MEMO

 

Who: Hungry Grl (@hungrygrl_bigcity) / Jess Iacullo (@jessiacullo)

 

I would like to create a strategy for Hungry Grl aka Jess Iacullo. Jess has been running her Instagram, Hungry Grl, since her sophomore year of college. She run a food Instagram with over 30,000 followers. As a lover of food, she got the idea one day and ran with it after going through her camera roll and wanting to post photos of food she had taken. Now 4 years later, her Instagram is widely known and loved.

 

After talking to Jessie about her posting schedule and content creation, I’d love to be able to develop a formulaic way for her to post content. She mostly posts on her morning and evening ride, and commits to 2 posts daily. While this definitely works, I think she can capitalize and grow more by coming up with a content calendar. I didn’t notice a specific schedule when she posted, which I think is appealing because it shows she’s a person and not a brand. But with 30k followers I think she can continue to grow and post maybe even 4 times a day. Jess also mentioned she would love to make a profit and hire someone to assist her with her page.

 

I think brand deals and partnerships are definitely on the horizon for her, and I think with more scheduled content and growing her following slightly more, she can begin to do this.

 

The biggest thing I took away from my interview with Jess was her passion behind the account. As something she started for fun, it’s incredible that is has impacted so many people and grown so much. It’s something to truly celebrate and I think she can continue to expand her page.

 

It’s inspiring to hear about her early days of her pages, where she struggled with content and posting. I think this is one of the biggest challenges anyone who does social media professional faces, and I think once you find a solution to it you’re still always looking for a way to up your game. I think using application to assist with posting can grow her page potential even more, and allow her to achieve more success. This is what I want to focus on.

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INTERVIEW TRANSCIPT

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1. How did you get started with Hungry Grl/get the idea?

 

It was almost 3 (!!!) years ago, my sophomore year at Pitt, and I was living a pretty typical day for myself: working on schoolwork and scrolling through Instagram in the Starbucks on Forbes. I don’t know exactly what sparked the idea of a food-specific Instagram page, but I remember thinking about all of the pictures of food I had in my camera roll and wanting to post them somewhere for others to see, but not on my “personal” Instagram feed. So, within 20 minutes, I came up with my handle, bio, and icon. The absence of the “i” in “grl” is intentional, as an ode to my screen name from middle school (aka pfrankgrl20). I started off just posting the pictures I already had, and before I knew it, within 2 months I had 2,000 followers and people sending me their own pictures for me to post!

 

2. What was the hardest part about social media when you started/what is the hardest part today?

 

I think for when I started, it was kind of figuring out how to effectively create and curate content for my page and honestly committing time to keeping it running consistently. This was also a reoccurring theme throughout my first solid two years of posting; I reposted from a lot of accounts daily. However, I think I overcame this when I graduated and was able to use content from my professional life on my Instagram. However, I think the hardest part today revolves around my high levels of exposure. Having a large following is forever unreal to me; I mean, who knows 30,500 people?! Certainly not me. However, for as much support and positive engagement that I get from followers, I also tend to receive negative comments and messages from time to time. It’s easy to forget that Instagram is such a wide abyss and literally any one person can see what I am putting out into the world. So, I’ve had to figure out how to best balance “hate comments” and those that disagree with what I’m posting. As much as I want to respond to those that have hateful things to say, I think I’ve figured out that not answering is the best answer; I don’t live my life or post to my account based on anyone’s standards but my own.

 

3. How do you plan posts on Instagram?

 

It honestly depends on the day… it’s funny, a lot of the freelance media marketing work I’m doing at the moment requires me to use scheduling sites like Sprinklr and Hootsuite, however I’ve never used them for my own Instagram. I kind of find that I always have a spare 5 minutes to look through my camera roll and find a picture I just took or have been wanting to post, and then just come up with a caption and send it. That’s also part of the fun of it for me; I like being able to take a moment and think out a post on the spot.

 

4. How do you decide when to post/time of day etc.?

 

Again, it depends, but I usually try to post either first thing in the morning or mid-evening. I used to post once or twice a day when I was commuting on a bus, so usually around 8:30 AM or 6:30 PM. These are the times that I find most people are checking Instagram because they’re also starting and ending their work days or days in general.

 

5. How do you find the time to work full time and still do social media?

 

Luckily, my current schedule is all over the place (which really doesn’t sound that lucky to most people) but it allows me to focus on making a concrete schedule each day and schedule things like a “hungrygrl thing” as I call them on a Thursday night. I work best when I make lists, so usually the first thing I do when I wake up or get to work is write out all of the things I want to get done and then plan to do them in order of necessity. Some people think social media is super easy, but it’s a huge time commitment! From keeping up with posting daily to engaging in other people’s content, and also figuring out ways to work with the restaurants and brands that reach out to work with me… it’s all about balance!

 

6. How do you continue to stay motivated with social media/posting?

 

It’s honestly so regulated into my daily routine, so motivation is kind of just always there. It’s been a significant time since I started my page, so it feels like second nature at this point to keep up with it. I can also see how I’ve grown through my Instagram, as cheesy as that sounds; it has traveled with me through studying abroad, to internships, to college, to even my first post-grad job being all about food! Also, it amazes me how many people know about hungrygrl and talk about it in daily conversation. I say this all of the time, but I will never ever ever get over how people can recognize me in public and ask, “Are you hungrygrl?!” It makes my day and really shows how I have built more than just an Instagram page; I’ve built this platform where I can say things and post about my life as honestly as possible and people want to be following me on my journey.

 

7. What is your favorite part/thing about Hungry Grl?

 

Ah, so so many things! But, I think I am so appreciative to how many opportunities and people it has brought into my life. If I never followed through with starting this, who knows where I would be in life right now. Food was always an important part of my growing up, so I love being able to post about the foods that get me excited (aka pizza and bagels) and that I get to help promote small businesses that are looking to work with me. It’s taught me so much about building professional relationships, marketing myself as a brand, and communicating with different types of people all over the world.

 

8. Where do you see it/yourself in 5 years?

 

Hopefully still eating and drinking my way through life (and living in NYC)! I also would love to be making a profit off of my page and hire someone to assist me with my page.