As a member of the retail bakery community, you’ve likely heard a lot about how social media can drive traffic and sales. While these discussions often center on Facebook and Twitter, two other social media platforms—Pinterest and Flickr—have the potential to be game changers for retail bakeries.
Pinterest is a place for users to discover ideas for their parties, projects, and interests. After creating an account, you’ll be prompted to create boards and add pins:
Boards: Aptly named, Pinterest boards are digital bulletin boards. To stay organized, establish a board for each category of content you plan to post (e.g., holiday products, new products, bite-sized treats, occasion cakes, staff members, and more).
Pins: Pins are visual bookmarks that you “pin” to your “boards.” Put simply, they’re images, articles, and ideas—embedded with a direct link back to your website—that other users might find interesting, helpful, impressive, etc. Image-based pins tend to me the most popular. In fact, recent studies have shown that image-based posts receive 120 to 180 percent more engagement than text-based posts. And because bakery products are visual by nature, you have a lot of pre-existing material with which to work.
You can integrate Pinterest with your website, Twitter account, and Facebook profile to save yourself some management time. You can also add a “Pin It” button to items on your website and/or blog to make it easy for people to pin and share your content for you.
Because a lot of shoppers use Pinterest, it provides an excellent forum through which you can engage with your target customers and drive traffic back to your website. As a platform, Pinterest reduces the number of steps from a user’s discovery of a product to conversion. In other words, people who come across your content on Pinterest will often convert into leads or sales faster than from other social media sources, making it a highly valuable tool. In addition, many users report being “addicted” to Pinterest, which means your pins have a high probability of being seen, touched, or better yet, going viral.
Lastly, Pinterest is a great place to discover trends. By browsing other users’ boards, you can discover what people love to share. You can also follow your followers to see what inspires them. Observing trendy pins can help you understand what’s popular and use that information to position your own offers and products.
Flickr
Flickr is a photo- and video-sharing network with millions of groups that cover just about every industry, including baking. Home to billions of images, Flickr one of the largest photo and video hosting services on the Internet, and with both free and pro accounts, it’s accessible to everyone.
As part of your Flickr account, you’ll create a profile that will introduce your bakery as well as list your website and physical address. You’ll then be able to search for relevant groups, join them, and share your images. Flickr’s user base is strong and active, so the more involved you become with Flickr, the more it users’ will become involved with you.
Both Pinterest and Flickr are fantastic social platforms for bakeries, because they’re visually driven and proven to be effective. By posting images to both networks, you can take huge strides toward not only growing your brand, but personalizing it, too, which is engaging for your followers and promising for your bottom line.
