Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon DiPippo.
Hi Jon, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always understood that visibility matters because I spent almost 20 years in the Yellow Pages advertising and sales world.
That’s where I learned how to sell, but more importantly, it’s where I learned how people search for businesses.
I spent years sitting across from business owners talking about advertising, competition and the question that ultimately mattered most: when somebody needed the product or service you offered, would they find you or would they find your competitor?
Back then, the Yellow Pages was one of the primary places where that search happened.
The fascinating thing is that people search far more today, not less.
The old phone book was big, bulky and usually sitting somewhere in your house. Today, the phone book is essentially in the palm of your hand 24 hours a day.
In some ways, modern search is the Yellow Pages on steroids.
Someone can be standing on a street corner and search for the best cheesesteak near them. They can be sitting in their car looking for a jeweler. They can search for a restaurant while deciding where to have dinner that night. They can read reviews, look at photographs, watch videos, compare businesses, get directions and make a decision within minutes.
The friction disappeared.
That means being discoverable matters more today than it ever did when I was selling Yellow Pages advertising.
That experience stayed with me when ThePhillyFoodFanatic® began.
Initially, it was much simpler. I loved food, I loved discovering restaurants, and I loved telling people where they should eat. What began as sharing those experiences eventually grew into a community that today reaches nearly 700,000 followers across social media.
But there’s another part of this story that started more than a decade ago.
For over 10 years, I’ve been reviewing restaurants and businesses on Google, uploading photos and sharing my experiences. I wasn’t doing it because someone was paying me, and I wasn’t thinking of it as a marketing strategy. Whenever I discovered a restaurant or business worth knowing about, contributing to Google simply became something I did.
Think about how many restaurants and businesses the average person visits over 10 years, and then think about how often they actually stop afterward to write a review, upload photographs and contribute that information to Google.
For me, it became second nature.
What I didn’t understand in the beginning was how powerful all of those contributions could become over time.
Social media attention can be incredibly powerful, but it moves quickly. Something can explode today and disappear from someone’s feed tomorrow.
Search behaves differently.
I began noticing that photos, videos and reviews I had contributed months or even years earlier were still being discovered. They continued appearing when people were actively searching for somewhere to eat, shop or visit.
Today, my Google contributions have generated more than 60 million views, and I’m a Level 8 Google Local Guide. I’ve watched individual pieces of content generate hundreds of thousands, and in some cases more than a million views, long after they were originally created.
That was the lightbulb moment.
I realized that the lesson I learned decades earlier in the Yellow Pages business was still true:
People have to be able to find you.
The directory changed. The technology changed. The frequency of searching exploded. But discovery never stopped mattering.
Then artificial intelligence entered the equation.
I started studying the relationship between social media, Google search and AI, and eventually my philosophy became very simple:
Instagram creates attention. Google captures intent. AI amplifies discovery.
Today, ThePhillyFoodFanatic® has evolved beyond the traditional definition of a food influencer. I work with restaurants and other businesses to help them become discoverable across that entire ecosystem.
I still love finding an incredible cheesesteak, neighborhood restaurant or hidden gem. That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is my understanding of what happens after I tell people about it.
Getting someone’s attention is valuable.
Being there when they’re actually searching for what you offer is something else entirely.
In a strange way, I’ve come full circle. I spent almost 20 years helping businesses understand how to be discovered in the Yellow Pages era. Today, I’m doing it in the Google, social media and AI era.
The phone book moved from the kitchen counter to the palm of your hand.
And discovery became more important than ever.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, I wouldn’t describe it as a rough road. It has been a lot of work, but it has also been incredibly exciting.
In the beginning, we were simply going to restaurants, taking photos, sharing our experiences, talking with owners and managers, and introducing ourselves to more businesses. We put in the time and stayed consistent.
Then something really interesting started happening. Instead of us always reaching out to restaurants, restaurants began reaching out to us.
That was a major turning point because it showed me that ThePhillyFoodFanatic® had become more than something we were building. It had developed a reputation of its own.
The biggest challenge has really been keeping up with how quickly everything changes. Social media changes. Google changes. Consumer behavior changes. Now AI is changing discovery again.
