Digital Community Manager Chelsea Doyle recently sat down with Retail Operations Night Coordinator Richard Escorsio and Manager of Dining Retail Operations Adeena Fisher to talk about the growing presence of Bowdoin Dining on social media.

Richard started the @BowdoinDining Twitter account in May 2013, when he noticed a waning interest in Facebook among students. Twitter quickly became a great way to spread the word and they began using @BowdoinDining daily to post specials, pictures of favorite dishes, and announcements of sample tastings. They also tweet about pub night music, trivia games, and live sporting events. Look for hashtags #The Grill and #FastTrack, as well as participation in national campaigns such as #FoodDay2014.

Richard and Adeena were both impressed by how quickly they saw the impact of a tweet in the community. “If we do a sampling at the store, I’ll take a picture and tweet it out. And that’s what’s really exciting, because someone will retweet it, and in a matter of five minutes there’s a line down the hallway,” says Adeena.

Richard plans to expand his social media interests beyond Twitter and see what works best for Bowdoin Dining, both in the community and for the staff. “I’m using GroupMe now in the store and for the grill managers, and it’s easy to communicate with everyone at once.”

Working with Chelsea, Richard and Adeena started a @BowdoinDining Instagram account that debuted February 25. Their first post: a video of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies coming out of the oven (there’s no question they have the hang of this social network). With a perfect combination of photos of food, dining staff, students, and events, they’ve hit their stride and are seeing a quick follower growth.

Bowdoin Dining is a great example of how social media can be used successfully to create awareness and drive both foot traffic and online traffic to venues.