What began as a hobby of writing Google reviews on restaurants and food spots has now become a popular Instagram page with nearly 30,000 followers. The journey started when Abhishek Naik, Akshit Kanolkar, and Hrishikesh Shirsat met while working in an IT company in 2017-2018. They connected over their shared love for food, bonding over hundreds of meals and endless conversations about different places and cuisines.
Their first expression of this love was through Google reviews, written passionately to help readers feel as if they were tasting the food themselves. After years of exploring Goa’s food scene, they decided to start Goan Story (@goanstory) in 2020. However, the pandemic delayed their plans by a year. Yet, like a phoenix, Goan Story rose stronger after the pandemic, and they haven’t looked back since.
Starting out
We began by posting photos of the food along with detailed reviews in the captions, giving our honest feedback. We included the address, opening hours, and details of the dishes we tried. This simple, informative approach helped make our content user-friendly and engaging. In the beginning, our posts had little engagement, but we kept going. The entire team is dedicated in driving collaborations and making the brand what it is today.
Building the brand
From the start, we knew the name had to include ‘Goa’ or ‘Goan’. We initially used a different name but later simplified it to ‘Goan Story’, which felt just right for social media. Our friend, Kiran, designed our logo, and we recently printed some t-shirts to wear during shoots. We also make videos with Konkani voiceovers by Hrishikesh to add authenticity, and these have received a lot of love from our followers, increasing engagement. This small recognition has made many people aware of our brand.
Content strategy
Our main focus is Goan cuisine, and we love finding new places that offer authentic local dishes. We also wanted ‘Goan Story’ to feature small, lesser-known businesses that don’t typically get highlighted on social media. One example is Nuni’s Lime Soda in Haveli-Curti. After tasting his refreshing lime soda, we decided to feature him, and that post brought him a lot of new business. Moments like these have shaped our mission.
This inspired our series ‘Khavya Pivya Ulovya’, where we spotlight local food businesses and share their owners’ stories. The second episode was recently released, and we look forward to many more stories to come.
Our mantra is to keep experimenting. This is our only strategy. Without trying new things, our content—and our followers—would grow stagnant. Alongside reviews, we introduce new types of content to keep our audience interested. We also offer recommendations for restaurants, stays, and events.
Challenges
The main challenge is balancing our page with our day jobs. There’s a lot that goes into creating each post—from trying the food to editing videos and writing up the content. We dedicate time to the page every day, with weekends being especially busy. But for us, this work is a form of relaxation, and the more we do it, the more we enjoy it.
The competition
With many people now creating food content, competition is high, but we see this as a positive. We collaborate with other creators and even promote some on our page to help them grow. For us, the key is focusing on innovation. We follow a strong code of ethics, avoiding shortcuts that might harm our growth in the long run.
We thrive on experimentation. From comedic voice-overs to new editing techniques, the team was never afraid to fail. This willingness to try different formats helped us stand out and keep our audience engaged.
Future plans
We plan to keep creating fresh content for the page. There are some exciting ideas in the works that we can’t reveal just yet. Our aim is to keep highlighting unique places that aren’t in the usual tourist spots. Featuring these places not only helps their business but also gives our followers new locations to explore.
Advice
If you’re considering content creation, the first step is to choose a niche you genuinely enjoy. The more interested you are, the easier it is to come up with creative ideas. Consistency and quality are essential—there’s no room for compromise.
Special thanks
We’d like to thank our friends and families for their support. They’ve played a big part in helping us come this far, suggesting places to visit and even helping us create content. We are tremendously thankful to Hrishikesh’s wife, Dipiksha, who has been a tremendous support throughout this social media journey so far.
