How do Food Trends start in Social Media?

Written by TMG on April 9, 2014. Posted in Entertainment, Food

As with most things on social media, what is a trending food one day is thrown into compost the next. We once embraced cupcakes wholeheartedly, allowing for pop-up shops and wild experiments (Buffalo wing cupcakes; yes they’re real.)

But now that’s over.

So what is the recent food trend, you may ask? Good question. At the beginning of the week it was Boston Cream Pie Dessert Crepe. Although this chocolatey, creamy, savory food fad has been popular for a while now, it was just recently, for a fleeting moment, a trending twitter topic.

Most of us will take that piece of information at face value, and offer up a “Mmmm…” or “Yummmm” in response.

Why don’t we question where these things start, how do these things happen? Sure, we know that trending, in its simplest sense means that a lot of people are talking about a certain topic. But, what does the process of trending look like; is it a slow building process — or an explosion?

Here’s my guess:
Luck.

Luck, combined with good content. The initial piece of content needs to get out there at the right time, when the audience is most susceptible to the message. From there, the audience will be so transfixed by the gooey goodness that they won’t be able to keep it to themselves.

(Chocolate chips?! Well done.)

Anybody who likes to eat and fantasize about their next meal has, in some way or another, come across food porn, which aims to provide photos of delicious-looking food, and a feast for the eyes.

@ItsFoodPorn boasts 842-thousand followers, and happens to be our culprit for the spreading of the Boston Cream Pie Dessert Crepe trend.