Loading

Focusing on Food: Student runs digital marketing business By Anita Liu

Along with running her food blog page on Instagram, senior Katie Wong is a freelance digital marketer for various businesses around San Francisco. She currently works for Black Sugar, Doughp, Mr.East Kitchen and Matcha Cafe Maiko.

All photos by Anita Liu

What is your job and what does that entail?

I’m a freelance digital marketer for small businesses. Right now they’re all in San Francisco, but I also do the Bay Area. Digital marketing includes social media management and I work with various business owners to determine a marketing schedule. For example, if there are any seasonal holidays coming up, then we plan promotions and stuff like that. Social media management and photography is just a big part of what I do.

How did you start this business?

The business took off around this summer because I was working as a waitress and front of house manager at a restaurant up at West Portal for two years and it closed very suddenly right before summer and I was like, “Oh shoot what am I going to do or what job am I going to have,” because I didn’t want to go back to work at a different restaurant. So I figured since I’m always on social media, I might as well make something out of it. I started my food blog on Instagram and I used my food blog to get in contact with various business owners and I would reach out later and be like, “Hey, I also do social media management and arrange a consultation meeting.” Initially, I got a lot of no’s but ultimately the yes’s started coming later so that was nice. When I started, I learned as I went. I watching a lot of YouTube video and read articles on new marketing strategies and studies.

What was the first restaurant you did this for?

The first would technically be the restaurant I worked at, that’s when I first started practicing social media management. Soon after that, I worked for Black Sugar and that was my first real client. Black Sugar is a boba shop closer to the Tenderloin and Downtown, and they’ve been doing pretty good.

What was the moment that you realized this could be a business?

I saw other businesses have really cohesive Instagram pages and really good marketing techniques and I figured I’m always on social media and people were making jobs on it and I could too.

Clockwise from top left: Wong begins her work process by first consulting with her client. In this picture, she is conversing with the owner of Black Sugar. She then studies analytics and marketing techniques for the business and determines what she needs to do to help the business' online presence grow. Finally, she photographs products to post online.

Why are you passionate about this?

It’s not something where I’m sitting at an office all day, I get to go visit different clients and photograph different foods and desserts. And the best part would probably be eating them after.

What’s your favorite thing about it?

I’ve been dabbling with food photography so that’s pretty fun. And I just really like talking to different people every day when I’m wandering around the city going from client to client. I also really enjoy the fact that I get the opportunity to telecommute from home, school or wherever.

Can you explain your work process?

On a normal day for social media management, I would probably go meet with my client, take pictures of any new products, upload and edit the photos and then arrange a posting schedule. I always make sure all of our bases are covered, whether we have any news to announce or new items or holiday specials. I also spend a lot of time on my phone when it comes to interacting with the online community, like Instagram, Facebook, liking pictures, commenting, tedious stuff like that. Web design, photography and post captions are not always as easy and straightforward as some may assume. It requires careful, strategic thought and verbiage in order to be able to persuade as much of the audience as possible. I spend a lot of time researching competition and marketing tactics, as well as closely watching analytics to see what the audience likes and doesn't like to see.

Biggest accomplishment(s) or favorite thing(s) you’ve done?

Matcha Cafe Maiko in Japantown just hit 10,000 followers and since I started in January we were gaining 500 followers in one month, so I was pretty happy with that. And when I started with Black Sugar, we had about 50 followers and within a few months, we were at 1,600.

Has being a Lowell student affected your work in any way?

It hasn’t affected my work, I try to arrange my work around my schedule, but being a Lowell student and working a full-time job has been pretty difficult, but it’s all about how you balance your work and how you plan out your time.

Has doing this affected your school work in any way?

My mom would say yes and it probably has because sometimes it’s hard to balance out work with school. Work is a commitment, I have to live up to my clients’ expectations so sometimes it does have precedence over my school work, which is probably not the best thing.

How has your work impacted your life?

It’s been pretty fun, I get to meet a lot of new people and try a lot of new things. But I do spend 8-9 hours on my phone every day across various social networks. So I’m on my phone a lot but I just have to remember to enjoy the day and look up once in a while.

A big part of Wong's job is managing Instagram pages by creating posts, posting on the stories, and interacting with the followers. Wong is pictured at Mr.East Kitchen photographing her choice of brunch, Thai Tea Toast and a boba drink, to post on their Instagram story.

Have you has anyone doubted you because you’re a high schooler?

That was definitely a big one when I was first starting out doing sales consultations because I was always worried about if they asked me what college are you at or what’s your full-time job. So I did get that question once and I completely dodged it and I just said, “I’ll tell you later,” which is probably not the most professional thing to say. Right now I live up to it and tell people that I am a high school senior and people are pretty okay with it, looking at my previous experiences.

The most important thing you’ve learned?

Plan out everything ahead of time, be efficient and really put effort into your work.

Check out the Instagram pages that Wong runs below: