Eat and Tweet
The phenomenon known as the “eat and tweet” has flooded social media feeds with mouthwatering food photos. I often wonder why everyone is suddenly so keen to snap their snacks? Why do so many of us feel compelled to share photos of our meals? The popularity of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter continues to skyrocket, and so does the concept that everything we do – everyone we meet, every party we attend, every movie we see – needs to be uploaded and shared with our Internet friends.
Taking photos of what you eat and posting them to social media applications such as Instagram is a global social phenomenon that seems to be growing. Right now, there are almost 300 million food photos on Instagram. For reference, there are 57 million travel photos and 69 million sunsets. It’s only piped by selfies, of which there are currently 316 million (and counting). Now, that’s a lot of food pictures.
A survey of more than 1000 people has found 54 per cent of 18-24 year olds have taken a photo of their food while eating out, while 39 per cent have posted it somewhere online. This compares with only 5 per cent of over-50s who say they share food snaps on forums such as Facebook and Twitter. 90 new photos hashtagged #foodporn are uploaded to Instagram every minute. The idea of sharing food photos online has begun to dominate the world of participatory technology: apps like Burpple, FoodSpotting and SnapDish are specifically dedicated to the logging and sharing of food.
Cloud eggs, Unicorn Frappuccinos and avocado toast all have one thing in common: Social media made them a hit. Once these Instagram-friendly foods go viral, they can completely change the way we eat. Breakfast, for example, has shifted from a decidedly unphotogenic cereal or marmalade on toast to the bright hues of avocado toast (there are nearly 595,346 #avocadotoast hashtagged photos on Instagram) and smoothie bowls.
We are being influenced not just in the types of food that we eat, but how we cook and eat that food. The old saying that we eat first with our eyes rings true here. We are sharing more food in this way than ever before, and a huge amount of this hungry, food-centric media revolves around food photography and short videos on platforms but in this process, I feel we are forgetting the actual value of food and what actually makes it special- it's taste. It has become aesthetic first, taste later and, quite often, no taste at all.
Paper Foods
Food and papercrafting- two things I ABSOLUTELY enjoy. When we got this project, and when I I got this idea, I thought about this the all throughout the weekend. I hopped onto to Instagram and Pinterest and found out that paper foods were actually a thing and perfect for this project. Like I said in the "eat and tweet", food has become more about aesthetic rather than its taste, which is why I wanted people to be able to create their own aesthetic foods using paper. And when I saw images of paper foods on social media I thought there was no better way of conveying my message and giving people an enjoyable experience.
Up until now, all images I had seen of paper foods were made by professionals. I wanted the common man to be able to have a hands-on experience with this as well.
Persuasion is Key
Since this project is called "Made to Persuade" and the aim is to persuade people into doing something, in my case, it was selling the product, there were a few things I did to help me in this 'Persuasion' -
1. Packaging: Having studied business as well, I've learnt packaging is key. Packaging is what first gains the attention of a consumer. I tried to keep my packaging very minimal and used neutral colours because I wanted the focus to be on what's inside the package.
I got my packaging inspiration from "made of Money" project done by a student last year and also this project by Lunartik Jones.
I thought it was best suited for my product because the consumers could see the templates as well as the papers that I was providing and it the same time its compact size made it easy to carry. It also gave it the look of a "craft kit" that I wanted it to have.
2. Advertising: Well, in this case, I'd say presentation on the open day was my advertising because I feel that was one of the reasons that intrigued people to come up to me and ask about my project. Since my project was related to food and Instagram, I wanted it to have a 'cafe like' setting and display the final products as well.
I also later crossed out the prices and wrote new prices on the chalkboard as a "sales tactic" to 'attract' more customers and to 'persuade' them to buy the product.
3. Confidence and sweet talk: I think for anything, Confidence is key. Being confident and talking to people has a great impact on how people interact with you and your product. I feel because I was able to talk to the people coming in during the exhibition I was able to communicate to more people my idea and thereby allowing more people to purchase my product. even the way I told them about my idea also, in my opinion, had an impact on them. I tried to make it humorous because I was aware the people coming in would mostly be nervous due to the upcoming stress of applying to colleges etc etc and a little laugh would be appreciated.
I started off by saying "It has happened with me so many times that I'm just about to dig into that perfect looking piece of food when my friend interrupts me and says 'wait wait I need a picture for my Instagram' and wouldn't let me eat the food until she has that perfect picture.." and while talking about my product I also showed them my faux Instagram feed to show that my product "looks just as aesthetic on an Instagram feed..."
Someone even complimented me and told me that I make a "great salesperson" which was good to hear.