Today we’d like to introduce you to Pooja Reddy.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Pooja. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I actually started my food Instagram in Dallas. While living in Dallas, I realized how unique the food scene there was. I started to make a list of the notes app on my phone with all of the places I wanted to go to. I would always post pictures of my food on my snapchat and my friends started to become curious about these places.
I posted for the first time in August 2017 and it was just for myself and my friends. I did not plan on becoming an influencer or anything. If you look at my earlier posts, they are all in Dallas. After I moved to Houston, I still did not immerse myself in the food blogging world. I did not specifically go to places to take pictures, I went with my friends to eat and would just take a picture or two and post it.
It wasn’t until around the end of March 2018 when I started to interact with other food bloggers and got to go to my first tasting. Since then, my Instagram has grown a ton and I have gotten to go to many cool events!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never a smooth road. There are so many other food Instagrams out there, it is hard to get into the mix. There are some very sweet influencers that want to cooperate, and they helped me get to where I am today. I barely engaged with other people’s posts on Instagram at first. And then, I came to realize that unless I engage with their posts, they’re not going to engage with mine. I think the biggest struggle I had was with engagement. I always got so annoyed when people would unfollow me, but now I understand that it happens, and the people who truly like my content will be the ones to continue to follow me.
I think the biggest struggle was to be original. Obviously, when a trendy restaurant or food item comes out everyone posts about it. I wanted to be different, not just post about new and trendy foods, but food that I actually liked.
My advice is to just go for it! If you’re thinking about starting your own instagram or blog, don’t wait. It takes time to grow, but once you start to grow you will get tons of opportunities. And don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Everyone is different. You want to be unique. Your pictures don’t have to be of the same things as other influencers.
Please tell us about Reddy2Eat.
I am known for my food on Instagram. I am a college student currently so I am looking for affordable, delicious, trendy eats around Houston. I think I am pretty real and honest with my posts. If I don’t like something, I won’t post about it. I also take all my pictures with my iPhone 7; so I’m not doing anything fancy.
I think my food Instagram is different because I do not only post about the newest or trendiest places. I post about places I truly love to eat at or am glad that I got to try. When I looked at a bunch of other food Instagrams for places to eat a lot of the places they posted about were pretty expensive. As a college student, I can’t afford to go to all those places, so I want my Instagram to be a place for other students to find affordable eats that are just as Insta worthy.
I am honestly just so thankful that restaurants and brands notice me and think I have influence. If I am proud of anything, it is that my posts actually get people to go somewhere. I always have friends texting me that my new post made them super hungry or that they are at a place I’ve been to and are asking me what to order.
There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
I reached out to a food blogger from Instagram that was looking for other food bloggers in the area. She showed me the ropes and started to invite me to events. I think my advice would be to be social. It helps to make friends, and engage with others on social media. I can now go to any event or tasting alone and be comfortable that I will either know someone there or I will feel comfortable talking to someone there.
When you’re first starting out, you don’t get invited to everything. But when you do get an opportunity, you should take it. When I started getting invited to tastings and events, I tried my best to go to every one. I wanted to get my self out there and meet other bloggers. I think this worked really well because I’ve made tons of friends and we get to go to a lot of cool events together.
Contact Info:
- Email: poojanreddy929@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/reddy2eat
Image Credit:
@reddy2eat
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