Foodies On Twitter
Jul 16th, 2009 by admin
I’ve been using Twitter regularly for over a year now (I’m @foodieguide), and thought I’d talk about how useful it has been, particularly for a foodie. I choose to follow people who are interesting, passionate about food and communicative, responding to food-related questions and providing advice and suggestions. They are a mixture of fellow food bloggers, food writers and general food enthusiasts from countries as diverse as Uruguay, South Africa, China and Australia. Of course I also follow many London and UK-based foodies as well, but I really do enjoy chatting with my non-UK Twitterers, to get a different perspective on food issues and to learn about more unusual recipes.
I also follow food newspapers and publications with a presence on Twitter, including The Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog, Times Food, Olive magazine, Delicious magazine, New York Times Food, Gourmet Traveller magazine and Time Out Eat Drink, so I can read articles posted on Twitter, as well as recipes and other food tweets. Using a combination of Twitter and my RSS reader, I can keep up with food news around the world.
So what is Twitter like on a practical level? I recently conducted a small poll on Twitter, asking my followers what their favourite dim sum was, and was overwhelmed with the response. When I tweeted about my courgettes flowering, I learned that some are female and others male, as well as how to pollinate them. Lunch and dinner dates with other foodies are regularly made on Twitter, and I’ve purchased books as a result of recommendations and discussions. The other day, a fellow food blogger wanted to know which of two dim sum restaurants in London’s Chinatown was better. Food bloggers and I responded immediately and I pointed her towards dim sum posts on my blog. On the same evening at a restaurant, I couldn’t decide between slow-roasted Norfolk black pig belly with wood roasted apricots and mustard jus or Cumbrian rump of lamb with sauteed girolles and pesto. I sent out a tweet and my followers helped me make up my mind (the lamb won). Now I need advice on the best place to have afternoon tea in London, to celebrate my upcoming wedding anniversary. Sharing photos of lunches and dinners, and links to recipes and food-related articles and posts is also commonplace.
Here are some examples of food-related tweets from bloggers around the world over a six hour period, posted while I was asleep at night. Every morning, I check tweets from the night before, because due to time zone differences the people I follow will have certainly tweeted about food events or recipes I wouldn’t want to miss.
@inuyaki woops…started smoking pastrami an hour ago and a neighbor dropped by to complain. I didn’t know we had neighbors nearby after 6pm.
@cookingwithamy Total food orgy at Mozza with @barbaricgulp Always good to dine with a food blogger. Fried squash blossoms, marrow, pizza. Yes please!
@Ganga108 Having porridge for lunch, it is such a cold day. With poached quinces, and prunes soaked in orange, cardamom and jaggery.
@CharlieMcVeigh Sicily: recos pls for a hotel and resto in Syracusa. Any restos in Ragusa, Modica Nota. Also wine tips. Best chocolate shop in Modica?
@chezus1 Sweet potato chips r a cook’n & chipolte steak getting ready for grill
@norecipes Cooking with no recipes doesn’t always work. Blueberry olive oil cake failed… more like blueberry olive oil pudding…
@TOfoodie Frank: artichoke fritters too battery, short rib ravioli a bit flat but strawberry crepe & henry moore cocktail were delicious. Just a 7/10.
@rasamalaysia Going to make sambal asparagus tonight, with scallops. 
@TangledNoodle A surprising way to knead dough! RT @SheSimmers How to make bouncy and chewy homemade udon noodles: new post http://tinyurl.com/nj9eck
@ZenChef Pan-roasting a veal chop. Just added garlic cloves and rosemary to the pan.. and about 25lbs of butter! Mmmm…
On the downside, I’ve unfollowed quite a few people over the course of the year, sometimes because they weren’t as interesting as they initially seemed, or they were happier talking about themselves rather than communicating with others. It can also be difficult to express oneself clearly in 140 characters or less. Once in a while, misunderstandings can occur and ruffled feathers have to be smoothed. Twitter can also be time-consuming, distracting and addictive. I’m trying not to let it take over my life, but it can be hard. For me, it’s an extension of blogging, but I quite often spend more time chatting on Twitter than writing posts for World Foodie Guide. Overall though, I couldn’t imagine life without Twitter, and I recommend that you join it if you haven’t already, use it regularly and become part of the foodie community. If you are on Twitter, let me know why you use it and what you like about it. See you there!
PS. After I wrote my post, I saw this on Twitter from @problogger on a post called Twitter Crash Course for Food Bloggers, which I thought would be useful for newbie foodies.
I wholly recommend Twitter too – although it has since taken over my life , I talk to twitter more than I talk to real people
I like twitter but I think I’m still trying to get used to it. It’s all so very strange, the idea of having random convo with random people, who sometimes really don’t care about what you have to say. I also definately find it easily distracts me (ADD) and have to go off it in order to get work done, shut down for couple of days. But, as you said, it has helped me meet many foodies around the world, exchange interesting tips and ideas and feel more part of a community. Happy to say I’m here to stay
We at Gourmet Girl Magazine.com couldn’t agree more. Gourmet foodies see the kitchen as the place to entertain our palate and nourish our soul. We use Twitter to develop relationships with our gourmet food loving readers from around the world. There is more to food than just eating, Twitter provides the conduit for me to have conversations about ingredients, techniques, sources and share ideas.
