Whitfield @whitfieldpgh

Coordinating Whitfield's social media account started out experimental. Located inside Ace Hotel Pittsburgh, I was originally hired as a barista and barback and knew very little about taking photos of food or beverages. At the time, my background was essentially people, faces and expressions. Now I had to take an inanimate object and give it personality to understand the flavor and texture.

The Creative Process

Whitfield was known for their locally sourced in-house butchery program, Sunday Supper and seasonal craft cocktails. Those key points were the foundation for the feed and definitely wanted to highlight daily.

The restaurant and the coffee shop were the places to highlight so morning posts usually consisted of coffee beverages, pastries, and breakfast/brunch, afternoon posts were light and fresh so salads and sandwiches, and in the evening steaks, hearty sides, and cocktails galore.

Things to consider for the copy:

Highlighting the food or beverage in the photo
Listing out the ingredients
Sharing the name of the event and time and day of occurence
Catchy one liner at the beginning of the copy
Tagging the correct person if UGC
No hashtags (not part of the aesthetic)

Tagging the chefs and their restaurants was important to highlight because it was one of the selling points for the event.

The process of making the food was also important to show. The clean, white background enhanced the vibrancy of the food even more.

Last thing that I made sure to include was a relevant hashtag. It's branding for the event but also a reminder for our followers to use the hashtag if participating in the event so that way we can go back and see the reach we gained.

The closeout was short and sweet and acknowledged all the hard work that was put into this event.

Looking back the only thing I would do differently is not include these horizontal shots but something that I've moved away from today.

goal: execute brand awareness to increase traffic and sales for the restaurant, highlight seasonal dishes and events, increase overall social presence to increase followers

result: saw an increase in positive responses to the quality of food and experience, led multiple influencer collaborations for food reviews, through promotion we increased in our attendance to weekly and seasonal events.

Whitfield presents Sharing Farms
collaborative dinner series, highlighting Pittsburgh's foraging and farming greats

Stories was the best way to inform people about the event. There were still tickets for the event so a reminder the day before was a smart way to segue the stories.

Morning of the event it was time to show all the chefs showing up. Throughout the stories I made sure to tag the hotel to later repost on the hotel's account.