In today's episode, Caroline, a successful in-home sourdough bakery owner, shares powerful tips on leveraging social media to build and engage your local customer base.

From the importance of visibility and engagement to using Instagram and Facebook effectively, Caroline provides detailed strategies for posting engaging content, utilizing local hashtags, and staying consistent with your social media efforts.

Don't miss the free content calendar in the show notes to kickstart your social media journey and build a thriving community around your sourdough business.

Links to things we talked about: 

A week of social media content, ready for you! Download here: https://carolinebower.myflodesk.com/contentcalendar

Caroline Bower Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinebower_sourdough

Download the FREE Guide and Checklist, Your First Steps to a Successful In-Home Bakery at https://www.carolinebower.com/checklist to begin building YOUR thriving microbakery!

Episode 9

Welcome to the Breadwinner Podcast. This is the show for sourdough micro bakery owners who are building a sustainable, successful, profitable business from their home. If you are already in business or if you're dreaming of starting one, this is the place for you. I'm your host, Caroline Bower. I own a successful in home sourdough bakery, and I am here to share everything I've learned that works and that doesn't, plus everything that I'm researching along the way so we can build thriving businesses together.

Today we are talking about using social media to grow your local customer base.

If you've ever wondered how to leverage platforms like Facebook or Instagram or effectively. This is a good episode for you. Grab a pen and paper to take some notes and we are going to get started.

Before we dive in, make sure you jumped down into the show notes.

All right.

First things first. Let's talk about why social media is so powerful for small businesses like ours. Particularly local businesses.

So unlike traditional advertising, like an ad in the phone book, what even is a phone book, Or mailers or radio ads.

Social media is interactive and personal.

It allows you to connect directly with your local customer base in the community, showcasing your products. And building a loyal following who feels connected to you.

So here are a few key reasons why social media is essential for your local small business.

Number one is visibility. Many of your customers are already on social media. So by being active on these platforms, you're putting yourself in front of them on a platform where they're already browsing.

Next is engagement. Social media allows you to have a conversation.

You're not just sharing an ad, you are sharing part of your process. You can bring them in and allow them to feel connected with you in a way that is not possible with traditional static advertising.

Social media is also super powerful for community building. You can create a sense of community around your brand.

People love to support local businesses. Especially the ones that they feel connected to and involved in.

And then you'll probably see, as you share, especially if you share in public forums, people will shout you out in comments. Which allows new people to see that you are well-liked and well-respected in your community. Therefore helping you grow even more.

All right, let's get tactical and talk about choosing platforms.

First sourdough, micro bakeries, instagram and Facebook are the pretty logical choices.

Instagram is perfect for visual storytelling and bringing people in behind the scenes through stories and posts. And Facebook is great for community building and local targeting.

The next door app is also a powerful app that can be used to reach your local community.

So here's some tips for Instagram.

You can also post reels, short little video clips of your process or the products that you're bringing to the market or for pickup orders.will help people feel connected and get excited about what you're offering.

Stories are also a great way to engage the people who already follow you.

And when you're posting. Photos or reels. Make sure to use local hashtags. To increase your searchability.

Examples might include something like hashtag your city sourdough, hashtag your city bakery. Or hashtag support local.

I can't speak to how effective those hashtags would be, especially if it's a small city, but it's worth a try.

So I always make sure to read the guidelines to be respectful of those requirements.

Facebook groups can definitely be hit or miss. There are some where business post, just do not get seen. And that can be really frustrating, but every once in a while you might find the group that really works well for you. And your posts will, might take off and get a lot of traction. There are about four groups that I post in fairly consistently; at least a couple times a month.

I always post from my personal account and tag my business page so people can jump over and follow my business page.

But I think that posting from the personal account allows it to be seen a little bit more easily.

The Bluebird bread co will be out at the farmer's market tomorrow from nine to two, alongside 30 other wonderful vendors come out and support us." And then I often let them know what's going to be on the menu. If I have anything special or a unique flavor. I give them the address because they always ask, even though I tag the market,

And then of course I tag my business page too, so they can go over and follow them there. Those posts usually get seen really well because they're not just a business post saying, Hey, I'm selling something. But they bring people in to a community conversation. And I always have people come to my booth. And tell me that they came just because they saw that post.

Now on Facebook, if you set up a business page, which I recommend doing versus posting everything from your personal page, your business page allows you to grow and just have that next level of professionalism. Like I said, when I posted those local groups, I usually post from my personal page, but I tag my business page because that's the audience I want to build. I don't accept friend requests on my personal page from people I don't know. So they can jump over to my business page and connect with me there to see when I update and follow along with me on that side.

Whereas my Facebook posts would say. Here's the link to order. And I would add the link.

All right, let's talk a little bit more about engaging content and how you can actually get people to see and engage with your content rather than just pass over it.

Not only should you be posting content that showcases your product, but the goal really is here to engage with your customers. Draw them into what you're building and allow them to feel connected.

In order to succeed in any business, but really on social media. You want to develop three things. You want people to like you. And that is by showing up as a human and showing up as a professional and inviting them in on what you're offering.

They'll connect with that.

Know, is the personal factor. That's where stories come in or behind the , the scenes videos. Things that allow them to feel connected with you. And then trust is the final thing. So showing up consistently and professionally, reliably, it will allow them to trust you. And those three things build the pillar of a business that stays around with engaged and loyal customers.

If they like you, know you, and trust you.

They will feel connected to you. More than they would if they were just looking at. Faceless brand without any personal factor.

Okay. So here's some tangible content ideas to get you started.

Even a little bit about the process. Sometimes I'll show a picture of me. Toasting the almonds or zesting the lemon so that they know that everything is handmade and done with love and from scratch. That leads into behind the scenes. So show the process, show them how you make it. Don't get too caught up in beautiful production, but do you try to show an uncluttered clean video of you mixing up your dough or pulling it out of the oven? Or just a photo, even if a photo is easier than a video.

But show a little bit of the process so that they can see that you are actually making their products and you're making them with so much love and intention.

This builds, transparency, and trust with your audience again. Allowing them to like you, know you, and trust you.

Social proof is basically where.

Your future customers see that your current customers. Like your products. And so your future customers are more likely to trust you.

Another thing you can share is educational content. You can share tips and tricks about baking.

Or you could share a little recipes. I plan to share a recipe for homemade mayonnaise. I share a lot of pictures of the sandwiches that I make.

And you can educate your customers about the benefits of sourdough.

You could also share promotions and giveaways.

this can be a big way too grow your local following. So if you post a giveaway on social media, the requirements can be that you've, that they follow you and that they tag your friend, maybe that they liked the post and said that. Helps you grow in a really big way because you're gaining followers. But also when they like and tag, that is boosting that post to make it much more visible.

Don't forget to go down into the show notes and get the free content calendar.

It has these ideas, plus a few more to get your creative juices flowing and get you unstuck so you can get posting and connecting right away.

So we've talked a lot about posting great content and using it to engage your audience.

Let's go just a little bit deeper into the engagement itself.

So this looks like responding to comments, answering questions. Showing appreciation for your customers. So here are a few engagement strategies.

First is responding to comments, really take some time to reply to the comments in your posts. You do not have to reply in real time. Typically I try to check in every 24 hours or so. And respond all at once. Sometimes it's every two days. And there's a little delay between my response, but I try not to let a comment go unresponded as much as possible. Shows that you care and that you really are listening to what people are saying and builds that personal connection.

User generated content or UGC is also a super powerful engagement tactic.

So you can encourage your customers to share photos of your products, show how they're enjoying your products. You can even incentivize this through a giveaway and repost their content along with a shout out. That builds us social proof that we talked about, where people who are observing from a distance are seeing that people are. Really in real time, enjoying your products. And that gives you a lot of credibility and builds that trust.

This real-time interaction can significantly boost your engagement. This is totally optional. If you don't feel comfortable on camera, don't try to, don't feel like you have to do this, but it's a strategy that you can utilize if it feels aligned for you.

We touched on the power of the local features of social media, but let's go a little deeper into some of those tools that you can use to really tap into your local market.

You can play with it and see what you think. But I definitely always utilize that in my posts. And I have seen that to be effective.

On Facebook, you can also use the local targeting options for your posts. And if you utilize ads you would also want to utilize the location specific targeting.

If your city, your town has hashtags. That could be another thing to utilize. Hashtag your city small business, hashtag your city local business, hashtag your city shops small, anything like that is specific to your area. Can help boost your visibility to the people that will be shopping from you.

It's one thing to talk about all of the social media strategies.

It's another to actually implement them and stick with them. That is the key. Consistency is your best friend in growing your local customer base on social media.

This can mean you're posting weekly or posting a few times a month. What you don't want is for customers to see that your last post was three months ago. That's going to signal to them that you are not very active in your business, even if in reality you are showing up, you're still taking orders.

If they're getting on your social media, on your Facebook or your Instagram page, and seeing that you haven't posted in three or four months. They're going to think that you're not in business. So make sure that they can see a post, at least as recently as the last couple of weeks.

And all of the posts fit into those four different topics. This could be behind the scenes new products, sourdough benefits and, personal.

So if you're stuck and you don't know what to post, go back to those four pillars, choose one and put a. Post up that falls into one of those topics.

Highly recommended batch content creation. This looks like setting aside time each week or each month. To create several posts all at once, have them scheduled so they can go out over time, but you're not creating one post one off. And trying to do that several times a week, or trying to think of content ideas when you have a 10 minute window to put a post up and have no idea what to do with it.

So I have several drafts sitting in my drafts folder, ready to go when I need to put them up.

You can also utilize scheduling tools if you want to. Apps like later or Hootsuite or even Canva has a scheduling option. So when you batch create your content, like we talked about, you have several posts ready to go, you can schedule them out. So that they will post on their own on your schedule. Maybe a couple of times a week, and that's just something off your plate, freeing up some brain space.

So you don't have to think about it.

So to wrap up social media is a powerful tool for growing your local customer base.

Don't forget to jump down into the show notes and grab that free content calendar to help you get unstuck and have some ideas for content to post and start engaging your local audience.

If you found today's episode helpful,

I would love if you would subscribe to the show and leave a review so other people can find the episode two. Also, don't forget to follow me on Instagram. I'm Caroline Bower underscore sourdough. And it would make my day, if you would screenshot the show and tag me so I can see where you're listening from.

I'll give you a shout out and we can all get connected.

I'll be back with another episode soon, I drop episodes every Monday and Thursday. So if you're not following the show, make sure you do so you don't miss upcoming episodes. But until then happy baking.