True Texas BBQ is H-E-B’s in-store BBQ restaurant, with 40+ locations inside H-E-B stores across Texas. Our biggest social challenge was showing people this isn’t “grocery store BBQ.” It’s real slow-smoked, post oak BBQ from local pitmasters. Everything we made had to win over the Craveworthy DMer, the friend in the group chat who finds the new spot and sends it to everyone. I worked with the social team on brainstorming, influencers, community management, scheduling, and reporting across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
A big part of my time went to the influencer program, especially the Korean Ribs launch. I sourced a lot of creators, dug into their content to make sure they were brand-safe, and checked their audience and engagement metrics in Klear to see if they’d actually move the needle. I put each creator’s metrics and pitch on a slide for the client, who was very particular about who represented the brand, so every pick had to be backed up. For the creators who were approved, I helped make sure their contracts had the right deliverables, deadlines, and usage terms before they went out.
Community management was where I really got to build something. Working from the brief, I created the master community engagement guide, a spreadsheet the team could run on every day. It covered brand tone, a sample comment bank, FAQs and responses, a daily checklist, outreach opportunities, and a UGC tracker. From there, I answered DMs and comments across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok in the brand’s voice, and flagged any food concerns to H-E-B’s Social Cares team so they got handled the right way. I also went out and engaged with accounts True Texas would naturally be friends with, like the Texas Longhorns, Korean food creators, and Texas foodies, making sure every comment felt like it made sense for the brand.
Every month I brought ideas to the brainstorm, from Korean Ribs to tailgating season to the Loaded Elotes return. One I concepted, Our Favorite Customer, went live. [One sentence on what it was.] I also audited the brand’s TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram profiles and made recommendations like updated pinned posts and social covers that matched the brand. Once the client approved them, I made the updates myself. On the publishing side, I scheduled approved posts in Sprout Social, checked tags platform by platform, and watched for failed posts so nothing slipped during launch weeks.
I also helped build the monthly reports, pulling data from Sprout to show what was working. July was the month everything clicked, with the account hitting 41.8 million impressions (+153%), 245,703 engagements (+184%), and 11,541 new followers (+380%).
