Social media influence a huge draw for local businesses

When Lena Syed posted a TikTok video in early January featuring Springfield’s own Ironworks Waffle Cafe, she knew it would be popular, but even she didn’t expect the results.

As a content creator, Syed says she assumed she’d get 50 thousand to 100 thousand views on her post because of the size of Springfield – compared to other larger markets that might bring anywhere from hundreds of thousands to 1 million plus views on a TikTok video.

But, the video of Lena enjoying Ironworks waffles in and around COhatch The Market in Springfield quickly jumped to more than 500 thousand views. As word spread, customers followed and in the days and weeks to come, Ironworks had a line that stretched from its spot in the back of COhatch through the building and out the front doors.

“In the food industry, we had heard from other people in COhatch and other restaurant people that January was going to be slow because it’s after the holidays, and so they said we should hunker down for that because it was going to be a slow month. And for that first week of January, it was true. It was really slow,” says Ironworks Owner Marcy Nesselroade, who noted not only a typical January slowdown, but also high COVID-19 numbers for the lack of customers as they year started. “The video went out on a Thursday night, and then Friday we got slammed, and by Saturday it was insane. The line was out the door all day.”

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