Food52 is an niche, crowdsourced, online kitchen, foods and cooking community that launched in 2009. Co-founded by Amanda Hesser, bestselling cookbook author and New York Times food writer/editor, and freelance food writer/editor Merrill Stubbs, this social networking success story – which won the James Beard Award for Best Culinary Website in 2012 – was borne out of passion and pure marketing instinct.
Back in the early 2000s, before iPhones were barely a thing, Hesser and Stubbs noticed an oddness that defined the online foodie landscape. They’d both picked up on a surprisingly disparate community populated by a number of cooking sites knocking out recipes in dry, how-to fashion, and a mishmash of food blogs published by everyday enthusiasts. Hesser and Stubbs realized that, although content creators and their consumers shared a love of food, no one within the segment was talking to each other. This understanding sparked the idea for a web-based resource which, beyond teaching and encouraging more people to learn to cook, would act as a foodie community. It was a breakthrough concept at the time: create a centralized place where like-minded individuals could socialize, shop, trade tips, get answers, and learn new techniques.
Hesser and Stubbs often talk about the difficulties they faced in securing funding for their idea, saying that being female posed a giant strike against them, and, with the food industry yet to explode into the fully exploited moneymaker it is today, targeted investors weren’t buying their vision. In the end however, the idea was financed by Scripps Network Interactive (parent company of the Food Network) and a proprietary crowdsourced cooking and e-comm site was soon underway.
Food52 targets home cooks and gourmands alike, seemingly from a variety of demographics, and since Hesser and Stubbs enjoyed an established celebrity within their niche, encouraging these audiences to connect was not much of an obstacle. Within five years, their website was attracting 3 million unique users per month.
In 2015, Food52 saw its Instagram (@food52) jump from 254,000 followers to 1 million followers and over 17 million interactions without their having relied on paid advertising. Once again, success had been borne out of this team’s incredibly astute marketing sense.
When the two noticed a bourgeoning community of fans on their Instagram, they harnessed the momentum by encouraging regrams, encouraging feedback, and consistently and thoughtfully responding to comments. True to a crowdsourced strategy, and their “Eat thoughtfully, live joyfully” cooking manifesto, Food52 made it a priority to reinforce the feeling of community among Instagram followers who now talk to each other in the comment boards and call on friends to join in, which in turn, leads to more followers and creates what Hesser refers to as a “feedback loop.”
Food52 has successfully put the power of social networking to work as the foundation of their business model. By offering useful and inspirational content, encouraging community, and dedicating themselves to listening and engaging with followers, Food52’s Instagram is not only a fan favourite, it is now one of the most sought after campaign elements for industry advertisers.
sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-food52-quadrupled-its-instagram-following-in-a-year-1450755231