In February, Facebook turned 20 years old. For two decades, this social media platform has inspired communication, influenced consumer decisions, and started trends that have created and ruined markets.
One sector that has been majorly affected by the advent of Facebook and the social media boom that followed is food blogging. According to ProfileTree, there are more than 32 million food bloggers in the United States alone, and 42% of them depend on ads on social media platforms to earn their keep.
What once began as an attempt to share personal stories, cultural histories, and relationships with food has now evolved into something quite bigger and perhaps also grown a tad impersonal.
Where It Started
The primary reason behind creating a food blog is the love of food. More than 75% of bloggers report that they create the content for personal satisfaction. Social media once took the power away from the hands of a few professionals. Platforms allowed everyone, from homemakers to individual chefs and college students making their first bowl of instant noodles, to share their stories of culinary adventures.
However, as these blogs grew to define trends and impact customer behavior, they have unfortunately become more about creating and selling products instead of sharing stories with fellow enthusiasts and building communities.
By sharing personal and historical anecdotes associated with the dishes they presented, bloggers have shared their love for food and stories with their readers for a while. This has helped build communities, and kitchen tables grew to create space for people from diverse backgrounds.
“I’ve been blogging since 2009. Before the advent of Facebook and, more broadly, social media, bloggers’ writing was more geared toward storytelling. We enjoyed writing about our knowledge of and the cultural and historical significance of the recipes we shared,” says Lana Stuart of Lana’s Cooking, a site dedicated to sharing Southern comfort food with the world.
Stuart isn’t the only one who feels this way. When food blogs first emerged, a significant characteristic was their focus on sharing people’s relationships with food. So, recipes weren’t just recipes; they brought different cultures to the world’s table. Food became a catalyst for communication.
Anne Mauney, the creator of fannetastic food and a blogger since 2009, says, “The biggest change is that readers tend to interact with bloggers more on their social media channels nowadays than they do on the actual blog. In the early years of my blog, the comment section of my blog was its own community — readers knew each other by name and would comment and reply to each other entirely in the comment section.
“I also became friends in real life with a number of blog readers back then and with other bloggers as well because we were constantly interacting on each other’s websites. It felt like a cozy community.”
How It’s Going
This sense of community, of personal connection, seems to have disappeared as Facebook started focusing more on the business side of the site. While bloggers today can access different audiences, the connection with global readers through social media and the interpersonal relationships that transcended barriers and flourished in the comment sections faded over time.
Facebook’s massive push to feature sponsored ads on timelines makes it significantly difficult for bloggers to have any organic reach. In the early days of Facebook, it was easy to stand out amongst peers as long as one had solid content. Now, there is an overreliance on reaching target consumers using sponsored ads and clickbait-y headlines.
Today, food bloggers spend more time on social media than ever. However, reaching readers who already like the same content is becoming more challenging. With bloggers depending more on affiliate and sponsored content, the focus has shifted from sharing easy, tasty recipes to creating consumers who will buy products.
“It was so much easier to connect directly with readers in the earlier days of Facebook and their other companies, like Instagram. Now, Facebook makes it harder to connect with people who have already said they enjoy your content or to reach a new audience without relying on paid ads or click-bait headlines,” says Alex Caspero from Delish Knowledge.
Food has always formed an intricate part of society. People have gathered over platters of delicacies to celebrate various events, socialize, and enjoy being part of a community. Traditionally, renowned culinary experts would share their knowledge with the masses. Today, social media platforms have allowed individual bloggers and influencers to share the joy of cooking with others.
