Looking for a mouth-watering bite? It may be parked right in front of your nose. Catering to on-the-go foodies looking for a quick and tasty meal, food trucks are shaking up the food industry across North America. But many of these “start-up” restaurants are serving up more than just good food to their customers. Here’s what three of the best food trucks in North America are doing to build relationships and engage with customers on social media.

1. Platforms
to facilitate
feedback
SUCCESS STORY: FOOD TRUCKS
Success Story:
Social Media for
Food Trucks
Provide real-time
location
updates
Announce new
products
Build buzz
& gain new
followers
Social Media for Food Trucks:
Building Loyalty Across North America
Looking for a mouth-watering bite? It may be parked right in front of your
nose. Catering to on-the-go foodies looking for a quick and tasty meal,
food trucks are shaking up the food industry across North America.
But many of these “start-up” restaurants are serving up more than just
good food to their customers. Here’s what three of the best food trucks
in North America are doing to build relationships and engage with
customers on social media.
The Grilled Cheese Truck
In November 2009, the world’s first grilled cheese truck opened its
windows to fans who melted for this savory sensation. Since then, ‘The
Grilled Cheese Truck’ has become so popular that CEO, Founder and Chef
(aka the big cheese), Dave Danhi has opened 7 trucks across America with
plans for further expansion. Embraced both locally and internationally,
their melts have landed them “Best Food Truck” over 10 times, “Top 10
Sandwiches in the Country” and countless television appearances.

2. SUCCESS STORY: FOOD TRUCKS
When Dave’s not innovating new melts, he’s managing relationships
and telling his brand story on social media. Second to LA Times and
LA Weekly, The Grilled Cheese Truck has been listed as the 3rd most
influential “Tweeter” in LA for several years. From the most influential
food truck in the country on Twitter, to the most followed truck on
Facebook, The Grilled Cheese Truck turns to social for more than just
truck locations and daily specials. On social, fans give their input on
favorite past specials, aid in new menu items and suggest new truck
stops and promos.
The Buttermilk Truck
America takes breakfast seriously. Serving up a buttermilk mix of sweet
and savory is one of LA’s most popular food trucks, The Buttermilk
Truck. This breakfast-based food truck whips up crowd pleasers with a
yummy twist. Like applewood smoked bacon, egg and cheddar cheese
wedged between two buttermilk biscuits made to order – even for a
late-night snack. Their patented Red Velvet Pancake Mix makes for best
selling pancakes that Buttermilk fans can even make at home.
Founder, owner and chef all-in-one Evangeline Pascual knows how to
capture and hold the attention of thousands on social media. “Social
media allows us to not only update our fans on our truck’s exact
location, but also to announce new products and demos (yum!) and
engage with our loyal following,” says Pascual. “Hootsuite lets us engage
and listen to our fans on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram without
having to move from app to app.”
“For the truck’s first 3
years, I did all of the social
“à la minute” meaning
‘live.’ That took 4-6 hours
a day and consumed
my life, making it harder
to run my business.
Since Hootsuite, we
schedule our Tweets
and posts beforehand.
We have expanded to
include several cities
and Hootsuite helps
manage multiple cities
and social profiles. Doing
this separately would be
laborious and ineffective.”
Dave Dahni, CEO, The Grilled Cheese Truck
Click video to view.

3. SUCCESS STORY: FOOD TRUCKS
Caplansky’s Food Truck—Aka Thunderin’ Thelma
As the name would suggest, Caplansky’s Food Truck serves up old
school Jewish soul food to Torontonians on-the-go. The truck, lovingly
named “Thunderin’ Thelma” has been around since July 2011 and
was one of Toronto’s first wave of food trucks. Traveling across the
Greater Toronto Area (Canada) for lunch, dinner, late night street eats
and events, these trailblazers are known for their smoked deli meats,
pickles, poutine and Canadiana favorite – maple bacon donuts.
Closely tied to the famous Caplansky’s Delicatessen – as in the food all
comes from the same kitchen – both their deli and Thunderin’ Thelma
turn to social to connect with loyal fans. Not only does the truck rely
heavily on Twitter and Facebook to let followers know where the truck
is, but they also use it to build buzz. “We’ve definitely seen a positive
correlation between creating social media buzz around the truck and
getting more followers and even actual sales from new customers,”
says Elizabeth Callahan (aka Ellie), Caplansky Food Truck Manager.
“Hootsuite has really
helped us organize our
social media. The ability
to pre-write many of our
posts, has allowed us
to create a consistent
‘voice’ for our Tweets and
to properly plan out a
strategy. Before Hootsuite,
tweeting always felt very
last minute and ‘bare
bones.’ Now, the social
media management
aspect of my job is much
more enjoyable, especially
after learning from other
users on ways to use the
platform more effectively”
Elizabeth Callahan, Food Truck Manager,
Caplansky Food Truck
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