KEITH LEE ON THE POWER OF SOCIAL
MEDIA STORYTELLING The mega influencer shared how he has evolved from reviewing restaurants to becoming an advocate for small business owners. By Lisa Jennings K eith Lee calls himself basically a Yelp reviewer with a camera. But the mega influencer can restaurant operators he tends to visit, many of which are family owned and don’t have a budget for marketing.
the event, which was also designed for families, with music, activities, and rides. Lee is planning another Family Day restaurant event next year in Chi- cago. Fundamentally, Lee said the trust he has built with his followers is based on storytelling. Lee was a professional fighter, starting straight out of high school at age 18. He
make or break restaurants with a post, and he has millions of followers across multiple social media platforms. His re- views are known to cause “the Keith Lee Effect,” resulting in lines out the door for the concept (if he likes it). During a keynote at the FSTEC confer- ence in Dallas, Lee talked about how he has become an advocate for the small
This year, he hosted the inaugural Family Day Festival in New Orleans, an event that brought together some of those concepts to showcase their food. But, unlike most food festivals, the res- taurant operators didn’t have to pay fees to attend. The festival was supported by sponsors. And more than 20,000 people attended
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Photo by Jon Mouer
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