Girls In Tech

Back in June I wrote a blog post about the top 5 luxury hotel brands on Twitter and wanted to follow it up with a post about the top 5 food brands using Twitter today. Our food & beverage/lifestyle clients at Murphy O’Brien ask us on a daily basis if and how they should get involved in social media. There are several food brands using Twitter wisely and effectively. They have found a transparent brand voice and engaged their followers all while staying true to their brand essence. Here are my top 5 picks of who’s using this social media tool well and why:

LemonadeLA (@LemonadeLA): Followers – 384

A great new restaurant concept in LA now with two locations – one in West Hollywood and one in Venice, Lemonade offers over 35 varieties of freshly prepared salads, veggies, pastas, proteins, sandwiches and stock-pots all at a reasonable price. Their Tweets are fun, upbeat, full of energy and clever – they created the “Lemonade Girl,” an attractive brunette who bikes around town with a “Tweet This” sign on her back – if you snap a pic of her and TwitPic it, you win a free glass of fresh lemonade. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Fiji Water (@FIJIWATER): Followers – 2,102

Fiji Water company is designer water that some say only snobs would drink but there’s nothing snobby about the brand’s presence on Twitter. Fiji does something right with their Tweets and that is, the @reply. There is nothing worse than a brand who doesn’t write back to their followers. Fiji communicates with their followers, responding, engaging, asking questions and answering them.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese (@LoveMyPhilly): Followers – 7,966

Philly Cream Cheese does a great job of representing their brand on Twitter – the background of their page perfectly represents the brand and also directs followers to their presence on other social networks including – Flickr, YouTube and Facebook. The company Tweets recipes and also engages with their followers with a steady stream of @replies.

Kogi BBQ (@kogibbq): Followers: 41,239

Kogi is the Korean BBQ taco truck that exploded on the Twitter scene sending out real-time Tweets about the location of their mobile food truck for hungry fans to easily find them during lunch hour. The company uses Twitter as a real-time GPS tracking system – just without the GPS. At any time of day or night you know exactly where to find Kogi’s “roach coach.” This level of accesibiltiy has made the roving vehicle a social-networking juggernaut, drawing 300 to 800 people (and a bevy of Twitter followers) each time it parks (often several times in an evening) and spawning a burgeoning cyber-hippie movement affectionately referred to as “Kogi kulture.”

Border Grill (@BorderGrill) Followers – 1,995

Border Grill is a Mexican restaurant concept in LA serving gourmet tacos, quesadillas, ceviches, and more from “Too Hot Tamales” chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. The Twitter feed models Kogi’s real-time tracking of the Border Grill food truck around LA but also offers their Twitter followers special deals by using the secret code – like “sweet tooth” for a free brownie. Delish!

Christine Kirk is a PR representative and social media explorer for luxury brands including travel, real estate and food/beverage, at Murphy O’Brien Public Relations in Los Angeles. She also holds the position of PR Manager for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech. She can be reached via e-mail at ckirk@murphyobrien.com or on Twitter @luxuryprgal.