab their attention or collaborate on campaigns, what’s the best approach to making it happen? And when it comes to partnerships, should you focus on big names, or can smaller brands offer even more value?
On today’s episode of Rising Tides, we’re joined by Bill Oakley, former writer for The Simpsons turned food influencer. Bill shares the fascinating story of how he indirectly caught McDonald’s attention and launched a new career in food influencing. For those who want the full story of how Bill made this happen, check out the episode now available on Restaurant Influencers.
We’ll also explore the unique opportunities smaller brands can provide and why they’re often the key to building practical, mutually beneficial partnerships. Plus, we discuss the importance of staying active on social media to connect with brands and create successful collaborations.
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Every Wednesday and Friday at 10am PDT, Shawn Walchef hosts the Rising Tide live room on LinkedIn. Leading voices in hospitality, and otherwise, from near and far join to discuss all things business and much more.
Key Quotes
“And I posted it on my Instagram where I had like 98 followers at the time, but I also put it on my Twitter and I linked, I tagged McDonald’s in it…Mcdonald’s social media responded to my tweet with hey, congratulations on your new career as a food blogger and I was like, hey, that’s a good idea I’m gonna do that.” – Bill Oakley
“Smaller brands, I’ve actually worked with dozens if not hundreds of smaller brands who are more active. It’s extremely exciting when you communicate with the person, the person who makes the hot sauce, that’s part of the fun in my case. And going to the restaurant show, I was able to meet a lot of people who have food brands that I love. And hopefully that’s going to result in a lot more collaboration between me and them.” – Bill Oakley
“If you are a small brand, a small restaurant, a small maker of hot sauce, coffee, whatever, I think that like, it’s probably one of the most valuable things you can do in terms of publicity, and promotion is have an active social media.” – Bill Oakley
“It’s critical that you have social media. And it’s critical that you have it in several different channels. But let me give you an example. If you’re a hot sauce, you know, people go to the supermarket and there’s even the kind of a small supermarket, there’s 50 brands of hot sauce. And at whole foods, maybe there’s like 150, you know, how would that, how could that possibly stand out?” – Bill Oakley
“They’re not going to take out an ad in a magazine. They’re not going to put an ad on an NFL game. They need social media. I would say it’s probably one of the best channels for getting known. And it’s so simple, but yet a huge percentage of hot sauces, small food brands don’t do it at all.” – Bill Oakley
“Mel Brooks, Johnny Knoxville, and The Simpsons are the three forms of entertainment that four generations of my family can quote and laugh together about. So from my great grandmother down to my nephews, all of us would quote references and jokes. So that’s a pretty powerful, powerful thing to be a part of. And thank you for that. ” – Jason Berkowitz
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