Social media is a bizarre world full of picture posting, “me me me”-ing and so much content that it’s hard to absorb even a fraction of the messages. But, I will say, that if you choose your battles and dedicate your time to one channel, the payoff is great. I’ve gravitated towards Instagram as my channel of choice for a number of reasons – the food community is bar none, inspiration in the form of jaw-droppingly beautiful images is aplenty, and no less important – it serves as a laboratory for future food posts.
I’ve had people ask me how I develop content for the site and the answer is twofold: often a story worth telling pops into my head and I reverse engineer a food connection from that starting point (e.g. “Valentine’s Day and other tragedies“). But I also use Instagram as a way to test the popularity of certain dishes. If I notice that people really love eggs, “Green Shakshuka” will show up on the blog.
Today, the show is all about cocktails, which just so happens to be an Instagram-driven topic. A few months ago I started posting a regular Friday night cocktail, and noticed a trend. Every time I post my Friday night cocktail:
1. I immediately lose followers, which suggests that I’ve somehow attracted a large percentage of a) teetotalers and/or b) people who don’t like to have a good time. So if you would include yourself in one or more of those categories, I’ll clarify: You will see booze on this site. Lots of it. I sometimes mix myself a lunch cocktail and once drank red wine at breakfast. [sneeze]Forbreakfast.
2. Of those who do leave comments, the response is overwhelmingly positive. A few of my favorites:
- Whoa, check this out! [tags friend]
- [tags friend] lets get that party on the books!
- I think I’m in love….shhh don’t tell my husband and my personal favorite:
- Fååårk det lyder perfekt! (which I imagine to mean “f*** this looks perfect!”….but maybe it’s really “far from perfect!” or “for your diet this is perfect!”
If anyone can answer this question, I’ll send you a Bloody Mary. Or at least a recipe for a Bloody Mary.)
You can see that a lot of friend tagging happens when I post a cocktail picture. I get it; people are excited for the weekend. They’re eager to discuss where the night will start. And this, by the way, makes me incredibly happy. I love knowing that I have some infinitesimally small part in kick-starting people’s weekends. Where they take it from there (raging hangover, walk of shame in fishnets and a borrowed boyfriend T.) is up to them.
I also find this second point interesting because I never get the same kind of reaction with my food pics. It’s not that my food images are unloved, it’s just that people are far more vocal when meals are posted in liquid form.
Which…suggests one thing: People aren’t making fancy cocktails at home.
Am I right?
I see a few obstacles in the making of cocktails at home.
Please answer the following questions honestly:
- When you’re at a bar and order a Gin & Tonic or a Vodka soda and the bartender asks for your liquor preference, do you panic? Furthermore:
- Do you squeak out the word “Belvedere” not sure whether you’ve dropped the name of a gin or vodka brand?
- Or do you just casually say “whatever you’ve got on hand”, attempting to seem low key when really your booze game is weak?
- Could you spot a jigger out of a bar tools lineup? A muddler? How about a Hawthorne strainer?
- Do you have the right barware above your fully-stocked bar? (brandy snifters, champagne flutes, highball glasses, rocks glasses, copper mugs for Moscow mules, etc.?)
- Do you even have a bar? (translation: counter that holds at least three bottles of hard alcohol)
If your answers were Yes, Yes, Yes, No, No, No then count yourself amongst the majority.
Because mixing a cocktail is intimidating. And if you don’t do it correctly, your drink will be a total failure.