I concur Helen, how else would we have met if it wasn’t for Twitter.
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Nice post. I even found a couple of new people to follow, including you. Twitter has been an interesting thing for me because I broke my right arm horribly last year and 140 characters has been much easier than the longer form of blog posts.
Twitter changed my life completely. I’m hooked. I ♥ it to bits…but I’M SUPERGLUED TO IT! I have a tough time peeling myself odd twitter at times. This is a great post! I loved reading it!!
Being a bit of a newcomer to Twitter (only started using it earlier this year) I agree that it hooks you in and can be a bit of a time waster. But, I also think that it is such a great way of finding references to articles or posts that you would never have discovered otherwise and also in getting advice.
Twitter is definitely a useful resource for us foodies and I have organised lunch dates, found out how to reset my electrics when a fuse tripped and made new friends with it. It works for me.
Ah, Rowley’s Queen of Puddings. Superb!
Nice post and thanks for immortalizing my blueberry olive oil pudding;-P I always have a tough time deciding between inclusion and exclusion (whether to follow people back who follow me or not). I think I’ve tended towards inclusion unless the person was using twitter for blatant spam. But the end result is that it’s harder for me to keep up with the people I actually have an interest in.
Before a friend pretty much bullied me into joining twitter, just a few months ago, I really didn’t understand the appeal. I already kept up with happenings in friends’ lives via LJ and other such general life blogs and I read subject specific blogs for the hobbies side of things.
But once I joined, and then happened to start my own food blog about the same time, I realised twitter’s appeal and value.
Where one has a specific passion, whether it’s food or Dr Who or a TV show or whatever, it’s so quick and easy to become part of a community of similarly interested folks in your locality or all around the country or even globally.
The richness of interaction with my food-related twitter friends continues to delight and astound me in equal measures. Not only have I made new friends I’ve also received great advice about my blog (not to mention increased readership, which is so helpful to a newbie blogger), I’ve been able to share advice (about courgette flowers amongst other things;), received advice and recipe tips and learned all kinds of things about new and old restaurants. And had much fun too!
I also follow/ am followed by older friends, my real life crowd and others. And that’s fun too, none of the boring “I’m on the train” tweets I’d been afraid of.
But certainly it’s been the foodie community that’s made twitter so appealing for me!
Okay, i’m gonna admit i didn’t *really* use 25lbs of butter. But it sounds so much more dramatic that way. Great article and thank you for the mention!
Twitter is such a great and easy way to keep in touch between food bloggers. I love it almost as much as i love your blog.
I <3 twitter. Thanks to twitter I got to know you better!
I’m still scared of Twitter, I waste enough of my time online already without having to catch up on tweets too! Maybe one day I will be organised enough to join (or I just need a fancy phone so I can tweet on the bus!)
At first, I couldn’t understand the appeal of Twitter – following and tweeting about life’s minutiae? I still don’t know what compelled me to sign up but now, it’s become a part of my blog universe. I’m still a bit of a ‘lurker’, reading more than I reply or re-tweet, which I do more than tweet something new myself. But I’m getting the hang of it! Now, I’m debating whether or not TweetDeck is merited at this point.
Many thanks for the mention here!
Great post! I love twitter, it is such a great marketing tool, I use it for our business as well as chez us and it really has helped bring exposure for us. Wonderful relationships being built and meeting people we would have never met, like you!
Thank you for the mention! We really appreciate it!
Oddly enough I was having this conversation with friends last night. I was definitely a Twitter sceptic, and initially it did seem a little pointless. However Kavey totally hits the nail on the head- once you have a shared interest (in this case food) it’s very easy to become part of a community. I really enjoy reading tweets from the people whose blogs I follow and often getting a bit of a preview about what they may be blogging about next. Most of the people that I follow I’ve never met in real life, but I feel that we’d get on very well if we ever did!
Found this via a tweet from Vindee!
I like using Twitter to hear what everyone is making with seasonal produce, and to keep in touch with food events etc.
Nice blog Helen, love that Q of pud topping!
When I started using twitter, I had pretty much stopped blogging. I find microblogging much easier because of my hectic lifestyle. I simply don’t have the time to dedicate to my blog although I feel I should start again. Through twitter I’ve met other people into food, and ultimately similarly minded people be it about music, travel or other interests.
I am http://www.twitter.com/foodbymark
kang – me too! None of my ‘real life’ friends are on Twitter and it’s so much easier to stay in touch with Twitter friends, some of whom I’ve met through blogging – like you!
Bethany – there are definitely good & bad things about Twitter. It’s important to control its usage rather than let it control you (easier said than done!). I feel a bit left out of the ‘conversation’ if I haven’t been on for a while (that’s hours, not days). I remember reading some useful advice about dipping in and out of the stream rather than trying to be in it the whole time.
