MADISONVILLE, Texas — When Larry Willis started his business 25 years ago, he never saw himself becoming a huge sensation on social media.
"My phone doesn't even do it. I don't know how to get to that, so I haven't seen it [social media profile]," Willis said.
"If it is, you know, hey, I don't know. I just like doing what I'm doing."
He owns Larry's Country Style BBQ, a restaurant in Madisonville, and he's seeing more customers every day due to the posts.
The posts are what City of Madisonville City Manager Fabrice Kabona says is helping out small businesses like Willis'.
"I imagine this is the same thing also for local business in terms of educating the public about or the targeted audience about the different services that they may be providing, and also really allows for a way to expand your reach as a small business in town," Kabona said.
Willis' friends who he refers to as sons, Dusti Hogg and Sergio Palacios, created the accounts and began posting videos of him running the business and even started tailoring posts to fit current social media trends.
In a matter of about two weeks, the account went from 99 followers to about 191,000 followers on Instagram.
Kabona says creative marketing strategies like these is the way of the future for businesses.
"Social media is definitely an important tool, and it’s where the future is going," Kabona said.
Now, Willis gets business from local customers and even customers from out of town.
He even gets calls from customers to place orders for the next day.
But to Willis, it's just another day of running his business, cooking and selling barbecue, something he has done since he was young.
He learned how to smoke from his uncles as a child and even learned from other barbecuers as he got older.
"When I was little, I always watched when they had homecomings and stuff like that," Willis said.
"They always told me I was nosy, but I was serious."
He ended up adding his own special twist to what he learned.
He smokes his food for 12 hours and cooks it an additional four hours, using seasoning salt for flavor and experimenting with different combinations like his signature loaded potatoes.
He started his business underneath a tree from the back of his truck in 1998, and now, he serves from a small building with help from his granddaughter.
He hopes his business grows even more from the social media following, so he can give back to the community.
"I want to get a bigger place, and before the end of the year, I want to feed them free," Willis said.