Five Instagram Tips for Bakers
Okay so I’m on a roll here – I think I like the idea of doing a blog post every Friday! It keeps everyone waiting all week for what I’ll be writing about 😉
Let me back up a little – I graduated from Brigham Young University with an advertising/communications degree! I spent the last two years of college learning the business side of advertising and interning at some pretty cool agencies – Super Top Secret in Salt Lake City, Y&R/Red Fuse Communications in NYC, and Hill Holliday in Boston. I learned so much with my short time at each agency! After my internships, I started my first full-time job at a YouTube advertising agency (basically working with social media influencers all day) called Plaid Social in Provo, Utah which then got acquired by Branded Entertainment Network in Los Angeles.
I quit Plaid before they got acquired and left my account management days to start working as a social media coordinator at a tech company in Utah called Insidesales.com. I mostly worked on B2B social media which was definitely new to me! Once Steven graduated, we moved to Los Angeles and I got a job as Director of Marketing and Partnerships at a travel start-up company called Acanela Expeditions. It wasn’t until I was at Acanela, I really found my niche in digital marketing and partnering with brands to help grow Acanela’s brand! Long story short – I helped grow Acanela’s Instagram from 1,000 followers to 100K followers and their email list from 500 emails to 400K email subscribers by the time I left and that was all through brand partnerships. If you want to learn more about what I did – check out my LinkedIn or DM me!
What helped Acanela grow so much has nothing to do with what I learned in college or at my internships/jobs – surprisingly! It was all through my personal experiences where I figured out what Acanela needed to grow authentically and fast. I can go all day about what I did to help a travel company grow but then this post will be too long. I take that back about how college and internships/job had nothing to do with it. The key thing that I learned from my college experience and past jobs was that RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT!! Once you’ve created a solid relationship with someone or some type of business/brand – you’ve created a potential partnership. So let’s get to my TOP 5 INSTAGRAM TIPS FOR BAKERS! These tips also will probably relate to non-bakers as well.
1. Produce HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT
I can’t stress that enough when I tell other bakers that they need to stop posting random pictures that are not related to their business. This may seem harsh but people want to see your beautiful cakes and desserts!! It took me a while to learn how to photograph my cakes on my own and in a setting where I can get the best natural light! You’ve all seen this in my stories before but I use a TV dinner stand, a marble slab from Michael’s craft store and a cake stand to set up my cakes for the perfect photo! The key thing in my photos though is that there’s a white background behind it (AKA my bathroom door) and a window that shines a light on it. If you want to post random photos or videos on your Instagram – leave that for your Instagram stories! You want the person who clicks on your profile and scroll about once or twice to see if it’s worth following your business!
2. RELATIONSHIPS AND NETWORKING
Like what I said above, relationships and networking is so vital when it comes to growing your social media following and engagement! This is where I am going to answer the “how do you get followers” question. The first thing about networking and creating these relationships is to be GENUINE. No one wants to be friends or even work with you if you’re just doing it for your personal/business gain and not giving anything back in return! Here are two ways that I networked that worked for me:
Network with people in your industry – This is the method I focused on when I was living in Los Angeles. Someone told me about this group called The Rising Tide Society where creative entrepreneurs can come together and collaborate. Their slogan is “Community Over Competition.” I love love love what they stand for and I’ve made some of my closest friends through this organization! Then there are sub-groups called Tuesdays Together where you meet with your region the 2nd Tuesday of the month! For example – in Boston, I am part of the Tuesdays Together – Boston group! Come join – it’s free and fun!! By joining Rising Tide society, I had the chance to collaborate with awesome wedding vendors on “styled photo shoots” AKA fake wedding shoots where every vendor can provide their skills and talents to make this photo shoot come alive. The goal is to get published in a wedding magazine or online blog! These are some of the ones I’ve been featured in! Here, here, here (this one was actually real!) and here. To be totally transparent, even though getting published is really awesome and cool – I don’t think I got one single business from someone that actually read that article. I did get business by networking with the wedding vendors with whom I collaborated on styled shoots where we referred each other to a potential client! Also, I love being involved in styled shoots because I get a creative reign on what type of cake I’m going to make AND I get high-quality photos from professional photographers in return!! BIG WIN!!
Network with local influencers and bloggers – I have strong opinions about this topic. By partnering with influencers in your area, you will gain followers from people who are in your city! Which is perfect for your business! BUTTTTT you have to be picky with who you work with. Working at that YouTube advertiser agency, I learned a lot about engagement. We would not work with anyone who has less than 5,000 average views on YouTube. Remember – that’s average views, not followers! You can have 100K followers on social media but if they get THREE comments on their post – they are not worth working with! For example – someone with 25K followers reached out to me when I had about 4,000 followers asking me for a free cake and in return, they will promote to their audience which is mostly based in Boston and NYC – but her profile said she was located in NYC and her engagement was VERY low for someone having 25K followers (did she buy them??? We will never know..) Anyways – I politely declined and said I would totally love to make you a cake and here is this price – she never responded back. You also have to remember if it’s worth your TIME and MONEY to make a free cake for someone. Here is an example of an AMAZING collaboration with a Boston Food blogger you may know as @BostonFoodies – I’ve been following @BostonFoodies for a long time on my personal Instagram when I first lived in Boston 4 years ago. Tiffany, who runs the account is seriously the coolest and her photos are just drool-worthy! I remember commenting on a dumpling photo saying “omg beautiful dumplings” and she commented back “beautiful cakes!” and I said, “if you ever need a cake – let me know!!” She then reached out to me via Instagram DM for a cake and in return, she’ll promote my business. WHICH HELLOOOO – was the best thing to ever happen to Lizzie’s Bakery because I got to make @BostonFoodies a cake (any design that I wanted) and she posted on her Instagram feed (120K followers at the time) and shared other cakes of mine in her stories and in her highlights! After her post, I received 1000+ followers AND HUNDREDS of cake inquiry emails! Still to this day – people who want a cake from me found me through her Instagram! AMAZING. & soooo worth giving Tiffany a free cake because there was so much value to it! So Tiffany – if you’re reading this, I OWE YOU BIG TIME!!
Galentine’s Brunch with some awesome boss babes I met through Instagram!
3. ENGAGE with your audience!
I always make it a priority to respond back to someone saying “Beautiful Cake” on my Instagram because it’s a compliment! If your friend said “pretty dress!” you would not ignore her right? I see a lot of bakers who never respond to comments! I’m like duuuuude what are you doing?! I always make sure when I post an Instagram photo to my feed, I give myself an extra 30 minutes to an hour to respond to comments. I’ve noticed that when you respond back ASAP in the first hour your engagement goes up which means Instagram’s algorithm will push your photo to the top of people’s home feeds. Yes, an hour is a lot of time to spend on your phone – but it’s all worth it when you make it onto that explore page!
4. FIND YOUR NICHE
I didn’t know what my niche was until I came to Boston. I realized I LOVE making custom cakes but not just any custom cake – fun, colorful, and only buttercream kind of cakes! Even though, I have done cakes with fondant decor – I’m not a huge fan of making that kind of cake. What’s cool about owning your own business is that you can say no to orders that just don’t fit with your style. Sometimes I tell people that I hate writing on cakes because I truly hate my cake handwriting. Plus I think no writing on cakes looks way cuter!! For now, I’m going to try suggesting a cute custom cake topper! When someone asks me if I can do a cake with lots of fondant decor – I politely tell them that I am self-taught and have not learned that yet & suggest other awesome bakers in the area that can do what they want! I want people to order my cakes because they like the type of style of cakes I can create. A lot of the couples that I have met with for wedding cake tastings like that I do more whimsical and unique wedding cakes than your traditional white fondant cakes! I love watercolor, painted, ganache drip, and overload types of cakes! Find what you love to create and don’t feel pressured if someone asks you to make something you don’t want to do! You want to have fun while baking not feel stressed and trust me – I have felt stressed numerous times because I took on orders that just weren’t my style.
5. BRANDING YOURSELF
I saved the best for last! A branding coach once told me that anyone can make a cake (which is true – pretty or not pretty) but people want to buy cakes because YOU made them. Then a lightbulb clicked in my head – I NEED TO SHOW MY FACE MORE. Why worry about a logo when my face can be the logo!!? I’ve also learned that when new people go on your profile and they scroll about two or three times and they can’t find who runs the Instagram account or who makes the cakes – you’re most likely won’t get a follow because they have no clue who you are! (This isn’t a proven statement – I’ve just heard this from someone else, can’t remember who though!) So I always make sure to do a personal photo of myself maybe once every two weeks? Or if I feel I haven’t shown my face that much in a while. My favorite things to see on social media are quirky and random facts about the business owner! I try to do that about once a month! A lot of small businesses like to do “Friday Introductions” and post a picture of themselves doing what they love with a couple of random facts! It provides the follower a little bit more info about you and who that person is behind all of the cakes! Also, utilize Instagram stories to show your everyday life even if it’s not about baking!
If you’re reading this to the end – you are amazing. I know I rambled a lot but I know this is useful information for bakers out there to help them get started with their Instagram strategies or just even starting a baking Instagram in general!
If you ever have any questions – email me or DM me on Instagram!
