Pelham Gardens native Tony Pec, who calls himself the “Godfather of Instagram” on the platform where he has over 300,000 followers, has gained another loyal following by helping local businesses find their own voice on social media.
In an interview with the Bronx Times, Pec, 30, said he fell into social media by accident after studying mechanical engineering at Manhattan College and later working in stock trading. Starting around 2016, the early days of Instagram, he began creating accounts based on his interests, including cigars, food and motivational speaking, with 13 niche accounts in total.
After just a few months, he gained hundreds of thousands of followers, and some of those people enlisted him to help them grow their meager followings. Pec said he has helped business owners and entrepreneurs represent themselves authentically on Instagram, starting with a construction company where he once worked.
In February 2019, Pec took the plunge, leaving his stock trading job and launching his own consulting company to advise businesses on digital and social media marketing. He has worked with over 1,000 clients, including Bronx favorites such as Conti’s Bakery, Patricia’s, The Healthy Kitchen and G&R Deli, and has helped them build revenue that can be directly linked to their improved social media, according to Pec.
Now, he and his team help 50 clients per month with their “concierge-style” marketing services. The team works with retail businesses, such as restaurants, car shops and salons, and professional service providers, such as attorneys, accountants and realtors.
Pec said he helps his clients — many of whom are of an age where they didn’t grow up using social media — “combine the online and the offline.” It’s easy for businesses to lose their personal touch when adopting social media, but relationships are always key, Pec said.
He credits his grandfather, an Italian immigrant who owned a pizza shop in the Bronx well into his 80s, with showing him how personal relationships are crucial to a business’s success. People flocked to his grandfather’s pizza shop not necessarily because it had the best food but because they liked him, Pec said.
“It was almost like a therapy session when they’d come by, grab a slice and just talk,” said Pec, who worked in the shop for several years and saw his grandfather’s influence firsthand.
Many people use social media to mindlessly doomscroll and tune out, but Pec said he uses it to engage with people and often later meet them in person. He frequently likes or comments on others’ content and reaches out to businesses he’s already worked with or wants to work with.
“I use social media to be social,” he said.
Pec helps business owners “fully lean into who [they] are,” showing authenticity online and off — even if it’s rough around the edges — and said he follows his own advice, showing his track suit-wearing, often-cursing Italian persona.
“I portray myself online exactly the same way I am offline,” he said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
