Twitter Taco Truck and the Times

February 12, 2009 · Comments

Real big thanks to my friend, Ron Ploof for pointing this out to me: The LA Times covered the story of the Kogi taco truck’s use of Twitter to promote their business. It’s a fun story, and offers some ideas to small businesses with engaged audiences.

Another point of note: I love that the LA Times shot a video but then let me embed it, and that the reporter, Jessica Gelt, had links out to the various details in the story, such as the Kogi website. Good on ya, LA Times.

Watch this:

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Thanks for the shout out, Chris. We are just scratching the surface of Social Media uses for business.
  • Yes, good for LA times. I especially like that the story wasn't presented with the usual "here is what twitter is" approach, and Twitter only played one part of Manguera's story. Only thing missing was Kogi's Twitter username: @kogibbq.
  • Very cool idea! It illustrates the connection between online followers and real-life flesh-and-blood followers.
  • A simple, clear, inspiring story. Thanks for bringing it here, Chris and congrats to LA Times for not messing it up.
  • John Zurovchak
    Great story! I agree with Kevin that this was a very well constructed story that flowed from beginning to end. Twitter was only one part of the story, but it really stood out how Kogi communicates with their customers. I like how they aren't trying to "sell" anything to their followers. They just say "Hey, we moved from here to here if you are interested." Or "Hey, we have this special today" or "Try this new flavor." That's the way to connect with your customers and to build a community.

    Thanks for posting this, Chris.
  • Very smart! I'm going to have to follow them to see if they're going to be in my area anytime soon.
  • Here's a direct link to the story.

    http://www.latimes.com/theguide/restaurants/la-...
  • Good story. I'm Korean. I would eat it.
  • Thanks for sharing this story. I am using Twitter to promote a new restaurant client of mine (@fuegomundo) in Atlanta. Pleased with initial interest and feedback so far. And we really event haven't kickstarted this effort yet!
  • Damn that looks tasty. You're killing me Chris, I brought a salad for lunch. Now I'm craving tacos!
  • I wish we had one of those around here. I had an idea similar to this but it would be a "gourmet grill cheese" bus.
    @bookerx3
  • Hey,

    This is a great usage of Twitter. This is something that can happen in a society that really digs social media. Unfortunately in my country we didn't reached this level of involvement.

    Great information in this article. Interesting !

    Thanks,
    TomaBonciu on Twitter
  • Erika Owens
    That food looked tasty. It is a smart idea for them to use twitter. Imagine when you were a kid waiting on the ice cream truck and never knowing where it was at, or when it was going to get to your house. With Twitter, if you're craving these tacos that mystery is solved! Great story.
  • Thanks Big B. Man I can always count on you to deliver the beef. This interview was extremely helpful for me because Roy was so transparent in sharing the truth about their journey. Great stuff Brogan as always.

    LaRon | @laroncarter
  • KOGI...BRILLIANT! I love it! Thanks!
  • I'm all in favor of LATimes and great stories, but I feel kinda weird when LATimes gets accolades for getting something right. That should be the norm! Come on LATimes, we're rooting for you!
  • Cheers Chris, glad you found the embed code. I anyone else wants to share the video, click the email envelope, then the Grab tab...then you can customize the code.

    This follow-up blog post talks about how @kogibbq's Twitter-fueled popularity led to a new brick-and-mortar location.

    Bon appetite,
    ~ Andrew | @latimesnystrom
    social media guy embedded in the LAT newsroom
  • I just ate lunch, and this made me hungry... again. When is the Kogi taco truck coming to Green Bay? Tailgate at Lambeau FTW!
  • What a brilliant idea. This seems like a great way to increase customer loyalty, and I bet that customers who follow the twitter feed are much more likely to purchase on a regular basis. It'd be interesting to see a formal study done on this.
  • What a great story. Thanks Chris!
  • Great, inspirational story, Chris. Love watching people successfully following their dreams. I especially liked the comment in the video about how they were kicked out within the first 10 minutes of their first stop. Just goes to show you that you can't ever be successful without a healthy dose of perseverance. Thanks for sharing this.
  • Great article.
    It'd be interesting to see an analysis of the cost involved in all the Twittering that is done on behalf of the Taco Truck.
    Yes, I know that Twitter is free, but time is not. So the important question to ask is, is this the best way to allocate these resources?
    I believe that for the taco truck, the answer is yes.
    For other business models, it's not so simple. Let's keep that in mind before deciding in a rush to get someone in our respective companies to spend time Twittering.
  • passion enhanced by twitter. great recipe!
    i'm hungry for more. now, let's see all of your folks with that fire in your belly to do more and be more, connect more!

    thanks chris
  • A great example of how twitter can help you promote your business. Made me feel peckish even though I don't eat meat!

    @Nickolove
  • That is an awesome story and I absolutely love Korean BBQ! Twitter is hot for those that understand how to harness it correctly. It's still hard to believe how fast information actually travels there. I've been showing chiropractors how to attract new patients with social media sites for a few years now and the same principles apply. Just proves that regardless of what business you have, social media can light a fire under it :)

    @MatthewLoop
  • @chrisbrogan ... this is a great story/example.

    It's great to see how they are using new media! The funny thing is that younger generations do this almost instinctively. Texting, posting pics on Flickr, talking on Twitter, updating their Facebook status and putting video's on YouTube is a "part of life" for our youth - largely in part to the 'connectedness' it brings to them. Sharing what is going on in their lives via social / new media tools is something they enjoy, look forward to and completely embrace!

    ---
    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • Love the mix of online and offline promotion.

    Also agree that LA Times deserves some credit for making their player embeddable. I'm getting tired of players that you can't embed. Why not just brand it and let interested people run with it and do the promotion for you?

    (I recently wrote a post about a Lexus car ad, but I couldn't find it on YouTube so I added it myself. Then, a week later I found out that Lexus had YouTube take it down b/c of a copyright claim, but there wasn't an official version, so I couldn't show their COMMERCIAL!! Why would you try to stop people from taking your commercial and giving it free promotion?!?)
  • This is totally cool! A Twitter Taco Truck!
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: