A Dispatch From The Infatuation LA's Social Media Manager

Lactaid, a mini mic, and cornichon butter: Nicolas Zhou takes us on a food-filled day in the life.

Last week, I wrote about how legacy media needs a new social media playbook. One that thinks of social beyond a distribution tool and builds entertaining experiences that don’t require readers to leave platforms. CNN noticed it, so I guess that means it’s reaching the right people. Writing it got me thinking of about the media companies that are already doing a good job at this. That brings me to today’s newsletter.

The Infatuation, a restaurant recommendation site, is one of my favorite examples of a media company that takes a true social-first approach. They write voice-y shareable headlines, translate reviews to Reels (and don’t make you click out for the final rating!), create social-only series, test new formats, and ultimately do an amazing job of meeting readers where they are at. Their posts consistently break through my algorithm and the brand continues to remain relevant despite an uptick in food review creators popping up over the past few years.

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For today’s newsletter, I asked Nicolas Zhou, Social Media Manager at The Infatuation LA, to take Link in Bio along for a day in the life. He kept a diary of a full day of reporting, posting, and eating—and even shared a peek of some of the work that went into their new “Best New Restaurants of 2024” guide and dining trend report. Let’s dig in.

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9:00 a.m. I’m heading out bright and early to my first shoot of the day. It’s at Modu Cafe—a new bakery in Highland Park that The Infatuation LA’s editorial team is considering adding to our Best Bakeries guide. 

This is part of our process for building content for our social channels, as we take our lead from the reviews and guides our edit teams are writing.

I’m bringing all the classic Social Media Manager necessities, but with a dining twist—stain removal marker, mints, and of course, Lactaid. 

9:26 a.m. Once I arrive, I meet up with Sylvio Martins—he’s one of our staff writers on the LA editorial team. He’ll be the one actually reviewing the restaurant experience for the site while I handle all the content! 

Our mission is very simple: to bring readers the most honest and trustworthy opinions on where to eat in LA.

9:34 a.m. Sylvio’s looking to order both unique and classic items, and I consider any additional items that people might want to see in a social video. Typically, this means I’m looking for something that’s unique to the restaurant or satisfying to interact with. The perilla lime tart seems to be their marquee pastry, and I’m thinking that the milk bun will pull apart beautifully. There’s also a cute dog here that briefly distracts us.

We landed on the kabocha persimmon cake, the milk cream bun, a black sesame cookie, a perilla lime tart, their signature cream top latte, and a coffee flight. A light breakfast.

(Of note here, we never accept free meals, reservations, compensation, or special treatment of any kind from any restaurants.)

9:45 a.m. I tell an eager Sylvio not to eat or drink anything yet, as I'm the enforcer of “phone eats first.” Fortunately, I don’t have to whip out my portable light since this place is already flooded with natural light.

I get a mix of still shots and action shots, which involves instructing Sylvio how I want the sugar-crystallized perilla leaf to be broken on camera. I have a beautiful symbiotic relationship with the editors and writers—I do my best to make our editorial content compelling on social, and they’re always game to help behind the scenes. Even if it involves being told to “drink that coffee naturally” over and over again. 

Now that I think about it, I should add “Art Director” to my resume.  

9:56 a.m. We start eating and discussing everything we notice about what we’re trying. Sylvio thinks the cookie should have chewier edges; I think the kabocha persimmon cake is perfectly “not too sweet.” He takes notes on all of this for the site review, and I’m already scripting the social video in my head—we like what we’re tasting!

10:12 a.m. We chat, catch up for a bit, and take in the scene. We always aim to be as observant as possible—Is it busy? Who’s here? Why do we think they’re here?—These details almost always make it into the review and the social content. 

10:56 a.m. It’s pretty tranquil here, so we hunker down for a bit to work. Sylvio’s starting to draft his thoughts, and he ultimately decides to add Modu Cafe to “The 25 Best Bakeries In LA.” 

11:32 a.m. Now that I know we’ll be featuring this place on our Best Bakeries guide—I start considering what this could mean for social content. Modu Cafe is buzzy, we like it a lot, and it hasn’t been covered to death on social (yet). I decide that it’ll warrant a dedicated social post.

