Startup Tonguespank Uses Social Media to Spice Up Business


March 26, 2014

bdd brand snapshot

Tonguespank Spice Company is a growing startup out of Chicago, aiming to “make boring food exciting” with intricately designed spices. Like any other startup, they have to bootstrap to make the most of their marketing budget. The answer these days almost always points to social media. 

Even before launch, the brand relied on the masses to draw initial funding. Its Fall 2013 Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded, rounding up a whopping $26,000 between 617 backers and exceeding its $7,500 goal.

But as you may have heard, many successfully crowd-funded startups have been overwhelmed by the resulting demand and excitement over their product. The promised rewards for backers become unfulfilled (let’s blame the awful winter the Midwest endured this year), and people become understandably upset. And, as we all know, upset people almost always turn to social media to rant. Ignoring negative Facebook posts and tweets is never a best practice, so how do you balance your proactive and reactive content?

Tonguespank does this almost seamlessly. While the company’s social media marketing on Twitter (137 followers) and Facebook (11,279 fans) isn’t perfect, their transparency and efficiency in responding to consumer concerns is wildly impressive.

Besides responding to customer concerns, Tonguespank keeps its audience engaged by sharing both professional and not-so-professional photos taken by its fans.

What other successfully crowd-funded startups have blown up and nearly out of proportion?

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is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.