Elaine – you’re so right, food is so much more about just eating! Sharing experiences, recipes, thoughts, ideas – that’s what Twitter is great for.
kitchenMage – oh dear! I hope you’ve recovered since the accident. 140 characters must be so much easier for you than a lengthy blog post!
deeba – it really is hard to stay off Twitter! I wish it weren’t so addictive and fun and easy to use…
GourmetChick – the positives outweigh the negatives. I’m reading a much wider depth of material from other blogs and publications that I wouldn’t have come across from just blogging. The time wasting part is a big factor though and one that has to be better managed by me!
Lizzie – so did you get your oven to start working after all those Twitter tips?!
Douglas – you sound like a man who has had Le Cafe Anglais’ Queen of Puddings more than once!
Marc @ NoRecipes – thanks for bringing up the subject of who to follow and not follow. It’s a tricky subject. Over the last year I’ve found it really difficult to keep up with people’s tweets. I prefer to know more about each person that I follow, than follow everyone and know very little about them. So although I don’t follow as many people back as I should, I hope that I remember little details about each person so that I can have a better quality conversation with them. For example, I remember a while back you were featured in the NYT (correct?!)…It really depends what each person wants to get out of Twitter. I prefer a more personal ‘relationship’ and don’t collect followers for numbers or anything like that.
Kavey – great to hear your food-related experiences on Twitter! That’s how I felt about it when I first joined. There’s so much to learn and share on Twitter – if you follow and are followed by the right, like-minded people. I don’t just follow foodies, but they do form the majority of my Twitter friends!
zenchef – oh no! What a confession to make on my blog! My illusions have been shattered…Twitter’s great, I agree!
The Purple Foodie – I totally agree! It’s like a portal for blogs too, in a way. Through Twitter, I’ve added many more blogs to my RSS reader.
Jenny – oh don’t be scared! Unless it’s the addiction you’re worried about. It’s because so many of us are online that we use Twitter. You don’t have to be on it all the time! Try it and see what you think.
Tangled Noodle – I don’t think my office would let me install TweetDeck on my work laptop, which would help me immensely to read tweets and I would be able to follow more people than I am currently. I think people use Twitter the way they want to. There’s no right or wrong way (spam is wrong though!), just however it fits best in to your life!
Chez US – you’re so welcome! I agree, it’s a wonderful medium for building relationships that can develop into real life ones, and a very quick and convenient way to stay in touch with people wherever you and they are…
The Fastest Indian – Kavey’s right. You have to focus on an interest or area (or a couple of them) in order to make the most out of Twitter. Otherwise you can end up quite lost and tweet aimlessly!
Nicisme – thanks! Twitter is fantastic for so many reasons. I just wrote about what it’s done for me over the last year!
Mark – I think Twittering suits your busy lifestyle, because we can see photos of your meals and read about where you’re eating. Blogging is best saved for when you have time to do it, otherwise it’s too rushed and pressure takes the fun out of it!
Helen Yuet Ling
so true!! i got only twitter only a week or two ago! but i LOVE how i get to meet SO many people with similar interests!
I like tweeting about food, great for talking about upcoming menus, but mostly I like doing ‘micro reportage’ of things that I’m doing…
great post. but sometimes it is difficult to make all tweets interesting. but im hooked on twitter and it has brought me to another level in terms of research and knowledge for food. and it has influence me to finally create my own blog.
thanks for sharing!
raj @ the hungry cook – glad you’ve joined Twitter! It’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
MsMarmitelover – Twitter’s great for ‘micro reportage’. Sometimes by the time you write a post about an event, it’s not so much fun anymore!
penny – of course it’s hard to make all tweets interesting, but I think one’s personality should shine through the tweets, even if it’s about a mundane subject. Congrats on starting your own blog!
Helen Yuet Ling
I struggle with Twitter because while I agree with all your points, sometimes I feel a bit of a voyeur or intruder jumping in on conversations. I also have a hard time with pushing information out to people, where with a blog they can select to come and read it or not, here its hard to avoid. I’ve tried to be inclusive as well but agree at some point you loose track of the folks that you are really interested in.
Tweetdeck for me is a lifesaver because I have 2 Twitter accounts. I consult and so have a separate account for that, as I realize that to tweak on both topics would not only confuse people but really muck up my message. After some false starts – market commentary to my foodie friend I figured out how to use Tweetdeck to support both accounts otherwise I had to sign into one account, sign out to access the other – you could not have both opened in Twitter simultaneously which was a huge struggle. You post what you have to say in a flurry of tweets sign out and repeat with the other account. I was the Twitter that fustrated me most, the person that posted 10 things at once and bam you did not hear from for a few hours.
You have a nice foodie post list going there. We see a lot of foodie tweets too (I manage the @LoveMyPhilly Twitter account) and we have some really great people/foodies on there that love sharing a lot of great ideas with us. In your case, I can even see Twitter being good for organizing lunch or dinner dates. (probably a more private profile though) Awesome post!
Eric Green – thanks! Twitter’s really changed my social life and I’m eating out with a lot more foodies these days (which probably gives my poor friends a break, as they can’t keep up with me!)
Helen Yuet Ling