Carie LewisDeputy Director, Online Communications

@cariegrls

[ What Nonprofits Can Learn from Food Trucks ]

[ How did food trucks emerge? ]

In 1974 Raul Martinez converted an old ice cream truck into a taco truck and parked it in front of a bar in LA – the first modern day

food truck as we know it!

The concept of “mobile kitchens” date all the way

back to the 1600’s!

[ Why learn from them? ]

Food trucks have created a cultural shift in the way

people eat by being creative and taking advantage of new

technologies.

Here are 8 things nonprofits can learn from food trucks!

[ #1 - embrace entrepreneurial spirit! ]

When times get tough and budgets are stretched farther than ever, empower your people and encourage innovation.

[ we hold monthly innovation meetings which showcases cool stuff we see other people doing ]

[ #2 – differentiate yourself. ]

Stand out from the competition and create buzz by focusing on a niche and doing it really well.

[ we answer everyone, which sets us apart ]

[ #3 – take risks and test concepts. ]

Measure everything. Do more of what works and learn from your mistakes - but don’t make them twice.

[ we test everything including facebook post types ]

Photo post: Sam31,600 likes8,000 shares3,000 comments$5,000 raised

Video post: Billy9,500 likes4,400 shares1,000 comments$2,000 raised

[ #4 – define your brand and personality. ]

Have fun. Even a 50 year old organization can use social media to portray a “less stuffy” persona.

[ we create our own memes ]

Bringing your pets to work is such a HUGE part of our organization’s culture.

#felinefriday is way more interesting to our audience than #followfriday.

[ #5 – go where your people are. ]

Be fundamentally mobile and nimble: follow your fans but make it easy for them to get to you too.

Food trucks park outside bars where people are hanging

out and are hungry at the end of the night when nothing else is

open.

[ when google analytics told us our mobile traffic was growing, we sprung into action ]

You HAVE to be where people are – and make it as easy as possible.

We found our members are not on Twitter, but they talk about us there. Our members are on Facebook.

25% of our web traffic is from mobile devices.

[ #6 – use social media strategically. ]

Invest the time in social media, but don’t do it blindly. Have it contribute to your goals.

Food trucks’ goals are to generate sales. They engage with their fans to generate brand affinity.

They also listen to their audience’s feedback about menu items and locations and base business

decisions on it in order to sell more food.

[ we use Twitter primarily for customer service ]

Our goal on Twitter is customer service, on Facebook is advocacy.

If you look at our Twitter feed, it’s mostly @ replies.

LISTEN and find out what they like/want/need.

We report on Twitter feedback weekly and use it to inform decision making such as campaign messaging.

[ #7 – collaborate with the competition. ]

Large events including your competition bring people out in large numbers, and these are people that may not have known

about you otherwise.

There’s power in numbers: food trucks benefit from participating in large events like festivals and

competitions.

[ we are choosy about contests ]

Participating in charity contests are fun – but it’s an incredible resource investment and can be a high bar ask for your audience. Make sure the payoff is worth it!

In the end, make sure you close the loop.

[ #8 – create a sense of urgency.]

Your response rate will be higher if you tell people why they need to do what you’re asking RIGHT NOW.

Food trucks create FOMO – fear of

missing out – and people like to be a part

of things.

[ we are incredibly opportunistic and nimble ]

[ Contact ] clewis@humanesociety.org // @cariegrls