@worcester_eats

How many of y'all take pictures of your food at restaurants? Come on, I know it's most of us (even if we are a little ashamed to admit it). It's just so hard not to when it looks so good, am I right? A lot of us probably then go on to post this picture somewhere (whether it's Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else). What if I told you, that you could get free food because of this...would you be as ashamed taking those pictures or would you own it? 

You should own it! Because no matter what you are doing that restaurant a favor...

I'm not sure if y'all have noticed, but Worcester has some GREAT restaurants! 

One of my friends did notice this and created an Instagram page (about a year ago) to advertise local restaurants in the Worcester area called  @worcester_eats. Wow in just one year, and over 4 thousand followers- that's pretty great if you ask me. But want to hear the best part? Once she reached 2,000 followers, restaurants started inviting her in for EXCLUSIVE menu tastings. 

Local restaurants on their own probably do not have a huge following, but @worcester_eats has a large following. So why not entice the person with the following to do the advertising for you?

Restaurants like Sweet, The Usual, NU Cafe, and other local restaurants around Worcester have taken notice to particular 'foodies' like @worcester_eats and others and have invited them in for free food. The catch, these 'foodies' post beautiful pictures of the restaurants' food on their Instagram page. So free food for an Instagram post... I'd do it. But then again I am not anywhere close to 2,000 followers, so they wouldn't want me. 

So, as I mentioned above, these local restaurants do not have that large of a following on their own. Look at NU Cafe, they have a quarter of the following of @worcester_eats. Li and Bernoff say that "you want to create your own mini- groundswell within the company to embrace the groundswell of customers outside it" (p. 217). So no, these 'foodies' aren't technically part of the restaurant staff directly, but they almost are indirectly. The 'foodies' have more of a following than everyday Instagram users, and more of a following then the restaurants themselves, so they "employ them." Okay they don't actually employ them, but they get them together for free food, and the "foodies" take over advertising by taking pictures and posting them. So normal employees would get paid with money, but these "employees" are getting paid in free food. These local restaurants understand that the groundswell is powerful. They found the Creators, and energized them and made them part of their advertising team.

So @worcester_eats gets to continue what she was doing and now she gets free food out of it. You all should follow her account on Instagram to see beautiful pictures of amazing food places around Worcester!

Go ahead take that picture of your meal, who knows what could come of it!