1. Accounts
I am mainly active on Instagram, where my account is primarily focused on documenting my experiences at F&B businesses in Brisbane, i.e. places/services where people can go buy something to eat/drink. I don't typically do feed posts about home cooking, recipes, or non-food topics, though these may appear on my stories. Unless otherwise specified, the rest of the information on this page relates primarily to my Instagram account/activities.
I don't participate in like for like, follow for follows, loops, engagement pods or anything of that nature. Nor am I interested in purchasing followers, engagement, or employing whatever latest trick may be popular to grow my account with such tactics. So don't ask/invite me.
Accounts playing the follow-unfollow game automatically qualify for the privilege of joining my block list.
I may also cull my follower list from time to time to remove inactive / ghost accounts (eg no interaction with me / engagement with my content within the past year or so).
I have a linked Facebook page where most Instagram content is automatically cross posted unless restricted by platform technology constraints (e.g. can't cross post Instagram feed post containing videos to Facebook). This page was a requirement when I first set up my Instagram business account so that's why it's there. Also some followers prefer/are only on Facebook as a platform so that provides an alternative for them. But I don't spend much time there.
As of July 2023, I am a level 10 Google Local Guide on my personal Google account where I may also post reviews and upload photos/videos. I've been uploading photos and editing listing info for a while now but am more sporadic with contributions compared to Instagram. I'm currently sitting on 600+ reviews & 19K photos/videos with 278M combined views.
A note about ratings/scoring
I don't do ratings or give scores to venues or individual dishes. In part this is because I feel this is an oversimplification and I would rather give my opinion and provide some context for that opinion. I give star ratings on Google because the platform requires it, and these stars mean exactly what Google states it to mean, i.e. 5 stars means I loved it, 4 I liked it, 3 it was ok etc. Since no half stars are possible I may inconsistently round up or down, e.g. if it was more than just ok but not quite "liked it", a place may still score only 3 stars.
2. Posting process
Stories, reels, and feed/grid posts
With any place I visit/purchase food from, I usually post at least 1 story (photo/collage/video) the same or next day.
I may do a reel or grid post with a review / descriptive caption about my food/experience. This depends on factors such as how much I enjoyed the food / previous visits / perceived relevance to my audience, and what I've managed to capture during my visit. These posts can be up to a few weeks/months behind real time. I rarely do more than 1 post per visit, and don't do posts with just a picture and a few words/hashtags.
There was a time when I would post almost daily but now that I mainly post reels (which take a fair bit of effort to make) I generally aim to post every 2-3 days.
I focus my time and energy more on posting about the food/venues I like. But I do also share honest opinions / post negative reviews, so if you only want good vibes then don't follow me.
Vendor, venue, and victuals details
I include business location details/geotags and mention/tag business accounts where I can. This is primarily to help my audience identify / locate the business I am posting about. My feed posts will usually also contain details of the menu item (and sometimes description) of the pictured food, along with pricing.
Agency
This process is the same whether I'm paying full price as a normal customer or getting some form of discounted/free meal for whatever reason. At all times I retain full agency of my posts (e.g. whether I post anything at all, when I do it, what I include) - after all, I'm not getting paid money to run this account so am beholden to no one but myself.
3. Sponsorship and additional services
I may at times post sponsored content. This means I have received some form of incentive (e.g. payment in cash or goods in kind) to post at all / include certain content. These posts will be clearly labelled for transparency (see disclosures section below), and may mean I've relinquished some of my agency in relation to those posts.
I'm not an influencer / seeking to be one. If you like my content and want to follow me that's great. If you don't like my content nobody's forcing you to stay. I'm not here to promote brands/businesses though I will naturally post about those that I like/am happy to recommend. I'm not here to make a living from posting. I just like to eat out from time to time and I am happy to pay for my meals and just do my thing.
I do not solicit random businesses for sponsorships or collaborations. However if I am approached with an offer (especially if it's a genuine collaboration that isn't just a sponsored post by another name), I am happy to consider it on its merits / have a conversation.
I also occasionally engage in other activities such as offering advice/consultancy, hosting giveaways, and organising events.
I claim no expertise on anything other than what I like to eat, but if you are a business and think I can be of value to you, get in touch and let's have a chat.
4. Post disclosures
In the interests of promoting transparency and in line with Instagram's branded content policies, any post with "content that features or is influenced by a business partner for an exchange of value, such as monetary payment or free gifts", will be labelled with Instagram's branded content tool: the Paid Partnership label/tag
In addition, I will typically use the following labels/hashtags on my posts to denote the type of incentive received:
- gifted - means the business gave me something to try, or provided a freebie, usually without an explicit requirement to post
- invited - means the business invited me to visit for a free/discounted meal, usually in exchange for a general requirement to post some content
- ad - means the business has paid me to post, usually with a more specific content requirement than in an invite / the partner having more agency over my post
Notes:
- the above additional labels are not hard and fast, and may have some overlap in meaning/usage
- I will likely omit the labels if I'm not the primary recipient of a gift or invite (e.g. a friend was invited and asked me to come along), since I don't have any relationship to the business in such scenarios. But I will still mention the fact in my feed post captions.
5. Copyright
I retain copyright of all content I create.
Native sharing
You are free to (re)use my content using Instagram's native sharing capabilities.
For example:
- If I tag your account in a story, you may share my story to your story using Instagram's built in story sharing function.
- You may share any of my feed posts to your story using Instagram's built in feed post sharing function.
- You can use Instagram's remix feature to remix any of my reels that allow remixing.
- If we have already separately agreed for a particular post to be tagged with your account as a brand partner using Instagram's "paid partnership" feature, this grants you the ability to turn my post (in its entirety) into an ad.
You do not need to seek my permission to do any of these things.
Reposting
There are third party tools that facilitate reposting content from another account to your own by making copies of the original. Or you could manually save a copy of my content and post it on your account, e.g. by downloading an image or taking a screenshot. These all breach copyright. However I am probably not going to be too fussed if you do this with my content if your repost preserves my content in its entirety and original form, and your post clearly links back to me / identifies me as the original author.
If you give me the courtesy of asking for permission before you do any of the above, I am probably going to say yes.
Other usage
Apart from exceptions allowed under fair dealing / fair use provisions of copyright law, any other (re)use of my content is not permitted. If you want to use any of my content in any other way, please ask and provide some details of your intent, and I will consider your request. For example:
- If you want a copy of a photo from one of my posts to use on your story/feed post, I'll probably just say yes as long as you clearly credit me as the source.
- If you want to use one of my photos in an ad / any other commercial purpose, I'll likely expect you to be prepared to either purchase the photo outright (meaning you then own the copyright and can do whatever you want with it) or pay for a limited use licence (for use as per stated/agreed purpose).
