Food Bloggers of Canada (FBC) is a business that works to help build the food blogging community in Canada. Some of the ways they do this by sharing the content of Canadian food bloggers on their social media platforms, running a food blogging conference, and connecting food bloggers with brands to create sponsored posts.
FBC was founded in 2011 when blogging had hit its stride and social media was still very much about having conversations on the various popular social media platforms. To some, these were the good ol’ days when blogs were more like public diaries, and social media focused more on being, well, social. Melissa Hartfiel, one of the co-founders of FBC, commented that social media has become more about broadcasting a message and less about having conversations. (M. Hartfiel, personal communication, November 28, 2017). Melissa also noted that, “It’s far more saturated, much noisier and harder to stand out. It takes a lot more effort to build and nurture a community through social media today than it did seven years ago.” (M. Hartfiel, personal communication, November 28, 2017). Because of the constant evolution of social media, Melissa and her business partner, Ethan Adeland, re-evaluate their social media strategy constantly in order to best serve the FBC members and the FBC clients.
FBC provides resources to help bloggers grow their businesses so they keep a close eye on what issues bloggers will be facing. FBC has created articles on subjects such as: how to use Tailwind to grow a larger Pinterest following, how to use Google Analytics, and how to grow your food blog community. Creating these resources is important so that FBC members can continue to create content at a professional level.
Running a business that supports food bloggers and connects them with brands requires FBC to be vigilant about the constantly changing world of social media. Being willing and able to make changes to their social media strategy will allow them to be able to meet the needs of their clients (the brands), and their members. It is also important to be willing to experiment with new developments in social media. These may not always be the right fit all the time but an element of boldness is valuable in the world of social media.
FBC also shares content produced by members on their different social media channels. This is an integral part of building an online community, which also helps FBC attract brands to work with them as clients.
The world of blogging is continually changing and much of that reason is because social media is evolving constantly and quickly. Melissa noted that bloggers can still find success at building a community, which an integral part of a successful blog, by using tools such as private Facebook groups where the blogger and blog readers can interact with one another. Melissa is also considering using the live streaming features of Instagram and Facebook to reach the FBC members, which is an interactive way to do things like tutorials or workshops. (M. Hartfiel, personal communication, November 28, 2017).
FBC plans to support their members in this constantly changing world of social media in a few ways. Since one of their goals is to share with the world the quality of the work that Canadian food bloggers produce, Melissa noted that she is intrigued by some interesting developments in translation artificial intelligence (AI). (M. Hartfiel, personal communication, November 28, 2017). This technology will open up vast new markets for English speaking bloggers.
Lessons for Others
Running a business that supports food bloggers and connects them with brands requires FBC to be vigilant about the constantly changing world of social media. Being willing and able to make changes to their social media strategy will allow them to be able to meet the needs of their clients (the brands), and their members. It is also important to be willing to experiment with new developments in social media. These may not always be the right fit all the time but an element of boldness is valuable in the world of social media.
Organization:
Food Bloggers of Canada
Industry:
Business Services
Name of Organization Contact:
Melissa Hartfiel, Managing Director, Editorial & Finance
Authored by: Christina Austin
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.
References
Food Bloggers of Canada Home Page. (2017). Food Bloggers of Canada. Retrieved November 28, 2017, from https://www.foodbloggersofcanada.com/.
Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. (2016, December 14). The Great A.I. Awakening. New York Times. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/magazine/the-great-ai-awakening.html.