How Fly By Jing's Founder Stays Involved on Social

Featuring an interview with Jing Gao, founder of Fly By Jing

As most of you know, I started this newsletter to hear more from the social managers behind brand accounts. I can’t tell you how many times I’d read an article in an advertising publication that was about social media but interviewed the CMO or founder. I wanted to hear more from the people who actually pressed post.

So you may be wondering why today I am interviewing a founder about her brand’s social media presence. Well, I was curious! Curious how someone like Jing Gao went from running her brand’s social as the only employee to eventually hiring an entire team. How she stays involved without staying too involved. What role she sees social playing in the entire ecosystem of her business. What role she plays as a personality on the brand channel.

This isn’t an interview about Fly By Jing’s social media strategy, it’s an interview about how Jing Gao, as a founder, is involved in Fly By Jing’s social media strategy.

An early post from Fly By Jing’s Instagram

Recently Jing posted from both her personal account and the Fly By Jing account, in a collab post, commenting on the news that David Chang was sending cease-and-desists to brands selling “chili crunch”. Jing also wrote about this in her personal Substack

Jing’s Substack

. “Holding a trademark does not necessitate using it to intimidate smaller businesses for the purpose of squashing fair competition.” It was one of those statements that could have possibly just went on her personal account, but she decided to also share it on the 126K-follower brand account. And while our interview happened before those posts, these are the exact kinds of decisions that fascinate me. The role a founder plays on a brand’s social fascinates me.

jingtheory

A post shared by @jingtheory

Jing and I talk about being on camera, a recent post she loves, and how she refuses to be an overbearing founder when it comes to social media decisions.

Jing Gao, founder of Fly By Jing

Rachel Karten: First, can you tell me about starting Fly By Jing? I'm such a fan and put Zhong sauce on everything.

Jing Gao: Thank you! Sweet & Spicy Zhong sometimes feels like a secret—not enough people know about it but the ones that do are obsessed.

In 2016, I started an underground popup dining concept I named Fly By Jing as an ode to Chengdu’s famous ‘fly restaurants’—hole in the wall eateries so good they attract people like flies, and as a nod to my birth name—which I was just starting to reconnect with but still a bit uncomfortable responding to.

In 2018 I traveled to California to attend Expo West, the largest natural food show in the US.

I spent days wandering through thousands of stalls, but could barely recall any Asian food brands by the end. Not surprisingly, there was even less diversity within the buyers and retailers walking the halls. It dawned on me that not only were entire groups of people being left out of healthy eating, but that the size of this missed opportunity was massive, as this was clearly not representative of what America looks like or how it eats.

I launched my first product on Kickstarter that summer, Sichuan Chili Crisp, an all natural chili sauce that I developed as a foundation for a lot of my dishes. It became the highest-funded craft food project on the platform. It was clear that we were ready for a new narrative about Chinese food, one that did not conform to preconceived notions of value, taste, and tradition.

I highlighted the ingredients that I had spent years sourcing in the mountains and countrysides of China, starting from my restaurant days. Many of these had never been exported before, like Qingxi’s elusive gongjiao, a variety of Sichuan pepper so intoxicating and rare it was given exclusively as a tribute to the emperor, or the prized amber-hued caiziyou, cold-pressed semi-winter rapa oil that’s been used in Sichuan cooking for thousands of years for its health benefits and intensely nutty flavor.

I knew my products wouldn’t taste like anything else on the market, because they weren’t made like anything else.

RK: How important has social media been in building your brand? What does the current team look like?

JG: Social media has played and continues to play a pivotal role in building the Fly By Jing brand. As an elder millennial and former brand manager, I love the way that we can connect directly with our consumers on social media.

It is a place where we can really push and expand palates and minds, while engaging 1:1. Of course, that also means we have dealt with more than a handful of trolls, especially since 2020. It’s important to me and our team that we are active participants in social media, creating and responding to culture in the moment.

flybyjing

A post shared by @flybyjing

Our social team looks like our Digital Content Producer, Brand Manager, Design Directors, a freelance Community Manager, several content creators on retainer, and freelance designers. 

RK: How involved are you in social media for the brand? How has that evolved from the early days until now?

JG: Well in the early days it was just me. I’m still involved in social media because I love it for the brand but luckily have a team I trust to develop the strategy and manage the content calendar. 

RK: A lot of social managers talk about how it can be frustrating to have an overbearing boss or founder—how do you balance staying up-to-date on what's happening on social and also trusting your team to make good decisions?

JG: Social media is an ever evolving landscape and staying up to date on new platforms, trends, and what people are talking about is important for our brand expansion and growth.

We meet as a team every-other-week to review our analytics, trends, and upcoming content, and have a very robust Slack channel and DM threads for what we feel like is hot and happening.

I think we are much better when we have many brains working together to create expansive ideas and content. I am also always talking with other founders and connecting my team with other social teams so we can all share and learn and grow together. 

RK: I noticed you are in a lot of social videos and posts! Have you always been comfortable on camera? Does it feel like something you "need" to do as a founder on social these days?

JG: I think it helps to further humanize your company, and helps you show that you are a person, not just a CEO and founder. I’m lucky that I’ve always been relatively comfortable on camera, and it has definitely helped Fly By Jing’s growth. 

flybyjing

A post shared by @flybyjing

RK: As a founder, how important is social media to the whole ecosystem of your business?

JG: Social media is absolutely crucial to the growth of Fly By Jing, as a platform to reach, engage, and influence consumers worldwide. Through our social platforms, we can showcase Fly By Jing's unique Sichuan flavors and culinary expertise to a global audience, expanding our reach beyond traditional marketing channels. 

Additionally, social media allows us to directly communicate and interact with our customers, fostering a sense of community and brand loyalty and enables our brand to stay relevant and adapt to evolving consumer preferences and trends.

By monitoring conversations, hashtags, and user-generated content, we can identify emerging food trends, and tailor our offerings to meet consumer demands. We are just getting into the world of live shopping on TikTok and Amazon and what that can mean for the next stage of revenue-generating social media.

RK: And how does your personal social media presence and use of Substack play into the overall social media ecosystem for Fly By Jing?

JG: I think since the brand's identity and ethos is so intertwined with my personal, the relationship between the two is symbiotic.  

RK: What's a recent post that you are proud of?

JG: We recently were in every Costco location in the Northeast (Virginia to Maine!) and our digital content producer Jess had a lot of fun with creating Costco content. This rotisserie chicken hack was fun and engaging way to show how you can use Sichuan Chili Crisp.

flybyjing

A post shared by @flybyjing

 RK: Are you hopeful for the future of social media?

JG: I am incredibly hopeful for the future of social media. The potential of these platforms to connect people, share stories, and foster communities is truly inspiring. Social media has played a pivotal role in the growth of my brand, allowing me to reach and engage with a diverse audience of food enthusiasts from around the world.

I see social media continuing to evolve and innovate, providing even more opportunities for brands like mine to connect authentically with our customers. There are more fans than haters. I’m especially excited to see how TikTok, Substack, and live video content helps to continue to evolve this next wave. 

RK: Any final thoughts?

JG: You can follow us at @FlyByJing on IG or TikTok and me at @JingTheory on IG + Substack! ;)