[Narrator] This is Neda.
Her full time job is putting pictures of food on Instagram.
She's an influencer that's used her talent
to gain nearly half a million followers.
She also consults restaurants
on how to stand out on social media.
- I got into starting my Instagram account
while I was actually in law school.
I was always a foodie
and this was about four years ago,
everyone had like some kind
of instagram they were starting up.
Let's start with a patty melt .
We're trying to get people hungry
so I just want them to see things sizzling.
Okay go.
As much cheese as you can,
like the more cheese, the better.
Bring the dog closer. Yeah.
Yes, so much cheese.
I once went to a pizza place.
We were like,
"okay, what can we do to set this place apart?"
And hot cheetos was just starting to become trendy.
I'm like, "why don't we just dump
a bunch of hot cheetos on to the pizza?"
We did that and made a video about it
and there was literally a line
around the block the next day.
It's something that's simple
that can really make a food go viral.
It really needs to be something
that sets you apart from other places.
It's not just taste-wise.
Like it actually visually has to look different.
[Narrator] Celebrities can make
hundreds of thousands of dollars for sponsored posts.
The micro influencers,
smaller accounts with loyal following,
can also bring home a decent chunk of change.
According to Captivate, an influencer analytic platform,
micro influencers can make up to $5,000
for posts sponsored by a company or brand.
And that doesn't even include other services
like consulting or menu development
or running social media accounts.
- It's time to take pictures now.
It's easier to kind of
get like everything in the shot, if I'm holding it,
'cause I can kind of angle it properly.
I like to make the picture look cool
by getting something from the restaurant's background in it.
So since we're shooting a bacon-wrapped hot dog,
there's a bacon-wrapped hot dog sign right here.
So I'll probably take 150 shots of the exact same item
from different angles with different backgrounds.
So we're just going to walk over to the streets.
I wanna get a little bit
of the palm trees in the background,
just to make the picture look a little bit cooler.
Basically this is my life.
I'm always holding up a piece of food like this.
Perfect. Cool.
Got the shot.
- Neda always has been in charge
of all our social media and all those things.
I see a huge percentage of customers always telling us,
"Oh we saw you on Facebook" or "We saw you on Instagram"
or this or that.
And it demonstrates to me that social media plays
a very, very huge factor
on where people decide where to eat.
- Neda really pointed out that
for Instagram-friendly ice cream,
this needs to be frozen for a long time
and it needs to be high,
the toppings need to be presented well,
it shouldn't cover the entire ice cream.
And definitely we took that advice
and our Instagram pictures
of our ice creams are way better, yeah.
[Narrator] Influencers are even affecting the design
of restaurants themselves.
Many are adding elements like photo-friendly lighting
and dynamic backgrounds.
But the Federal Trade Commission
has recently begun to crack down
on undisclosed partnerships on social media.
In September 2017, they sent warning letters
to a variety of influencers
stating that posts without clear and conspicuous disclosure
is a breech of federal guidelines.
So using hashtags like #spawn or #paid
isn't all that's required now.
- Tastes like what a unicorn would taste like.
(laughs)
- Is it any good?
- It's different.
(laughs)
The one thing that people ask me all the time is,
"Do you like everything that you post?"
And to be honest, I don't.
It's all fair game.
Go try it out for yourself and see if you like it.
[Narrator] To watch more videos about viral food click here.
- Everyone thinks that know someone
who knows how to do social.
You don't, right, it's really a full time job,
and it's becoming clear to restaurants
that your manager can't run it anymore.