Everyone knows how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, but no one makes them quite like The Grilled Cheese Truck. Since September of last year, Dave Danhi and his team have been serving up grilled cheese sandwiches to hungry patrons all over LA. Through social media, The Grilled Cheese Truck has not only attracted a huge following, but its a great example of how one company is using social media right.

I had the opportunity to chat with Dave and learn more about how he’s making LA go crazy for his Cheesy Mac and Rib through social media.

Let The Buzz Begin

One of biggest takeaways I got from talking with Dave was when he told me the story about how The Grilled Cheese Truck actually started.

After attending the Grilled Cheese Invitational, Dave immediately saw the potential. Here was something that everyone loved and was virtually untapped. Yes, you would occasionaly find grilled cheese on menus, but Dave took it to a whole new level.

Dave knew that if he was going to do this, that he would have to do this in a way that would solidify his position. Hence, @grlldcheesetruk was born.

Tweet And They Will Follow

“Did you hear? The Grilled Cheese Truck is coming!” Through one tweet, the buzz began. 70 followers, 300 followers, 600 followers, to date, The Grilled Cheese Truck is now the 2nd most followed food truck on Twitter and is closing in on 10,000 followers at full-speed.

Through Twitter, The Grilled Cheese Truck lets their followers know when and where they will be in Los Angeles. For those that don’t use Twitter they can become a fan of The Grilled Cheese Truck on Facebook and get their updates there.

An important lesson to learn from business like The Grilled Cheese Truck as well as fellow food truck, Kogi, is that social media allows you take a simple idea, and turn into a great idea. It’s not enough anymore to just have an idea. To truly make an impact and be successful, you need to be able to hit the ground running right from the start.

By using Twitter as a way to gauge the communities interest in his idea, Dave was able to start the buzz even before there was a truck. Hundreds and thousands of dollars weren’t spent doing market research, but rather a few minutes. Companies that engage their markets through social media can learn an enormous amount of information about them. Social media allows companies to learn about customers and markets in real-time, and can impact and change the way you do business.

The Best Advertising

Aside from their main website, when it comes to getting people to try their delicious sandwiches. The Grilled Cheese Truck relies on the best advertising possible: word of mouth. You may not live in Los Angeles, but you may have heard of The Grilled Cheese Truck thanks to someone who tweeted about them.

For companies, developing relationships and communities through social sites like Twitter and Facebook can have huge dividends. The Grilled Cheese Truck is just one example of one business that’s been able to take their “melty masterpiece’s” to a whole nother level.

Special thanks to Dave Danhi for taking the time to tell his story and for making grilled cheese sandwiches fun to eat, follow, and find!

Joseph is the Director of Marketing at Viralogy.com & works in social media & sports consulting. Read more about him at http://JosephAYi.com

Tags: Dave Danhi, Facebook, ROI, Social Media, The Grilled Cheese Truck