From picture-perfect study cafes to the top five spots where you can find budget-friendly meals for students, social media content exploring the latest trendy spots in your city has been steadily on the rise, and Toronto is no exception.
Content highlighting local food spots isn’t new, from highlighting up-and-coming restaurants, hidden gems, and must-go-to spots you wouldn’t want to miss. Finding places to go to when you’re on a solo date isn’t so hard anymore when all it takes is a simple search on Instagram or TikTok. It helps longtime residents rediscover their own city, find the good spots, but it also helps those who have lived in their city for years.
When finding a good study spot, I find myself searching on TikTok. Watching GTA content creators’ videos as they review the trendy spots while showing a delicious iced matcha latte. In particular, I enjoy watching series where content creators go all over the city to try one specific item at different shops. For example, content creator @vivisual.diary on TikTok has a series called “MatchaMap” where she tries as many matcha lattes as she can in the city.
As a student, I also enjoy watching compilations of someone’s favourite study spots. An eight hour study day would be much more enjoyable if I were in an environment with patrons idly chatting and sipping on a fun drink. However, what makes these types of content enjoyable and appealing? In an era where social media creation is on the rise, the market may become oversaturated, and it’s hard to stand out and appeal to a niche audience when everyone appears to be doing the same type of content.
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What makes these compilation videos and MatchaMap series appealing is how they combine visuals with personal experiences and reviews, all in less than a minute. These videos are bursting with colour, replays of carefully thought-out pictures of the interior, close-up shots of the drinks and food, along with a voiceover review.
These videos hook you in with an anecdote. The video may be in a ‘day-in-the-life’ format with a review of the place sprinkled in, and it immediately catches your attention. Watching it on mute doesn’t take away from the experience, as many creators have started adding captions with the addition of close-up clips of the food. Through these videos, new and signature spots are introduced, all done through visual storytelling.
However, this type of content still has some drawbacks. A glaringly obvious one that a Torontonian may notice right off the bat is that content creators typically only cover food spots in downtown, and not in other districts of Toronto like North York, Scarborough, Markham, etc. Food is our culture, and it is social. We can find communities through the connection food brings, and without content creators shining a spotlight on deserving areas, others may never know what other parts of the GTA have to offer.
A look into content creation
@Twintuitive_diaries covers a variety of food spots in the GTA, from Markham, Newmarket, and Toronto. It is run by Stephanie in collaboration with her friend. They take special care in providing honest reviews, writing detailed captions about the food she tried, and the effort she puts intoher videos is evident. “We put a lot of work into our script, filming, caption, and editing to make sure the watchers get an honest and accurate experience and understanding,” she says.
Stephanie’s food blog was born out of a random phone call when her friend brought up the idea. “We specialize in honest content,” she says, “we’re brutally honest, sassy, and a bit mean.”
To start her creative process, Stephanie first searches for spots that may look promising or ones that have not been reviewed as much. Once she decides on a place to review, she pays attention to the interior, how friendly the staff are, the atmosphere, and the menu. All of this consideration results in a tailored review, so that it may hopefully reach a viewer who will love and have a great experience. “I hope people will appreciate our honesty as not a lot of food bloggers are this honest nowadays,” she says. Of course, consistency is the key to reaching a greater audience, so she makes sure to stay in line with the algorithm and post every 2-3 weeks.
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When you watch her videos, you see the exact style she’s aiming for. Her reviews are brought to life with personality, as well as fun quips and jokes, making for relatable content that appeals to viewers looking for truthful and unbiased critiques. “I think our most unique feature is how blunt we are, we love adding some sassy lines that are relatable, which adds some flavour into regular food blog videos,” she says.
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People tend to focus on going viral and capturing the aesthetics, that they forgo the honesty that appeals to viewers. Twintuitive_diaries is a testament to truthful, blunt reviews packaged with fun visuals, close-ups of the food, and lively commentary.
