What social media channels is your food truck actively using? Do you know how these channels are affecting your business’s sales and customer base? If so, we hope the answer is positive. The best thing about social media is that it’s free and all of the best channels have built in users – or customers, to you – which mean the hard part is done for you. All you have to do is utilize the sites correctly in order to turn your offline fans into online followers.

So, are you taking full advantage of these sites? Being on them and updating them with your information is not enough. Whether or not you realize it, as a member of the food truck industry you’re in an all out war with other food trucks for the attention of local customers, which largely takes place online.

Here are several ways to promote your food truck by capitalizing on social media:

• Actively use social media everyday. Basically, this means that your customers that are already following you need to be taken care of. Give these users a reason to follow you in the first place and continue following you after they take the plunge. These people may make your follower count as high as you would like them to, but you can’t wait until you have a big following to begin using these products. Social media is all about the network effect, and even a small amount of online fans can help you spread the word about your business. Give these users something to spread, or else you’ll be fending for yourself in the social media world. In addition, there’s no better way to grasp strategies around social media, like how it’s best used, than to use it often.
• Give your followers something to talk about. Like what it says above, social media is built on the premise of creating ‘social’ online environments. And just like in the physical world in which people generally only share news and other information that they deem as interesting and helpful, individuals on social media sites act similarly. Make sure your updates and posts are relevant to the online communities you’ve built. Consider sharing exclusive promotional deals with your followers and funny stories that will encourage your followers to share your posts and Tweets with other users.
• Buy ad space on social media sites. Although each food truck company will differ in how it chooses to spend its advertising dollars, each company should at least contemplate using sites like Facebook to promote through. Facebook has ad campaigns that can be tailored to your food truck’s location, target demographics and daily money ad allowance. It’s a great way to build your brand and your online social media presence at the same time. You may also find that this type of advertising helps to expand your target market as your new followers’ friends and acquaintances see that someone they know has liked or tweeted about your business.