I don’t look at that as an obstacle, though. I look at it as an opportunity. My background taught me very early that if the way people search changes, you have to change with them.
So no, it hasn’t always been easy. But I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed the evolution, and I’m probably more excited about where ThePhillyFoodFanatic® is going today than I’ve ever been.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about ThePhillyFoodFanatic ?
ThePhillyFoodFanatic® started as a food-focused social media brand, but today we have evolved into something much broader: a discovery platform designed to help restaurants and businesses get found.
We have built a social media audience of nearly 700,000 followers, but follower count is only one part of the story. What really sets us apart is what happens after the social media post.
Our philosophy is simple:
Instagram creates attention. Google captures intent. AI amplifies discovery.
Most traditional influencer marketing concentrates heavily on the first part: exposure. A restaurant or business receives a post, reel or video, it generates attention, and eventually that content moves down the feed.
We look at the entire discovery cycle.
The content we create can begin on social media, but we also strategically build a business’s presence across Google, where consumers are actively searching for restaurants, products and services. My own Google contributions have generated more than 60 million views, and I’m a Level 8 Google Local Guide.
We’ve seen individual Google assets continue generating hundreds of thousands of views months after they were published, with some surpassing one million views. That long-term discoverability fundamentally changed the way I think about digital marketing.
Now AI is becoming the next layer.
Consumers are increasingly using AI to help decide where to eat, what businesses to visit and who they can trust. That means the digital footprint a business builds today can influence how it is discovered not only through traditional search and social media, but through AI-driven discovery as well.
That is the area I’m most excited about and where I believe ThePhillyFoodFanatic® is different.
We don’t simply want to create a moment of attention for a business. We want to create digital assets that can continue helping that business get discovered long after the original campaign ends.
I’m also extremely proud of the credibility we’ve built along the way. ThePhillyFoodFanatic® has been ranked the #1 Philadelphia food influencer by FeedSpot for two consecutive years, and our audience has been independently analyzed by Upfluence at 97.22% authenticity.
But ultimately, numbers and recognition only matter if you can demonstrate that what you’re doing actually works.
That’s why one of the most important words in our business today is proof. We track what happens to the content we create and can show businesses real examples of content continuing to generate discovery over time.
And one of the things I tell businesses, agencies and anyone who wants to understand what we’ve built is very simple:
Don’t take my word for it. Google ThePhillyFoodFanatic®.
Look at what appears. Look at the restaurants, the Google footprint, the independent rankings and the third-party recognition. I would rather have someone investigate us for themselves than simply believe what I say about my own brand.
In today’s world, your digital footprint often speaks for you before you ever walk into the room.
ThePhillyFoodFanatic® may have started with food, but today our mission is much larger:
We help businesses get discovered.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something many people might not know is how important my partner, Angeliki “Angie” Nakos, has been to the story of ThePhillyFoodFanatic®.
Angie and I have been together for eight years, and if you’ve watched our content, you’ve probably already seen her. She’s the face of many of our videos and has become an important part of the personality people associate with ThePhillyFoodFanatic®.
What makes it even more fitting is that Angie grew up in the restaurant business. She’s Greek-American, so food, restaurants and hospitality have been part of her life for as long as she can remember. She understands the restaurant world from a completely different perspective than I do, and that has made us a great team.
What people may really be surprised to learn is that Angie has an incredible story of her own.
She’s also an author. She wrote a book about her life called The Queen of Linens, which became an Amazon bestseller.
We’ve been together through the growth and evolution of ThePhillyFoodFanatic®, from visiting restaurants and creating content to watching the brand develop into what it is today.
I may have founded ThePhillyFoodFanatic®, but Angie has been beside me through this journey, and she has become an important part of what people see and connect with when they watch us.
It’s been eight years together, and it’s been one hell of a ride.
And thankfully, we still actually like going out to dinner together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ThePhillyFoodFanatic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thephillyfoodfanatic?igsh=MW90YXk3NWRtaTYzYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1D8ngs9ta4/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-dipippo-b7387650?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@filmfoodfashion?si=O9LWwEq3W9rrar6s
