A small hot chicken restaurant in downtown Los Angeles is reaping the benefits after prioritizing TikTok over Instagram. The Red Chickz, founded by Shawn Lalehzarian, has reached over 1 million followers on TikTok with videos that build followers' favorite fried chicken combos. In comparison, Burger King has 640,000 and Wendy's has 1.3 million followers on the platform. 

Early on, Lalehzarian said he dedicated most of his social marketing efforts on Instagram (where the brand now has about 100,000 followers) but quickly decided to stop fighting for followers on the Meta-owned platform and instead dove into TikTok when there weren't many brands yet on the platform. 

Sign up for Ad Age’s Influencer Marketing newsletter.

Since then, The Red Chickz has learned to lean into a touch of sass with its reply videos (see below) and often incorporates hip-hop tracks.

Ad Age spoke with Lalehzarian to get a behind-the-scenes look at The Red Chickz. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

How did you get your start?

I moved to the U.S. in 1989 from Iran. I started as a dishwasher in San Diego and have worked my way up through the restaurant industry. I opened Red Chickz in 2018 after seeing the need in the neighborhood for a good hot chicken restaurant. I spent a lot of time in Nashville talking to chefs to perfect our seasoning and frying techniques.

TikTok was not really a hit when we opened so we started out posting on Instagram. When I was first told about TikTok I was hesitant in the beginning, but after a few months we took a new strategy. We stopped fighting for Instagram followers and and started on TikTok when there were not many brands. 

When did you see TikTok pop? 

I didn’t check TikTok at all until a couple of months after we started. We had 17,000 followers and I was stunned, because it took us a while to get there on Instagram. That’s when we decided to do more on TikTok, especially when we saw that customers were engaging with each other in the comments.

What has been one of your most successful TikTok posts?

A lot of videos are combos that our followers request. One of the most viral is our chicken strips over fries. We also made a giant chicken sandwich for National Chicken Sandwich Day. We do a lot of brainstorming, but there’s really no way of knowing whether or not the content we post will end up going viral. We have an idea of what content has potential, but ultimately it's all up to the viewers and how they respond. We usually know within the first hour after we post if a video will go viral or not.

Who handles your social media marketing efforts? 

We have a dedicated team of three or four folks, who have been with us since we started the restaurant and they understand the brand. I have meetings with them to brainstorm ideas. The social team handles other restaurants, but 85% of their focus is on Red Chickz. 

What percent of your budget is spent on social media marketing? 

I won't share any numbers, but I can tell you we spend more than what a majority of brands would spend at our scale. 

Has TikTok feedback led to business changes?

It’s impacted sales for sure. We have people come in at least three or four times a week who said they’ve seen us on TikTok. We also have customers who travel to eat our chicken—people from northern California, Vegas. We’ve even had people email us to be franchisees after following us.