D.C.-based Farmers Restaurant Group has lost interest in Twitter.
“Hey Twitter! We’re moving the party over to Instagram. Follow and message us there,” Founding Farmers posted on Twitter July 3.
Hey Twitter! We’re moving the party over to Instagram. Follow and message us there @foundingfarmers
— Founding Farmers (@FoundingFarmers) July 3, 2023
Co-owner Dan Simons makes no connection between the decision and any changes Elon Musk has made to the Twitterverse since he bought the company.
“From a business perspective, I don’t get much engagement on Twitter, and it attracts so many haters to any topic that does seem to have traction,” Simons said.
It is also a personal decision. Simons cited the need to stop focusing on degrading content and to stop being immersed in the 24-hour news cycle.
Founding Farmers has about 9,300 followers on Twitter, and, until this past weekend, posted frequently, sometimes daily. It has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram, where it also posts content frequently.
Other local restaurateurs have thoughts about Twitter.
“We’ve never been on Twitter, even before the Elon-ification and subsequent meltdowns. It never seemed a great marketing tool for our businesses,” said Nick Freshman, owner of hospitality management and consulting group Mothersauce Partners, whose restaurants include Spider Kelly’s and The Freshman.
Mothersauce Partners has active Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Geoff Tracy, whose restaurants include Lia’s and Chef Geoff’s, has staff who manage the restaurants’ Twitter accounts, but he personally manages a separate @ChefGeoffs account.
“I tend to keep it a mix of personal (golf, family, bacon), polls and et cetera. I still like Twitter. I’m a big believer in tweeting love and happiness. I’m not sure either Twitter or Instagram are great at putting ‘butts in seats,’ but they are super cheap platforms,” Tracy said.
Mark Bucher, co-owner of Medium Rare restaurants and founder of nonprofit meal provider Feed the Fridge, uses both Twitter and Instagram with no complaints, though he says they aren’t interchangeable social media platforms.
“We aren’t leaving a platform. We just use them for different purposes. They are two very different platforms for two very different purposes,” he said.
Farmers Restaurant Group is majority owned by farmers groups, including the North Dakota Farmers Union, and operates six locations in the D.C. metro area and one in the Philadelphia area, with plans for an eighth opening next year in Arlington’s Potomac Yard.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of locations Farmers Restaurant Group operates in the D.C. area. The story has been updated.
