Instagram influencer behind a famous food porn account talks about how it all began, and making a living from social media
- Justin Schuble who set up DCFoodPorn, and dining app TidBit, started his half-million strong account when he was at university
Social media influencer Justin Schuble, 24, is the founder and creative director of DCFoodPorn. The account has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram. Schuble is also the co-founder of TidBit, a new dining decisions app. He spoke about managing expectations, and the pressures of being an influencer.
The interview has been condensed for clarity and length.
So, how does somebody become an influencer?
I think it depends. Like, today, now that influencers are a thing, there are people that will start a blog and try to become an influencer. But for me, that was definitely not the case; I totally fell into it. I was a freshman at Georgetown [University, in Washington DC] in the spring of 2014, and Instagram was pretty new.
Or at least I was new to it. So there was really no such thing as a social media influencer – people being paid to travel or getting free meals – none of that existed. I really just loved food and needed a creative outlet – and a reason to get off campus and explore DC. So I started going out between classes and trying out restaurants and started snapping photos on my iPhone and sharing them to my personal Instagram account.
At one point, it was all food on my Instagram and nothing else, and I was like, “Maybe I should start a food Instagram.” It was originally called @Freshman_Foodie. I changed the name to @dcfoodporn because I wanted something a little more risqué, a little more eye-catching.
Was “food porn” a term already?
Food porn was a very new term. So, like, older people would be like, “That sounds inappropriate.” Whereas today I think it is a lot more common. But I kind of wanted to take that risk and be bold. So I changed the name, bought a camera, and I started to post every day. But I still didn’t see it as a business just yet.
Once I got to, like, 5,000 followers, which back then was a lot, it kind of hit me that, “Oh, this actually could be something big.” And at that point, a few brands started to reach out. [Casual restaurant chain] Sweetgreen was one of the very first brands. So I was like 18, 19 years old meeting with people working at important companies and PR brands and all of that.