11:54 a.m. I’ve captured all the footage I need, so I tell Sylvio that we should head out. I feel good—it’s either the feeling of a job well done or the fact that I just ate a lot of sugar for breakfast. We’ll never know.

I’m about to drive from Highland Park to our office in West Hollywood, and the traffic is looking surprisingly bad for 11:54am. But there’s a rumor going around that we’re getting lunch catered today, so I figure it’ll be well worth the trip. 

12:43 p.m. It took me way too long to get to West Hollywood. I get settled in and answer all my unread Slacks and emails.

Also, the rumors were TRUE. Our office manager ordered sandwiches from The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills—one of The Best Sandwich Shops In LA, according to us. I’m stealing a piece of their La Zucca sandwich; it’s so damn good. 

1:00 p.m. It’s time for our weekly LA Edit Meeting. This is where I meet with our writers, senior editor, and photographer to talk through any upcoming priorities we have. Since ideating, planning, and calendaring all our content is a major part of my job—I love using this time to flesh out any content ideas I have with the team. 

I had a very silly idea back in September to graph out the Best Burgers In LA based on patty thickness and creativity (what am I even saying right now?). I’m relieved to report that it performed well the first time. Now, we’re planning an update so here’s a sneak peek of us putting on our scientist hats. Or lab coats, rather. We do it all!

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2:00 p.m. A very fun edition of our Edit Meeting ends, and I realize that I need to post today’s content—it totally slipped my mind earlier. Can you blame me though? I was mid-La Zucca.

I go live with today’s posts to both TikTok and IG, making sure that the link in bio is always working so we can drive clicks back to our full reviews and guides on the site. It’s important that our content is tied together in this way, but I’m always considering the balance between producing social-first content and getting clicks back to the site.

I want our audience to engage with our content, but I don’t want them to feel baited or tricked into clicking out. I think the key here is to always honor the core message and purpose of the content. If we’re reviewing Modu Cafe, the video should be informative and useful on its own. By building excitement for the location and establishing trust with the audience, those who are interested will naturally click through to discover the additional information we offer.

2:32 p.m. Edit-videos-while-petting-the-office-dog time!!

3:00 p.m. Now I bother people for social content. I’ve carved out time with our writers to shoot a mini mic video where I ask each of them what their favorite appetizer in LA is. 

I let them know what my question is just a few seconds before we start filming, because I like getting their gut responses. I think our audience likes that raw and genuine aspect to these videos too, so I’ll keep doing it until the writers force me to stop. 

3:45 p.m. Guess what? It’s time to go BACK to Highland Park. I’m heading to Sam’s Place, a new wine bar/restaurant in Highland Park that we just named as one of the Best New Restaurants of 2024.

4:34 p.m. I will let the time stamp speak to how bad the traffic was. I arrive at Sam’s Place and meet up with our Staff Photographer, Jessie. 

This is a planned shoot, which means we give the restaurant a heads up that we’ll be taking photos and videos—it’s important to share that this is different from how our writers review a restaurant where they book under fake names. At this point, the editorial team has visited Sam’s Place multiple times and has already written the full review and given them an 8.4 rating out of 10. Jessie and I schedule photo shoots separately from editorial so that they can maintain their integrity when reviewing.

4:45 p.m.

We order the food and drinks we need, and it starts arriving pretty quickly.

We’ve also invited some co-workers from other departments to come and help act as hand models. Plus, we order A LOT so it’s nice to have a group here to help take down a whole meal. 

4:48 p.m. The photoshoot is in full swing! Jessie and I go dish-by-dish—we get individual shots first, then a group shot, and then I start messing up the food to get action shots.

When we’re done, we sit and enjoy the meal! Nobody is asking, but my favorite bites are the bread with cornichon butter and the perfectly cooked steak. 

5:20 p.m.

The photoshoot wraps, but since Sam’s Place is open for regular service, I stay a bit longer to get more shots of the crowd here. It becomes a lot more lively once the sun goes down, and I want to make sure I’m capturing that on video.

And selfishly, I want to order more food for myself. 

5:55 p.m. I head home after a very fun, very long day.

6:14 p.m. I’m home and I check to see how today’s posts are doing. I get one last little dopamine hit from the performance and I officially log off for the day. Cheers!