Dawn Foods is aware of its customers’ hectic schedules, which is reflected in the company’s strategies regarding social media.

“Social media content provides inspiration bakers can use every season to draw attention to their product offerings,” says Paulet Martinez, Marketing Communications Director. “Every month Dawn shares inspirational recipes, insights and industry trends articles for bakers to remain fresh and relevant addressing their consumer’s needs. Additionally, we provide downloadable marketing materials that can be used in the bakeries..”

As the partner for bakery success, Dawn supports baker’s growth by implementing a content strategy which includes regular publications on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and video sharing on YouTube., Martinez said.

The company’s goal is to inspire bakery success everyday. “We seek ways to help bakeries expand their product offering by delivering Inspiration guides, new recipes, new products, and demonstrating how versatile Dawn ingredients are for their bakery creations. The annual Dawn calendars given to customers, include relevant bakery dates they can promote through their own social platforms to drive additional traffic to the store.,” Martinez explains.  

“We know customers are increasingly turning to social media for inspiration, tips, research, and other creative ideas. On the flip side, as more customers are on social media, they are also very busy and have a business to run, so attention spans are shorter. Because of this, the content they view needs to be brief, enticing and memorable,” says Elizabeth Hassett, director of digital product experience for Dawn Food Products.

Video engagement

New research has revealed the most engaging social media sites, with YouTube coming out on top. The study by web design company DigitalSilk.com analyzed SimilarWeb data to find the most engaging social media sites, by seeing which sites had the highest average visit duration and the average number of pages a user visits.

It found that YouTube is the most engaging social media site. The video-sharing platform scored highest for average visit duration, sitting at 19 minutes and 35 seconds, and users of the site were found to visit 11.08 pages on average per visit, giving it the top spot on the list.

Third on the list is Snapchat, in this case, referring to the web edition of the messaging service which launched in 2022. Users were found to visit 8.34 pages per visit on average and stay on the site for an average of 14 minutes and 10 seconds.

X.com, formerly known as Twitter, takes fourth place on the list. It comes in with an average of 10.19 pages per visit, with the average visit duration at 10 minutes and 53 seconds.

Rounding out the top five is Instagram, with the image and video-sharing site coming in with the highest number of pages per visit in the top ten, with 11.53 on average. However, it comes in with a slightly lower visit duration of 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

What do these websites have in common? They all prominently feature video components. If your business plans to market itself online, you need to be on most or all of them.

Another platform on the rise in recent years is TikTok. Among small businesses that market on TikTok and at least one Meta platform, 96% say they get the most engagement on TikTok.

As Meta’s biggest rival in the social media landscape, TikTok has steadily gained popularity in the U.S., particularly among Gen Z. Small businesses are reaping the benefits of that surge and seeing engagement results above and beyond what they can get from Facebook and Instagram.

In fact, among small businesses that market themselves on TikTok and either Instagram, Facebook, or both, the vast majority (96%) say they get the most engagement on TikTok.

Over the past year, TikTok has further expanded its user base in the U.S. and rolled out an in-app eCommerce marketplace, offering new ways to capitalize on the most fruitful social media discovery algorithm for small businesses.

According to Capterra’s 2023 TikTok Marketing Survey, among 364 small to midsize retailers and restaurants, TikTok outperforms Meta apps (Facebook and Instagram) in terms of organic engagement. What’s more, over half of small businesses are seeing positive return on investment (ROI) from paid ads on TikTok even as ad returns dwindle with Meta.

Among brands that run paid ads on TikTok, 51% have achieved positive ROI, and 45% are breaking even.

While many SMBs are already selling products through TikTok Shop, 45% say deriving ROI from TikTok’s eCommerce marketplace has been challenging.

Leveraging trends (53%), owning a niche (51%), and educating customers about your products and brand (51%) are key aspects of surveyed SMBs’ TikTok marketing strategies.