Tonight I’m going to the LA Weekly Sips and Sweets event at the Petersen Automotive Museum. This is a great way to meet chefs and foodie Influencers. It’s a great way to connect with people over shared interests, good food and tasty cocktails.

Reflecting on these types of community and communal events I see some parallels to the way social media marketing and advertising campaigns are run.

At BrillMedia.co some of the work we do is focused on getting Influencers into restaurants. Our clients love this part of the business because they get fantastic exposure for their delicious food. Food photos are shared across an array of Instagram pages, Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter accounts.

I can’t wait to meet new content creators and reconnect with people I’ve met because for me these connections are key. They allow BrillMedia.co to service clients easily, and it makes my job more turnkey knowing there’s a personal connection with these talented influencers and bloggers.

The other element of this event is really the ability to mix and mingle with a very targeted group of people. For advertisers, this type of B2B targeting is available across LinkedIn, Facebook and an enterprise level of customization. For all constituents at this event – the chefs, the mixologists, the influencers and the food lovers – this is a way to see and be seen.

If you aren’t here tonight and you want to market your business to foodies I suggest taking on targeting on Facebook as a start. Use keyword targeting and radius targeting to ensure the audience is close to your business, and that they are interested in your offering. If you operate a pastry business target people who love sweets, desserts, chocolate, pastries and tarts. Surround users within 5 miles of your address and build up your local reputation.

Finally, take advantage of every email list you can get your hands on. For exhibitors at the event, in addition to offering samples of your product get the list of attendee said and serve them ads by using Facebook’s custom audiences. This gives exhibitors the ability to reach event attendee with very targeted Facebook ads.

With events like this look for synergies that can be deployed. Generate trial, market to email lists, and use smart tools to ensure your audience gets your message multiple times. For BrillMedia.co this is a good way to meet CMOs, influencers and foodie fans! My people!

Edit – coming back from the event here’s a brief recap:

Lots of good drinks. I especially liked The Beaumont from Christiaan Rollich  at AOC. I met the awesome CMO at Street Churros, a great company taking churros by storm all over the world, starting in Asia, and about to take over the churro game in the US. I spent the evening hanging out with a top foodie influencer named Michael Walsh, creator of the blog Eating Around Socal, and soon to be restaurant-preneur. I met Micah, foodie blogger and creator at Burgerists, and had a great time discovering food tech companies. If you want a drink a day check out Hooch. If you want vegan popsicles, check out Enjoyer! There’s so much to taste!