San Francisco Restaurants and Bars Recruit ‘Micro-Influencers’ to Attract Customers

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Vas Kiniris, surrounded by a camera phone and accompanied by an assistant with a light in his hand, slowly entered the quiet, leather-covered Keys Jazz Bistro on North Beach.

Wait – rewind – and do it again. The angle wasn’t quite right.

Kiniris and a fun group of content creators were at the club Thursday night for a “collaboration” designed to promote business offerings and share their story. This is a reflection of the growing symbiosis between local small businesses and “micro-influencers” — social media users with fewer followers who target niche interests.

Eight people, armed with iPhones and a blinding flashlight, created a strange mixture of different ages and professions. Some said they’ve been doing “gourmet influencers” for nearly a decade, while many have sought out connections during the pandemic through online food communities.

It’s a modern, anachronistic twist to sell what, frankly, is something of a throwback. Keys, which opened in November, is a distinctly old-school experience: it sits on the site of the former El Matador, the legendary club founded by artist, writer and bullfighter Barnaby Conrad in the 1950s.

The club served as a fun backdrop to a somewhat chaotic scene with good-natured pushes, shouting directions, and precarious positions on bar stools to get the shot right.

Pianist and co-owner of Keys Simon Rowe doesn’t consider himself the most adept social media user, but he has enough knowledge to understand that word of mouth goes so far in the internet age.

“When we started, we had a lot of very good traditional press,” Rowe said. “Now the question is, how do we keep rumors spreading constantly and quickly?”

Content is king

For many small restaurants and retailers, the answer comes with the somewhat daunting thought that in addition to ordering merchandise, serving customers, and handling payroll, they are also in the business of creating content.

But this is the reality of 2023. Kiniris has owned a furniture and home goods store called Zinc Details in Fillmore for decades and now runs digital marketing and small business promotion firm NextSF.

“I’ve been in the business for over 20 years and every day I had to share my brand with people who knew me or didn’t know me. I had to humanize myself. Now businesses have to do it digitally,” Kiniris said. “I somehow feel sorry for the merchants, they say, are they now teaching video production?”

What is bringing customers to the door now — especially after Covid has served to further re-educate consumers away from brick-and-mortar stores — is the new experience, Kiniris said.

One of his most popular first posts was a 20-second clip featuring Molinari’s, the century-old legendary Italian deli and grocer, which has been viewed over 200,000 times.

“Nick, the owner, said people still come to him asking for a TikTok sandwich,” Kiniris said, laughing. “It helps that he’s a super-handsome dude. Unfortunately, he is married.”

Local small business advocates are thinking about how to bridge the gap between the small business experience and the crowds of up-and-coming content creators looking for deals.

Neighborhood group North Beach Neighbors hosted a grant program funded by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development that provided 26 local businesses with personalized videos, custom photos and copywriting.

“Right now small businesses are juggling a lot of different things, advertising themselves and spending time creating content that often gets left behind,” said Danny Soter, board member of North Beach Neighbors.

symbiotic relationship

Some companies have even collaborated with social media stars on items designed to attract the new customer base they have discovered. Local pizza chain Square Pie Guys has teamed up with influencer @allie.eats to create The Allie Eats, a veggie pie topped with white sauce, pecan pumpkin, confit garlic and Brussels sprouts.

Andrew De Los Santos, better known as @andrewtourssf, has tens of thousands of followers on various social media accounts covering a wide range of local restaurants, bars and special events.

He winces slightly as he recalls his first viral post, a satirical look at the difficult street conditions in downtown San Francisco. But the video launched a new career for the 27-year-old who ended up quitting his job as an environmental consultant to become a full-time influencer.

“It really only takes one TikTok video to go viral for the platform to start promoting your other content,” De Los Santos said. “When it got to the point where I had to turn down opportunities, that was the turning point.”

Almost overnight, he began getting inquiries to partner with several restaurants across the city and was hired by a startup to spotlight the best date spots in San Francisco, which ended up reaching nearly 40 restaurants within two months.

A typical De Los Santos start morning is filled with video editing; he posts once a day on his main Instagram, his gourmet-focused Instagram, his Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.

The day is filled with collaborations. On the day we spoke, he went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, to a bar for happy hour, to another restaurant for dinner, and then to a nightclub. His clients range from a mom and dad who cover his expenses in exchange for a series of posts, to neighborhood charities who pay him out of their marketing budgets.

His business has recently expanded to charging businesses for “gourmet parties” that bring together a few influencers, each with their own fans, to share the experience at a restaurant or bar.

What if the food sucks? De Los Santos said that while companies don’t force him to sing special praise, he tends to omit food or drinks that don’t meet his standards.

While his reputation brought in a steady stream of new clients, some of his first collaborations came through San Francisco-based marketing agency You Need Us Now, which sent out specific job openings to a mailing list.

Mark Yen, founder of You Need Us Now, said his firm began early in the pandemic when many physical businesses were forced by circumstances to adapt their operations and marketing channels to a larger online audience.

“We also understand that we often don’t have the same budget as big companies, so we help them connect them with influencers who aren’t necessarily professionals,” Yen said.

The yen is selling the deal as a win-win. Around 600 influencers on the platform are gaining exposure and companies are getting a new set of high quality content to promote their business online and hopefully bring in new customers.

The end goal is to convert likes and traffic into real sales and revenue, which is why You Need Us Now focuses on signing and verifying influencers who have the majority of their followers who actually live in the Bay Area.

While the company’s platform is free to influencers, businesses are charged a subscription fee that depends on the number of campaigns they choose to run. Direct sales traffic can be tracked through unique coupon codes, tracking links, or “secret menu” items that are only sold through influencer channels.

“Part of our role is to make it clear to businesses that this type of marketing is not a one-time event,” Yen said. “One influencer can create buzz, but working with multiple people creates a bandwagon effect. It’s like the online version of a long line leaving a restaurant.”

“Camera Eats First”

One of the first “gourmet parties” in De Los Santos took place at Piroo, a Nepalese restaurant in the Lower Shelf that opened in the spring of 2022. cuisines that may be unfamiliar to the general public.

“When a person posts this on their social media to their followers, they can explain what kind of food it is, what is the culture and history behind the dish,” Bhattarai said. “It helped us increase traffic.”

Bhattarai said influencer-based marketing would be at the top of the list if she wanted to introduce a new menu item. In fact, she has seen how social media is replacing traditional media.

When food blog Infatuation placed Piroo on its list of the city’s best new restaurants, it didn’t do much for the business. Only after the publication of a post on Instagram with the participation of Piroo, the flow of bookings began.

Back at Keys Jazz Bistro, the cameras showed up at the most opportune moments. How the bartender poured a classic Sidecar into a frosted glass, when a wall of flames burst out of the saucepan, when the waiter fried heavy shrimp, and, of course, when the dishes were taken out and placed on the next table. to a selection of colorful cocktails.

As the dignitaries circled around the stage, Kiniris knocked off someone’s hand as they grabbed the tostada.

“That’s the most important thing to remember,” Kiniris said, turning to me. “The camera always eats first.”

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