If you’re in need of the best social media practices and tips for bakeries, BakeSmart has the advice you need to stay relevant on social media. Posting stunning pictures of your creations to your bakery’s social pages can pique curiosity and make mouths water—but you can get even more out of social media with the right know-how.
Social is a great way to attract new customers, engage with current ones, and develop relationships with people who will want to promote your brand. The best thing about using social media to help promote your bakery? It’s low-cost marketing!
The goal is to appeal to your target audience in ways that make them want to visit or promote your bakery. When you’re able to post regularly and authentically, you’ll find people interacting with your bakeries’ brand in new and surprising ways. Keep reading to learn more:
The Basics of Utilizing Social Media for Your Bakery
The first step to promoting your bakery via social media is to make sure you are findable and that you understand the nuances of each social platform when it comes to content marketing. Here are some basics to get you started:
- Fill out your profiles: This gives your customers the necessary information without having to gig through all your social posts. Make sure your pages clearly display your bakery’s contact information and anything else you feel is important to your brand.
- Stay consistent: Across all your social media platforms, it’s a good idea to have the same profile picture and handle (if possible). This ensures your customers can easily find you from platform to platform.
- Engage: Your customers are looking for you to interact with them on social media and show that there is, in fact, a person behind your posts. Make sure you’re ‘liking’ comments and responding to anyone reaching out!
- Cross promote: If you’re on multiple social platforms, remind your followers that you have other social media accounts! Invite them to follow those too!
Platform Breakdown
Most of the social media best practices in this blog can be used across multiple platforms, allowing you to streamline your efforts and make it easier for you to focus on what you do best: running your bakery.
With that being said, each social platform has its own best practices. Below, we’ve broken down how you should navigate the most popular social platforms for the most optimal results. Here’s what you need to know:
This tried, and true platform is great for bakeries to get the word out to their family and friends. Chances are, if you can get someone’s friends and family talking about your bakery, they’ll be likely to interact with your promotional material and spread the word.
One feature every bakery should take advantage of is the ability to create public events. This simple and effective feature lets you share any of your upcoming events with your target audience. Events can be anything from a cake decorating event, to a father/daughter baking class, or even a holiday cookie party!
TikTok
With one billion active users spread across 154 countries, it’s no secret that TikTok has become one of the leading social platforms. If you’re looking to attract and engage an audience and grow your bakery’s brand, this video-focused social platform is the way of the future.
If the whole “video only” concept seems new and challenging to you, don’t worry! It’s not as taxing as it may seem to come up with some stellar content. Think of things that would interest your audience. Do you have a cake that needs custom, intricate icing details? Take a video and upload it to your TikTok to give your customers an inside look at the process.
This “behind the scenes” content gives a story to your creations in a visual way that appeals to most scrolling consumers. The more you can get people enticed by your content, the more likely they’ll be to pay a trip to your bakery!
Since Twitter is focused on posting with a small number of characters, it’s ideal for all sorts of short posts that customers will appreciate or retweet. The goal of this social media platform is to stay concise, clear, and conversational. Posts that get the most action on Twitter are videos, so keep this in mind when you’re thinking about what to post.
With that being said, you can post whatever content you see fit (as long as it doesn’t surpass the 280-character limit). At BakeSmart, we suggest finding ways to utilize the “polling” feature as much as possible. Using Twitter Polls isn’t only a fun way to get your audience to interact with your posts, it’s also a great way for you to keep a pulse on what your customers crave.
For example, you could ask: “What is your favorite bakery treat?” Then, for the different choices, you can add specific treats you sell at your bakery and see which ones are your customer’s favorite based on the number of votes for each.
Instagram is one of the best social platforms for a bakery because it’s such a visual-heavy platform. If you love taking high-quality pictures and videos of your scrumptious creations, the “Gram” is a great place for them to live. Next time that tray of freshly-baked croissants comes out of the oven, snap a picture, and invite your followers to come treat their taste buds.
Make sure your pictures are focused, authentic, and have a suitable background. No worries if you don’t have the right lighting or accessories to reflect your vibe yet. Instagram has a ton of cool features that can help creatively promote your bakery. You can take full advantage of filters and editing apps and can even check out our photography suggestions for promoting your bakery.
Best Practices to Keep in Mind
When posting on any social media platform to promote your bakery, you want your posts to smark emotions like joy, happiness, inspiration, nostalgia, excitement, and all those other feel-goods that go great with your tasty treats. Here are some tips we suggest implementing across all of your social media platforms to ensure the best results:
- Draw customers in by posting about discounts or giveaways that revolve around sharing your post or following your bakery’s various social accounts. This engages your audience, has a clear call to action, and they get something in return!
- Be a source of baking education by taking the time to post quick baking tips that amateur and pro bakers alike could leverage. Your followers will appreciate that they can learn from you.
- Don’t forget to highlight your customer loyalty program. Your customers will love feeling like a VIP and will be more inclined to visit your bakery when they can rack up reward points.
- Announce new products with a short but detailed description. Entice your audience, but make them want more. This will make them want to visit your bakery to see for themselves or engage with your post to learn more.
- Share your daily or weekly specials! Keeping your potential and regular customers up-to-date on your offerings keeps things fresh and fun.
- Share exclusive discount codes with the people who follow your social pages. If people are taking the time to follow and interact with you via social media, they deserve some recognition for their support!
- Never underestimate the importance of relevant hashtags. For example, something as simple as hashtagging your geographical location with the word “bakery” (e.g., #IndyBakery, #IndianapolisBaker) is an easy way to let people find you.
- Use the time of day to your advantage. For example, most people take their lunch break around 12-2 p.m. So you could post a picture of your famed ham and cheese croissant around this time with a caption about stopping in for a snack.
- Hold a photo caption contest. Show your fun side by posting a wacky photo of your staff or a baking blooper with a “caption this” call-out. Have your followers comment with their funniest caption and give the winner a discount code or a free product. This brings out the “human” side of your brand and will feel relatable to your audience.
Pro Tip: Schedule Your Posts
Approach your social media the same way you approach your goods. They should be high quality, thoughtful, and fresh every day. To accomplish this, set aside time to schedule out all your posts for the week, so you don’t have to stop in the middle of a rush to post.
Great branding is always accompanied by a well-thought-out plan. While it’s encouraged to follow your creativity and post in the moment when it feels right, you don’t want a bunch of rushed posts to define your bakery. Some platforms offer scheduling features, and you can even utilize free platforms, like Hootsuite and Buffer, that will post automatically to social media according to the schedule you set. Remember: post regularly and with purpose on all social platforms. Planning ahead allows you to create a strategy around your social media presence and saves you time in the long run.
BakeSmart Is Here to Help You Conquer The Chaos
No matter what social medium you choose to use, make sure you’re highlighting the best parts of your bakery—looking for more tips for your bakery? Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for helpful tricks and tips for managing and promoting your bakery.
Set on the marketing side, but want help with managing your bakery operation? Whether you’re new to the baking world or you’re a seasoned pro, everyone can benefit from our state-of-the-art software and website organization. Try our solutions now and get a 30-day money-back guarantee with BakeSmart!
