5 Local Businesses Who Are Rocking Their Social Media

When it comes to social media, there are a few local businesses who are doing it right and rocking the social media game. Social media is a powerful tool for any small business because it is cost-effective and allows for you to build relationships with your customers. If used in the way it was intended, it can help drive traffic to your website or online store, increase brand awareness, and even generate leads for your business. We have a few favorite social media accounts that we are always checking out because of how well they do social media.

Intermezzo Coffee @intermezzocoffee

Intermezzo Coffee is a coffee and cocktail bar in St. Petersburg, Florida. They are rocking their Instagram feed by posting high quality images that showcase who they are and what they do. They use similar colors and filters in their pictures to create a cohesive look. It is very important for your photos on Instagram to be aesthetically pleasing and relevant to your business. A few things to keep in mind when posting to Instagram: How will this picture look with my feed? Is the quality of this picture good? Does this picture serve a purpose? Will my followers like this photo? If the picture is not serving any of these purposes then it shouldn’t be posted.

We asked Intermezzo Coffee how they create consistent content to share on Instagram and they replied, “Almost all of our photos are taken inside our space. Our space has a specific color palate that lends itself well to photos particularly with the natural light.” It is very important that you share photos and videos that are aesthetically pleasing and go well together in your feed. This will attract more followers who want to follow your account.

When asked what their overall goal for their social media was they responded, “Our overall goal is to show our customers what we do, who we are, and keep them up to date with what we are doing. Also showing people who haven’t visited the same thing.” Social media is often used as a search engine by potential customers looking for something, and it is a great place to showcase the side of your business that a website cannot.

(Courtesy: @intermezzocoffee on Instagram)

Fresh Kitchen @eatfreshkitchen

Fresh Kitchen is a health foods restaurant in St. Pete, and they are rocking their Instagram Stories. Stories are one of Instagram’s most popular features. Stories only last up to twenty four hours and are a great way to show content that isn’t displayed directly in your feed. Fresh Kitchen does an amazing job with using the Stories feature to its fullest potential. They include brightly colored text and graphics to stay on brand. They are always sharing new menu items, behind the scenes footage, and user-generated content. Your followers want to see behind-the-scenes footage of your business, because they want to know more about the human (or humans) behind the screen. We asked Fresh Kitchen what is their checklist for a great Instagram story, and they answered “We don’t want to overwhelm our audience, we keep it to informative and creative. We try to minimize text as well.”

Fresh Kitchen has an impressive following of over 18 thousand followers, so we had to ask them the secret to their Instagram success. They replied with, “We focus on our product, our food quality, and our customers first and foremost. Showcasing our products via good quality content and photography comes second. We use Instagram and other forms of social media to listen and communicate with our customers. Engagement and real communication with customers may be time consuming, but we believe that it is imperative for success.”

(Courtesy: @eatfreshkitchen on Instagram)

Made Coffee @madecoffee

Made Coffee is a local coffee cannery in St. Pete that specializes in Cold Brew and Nitro coffees. They have a really cool feature on their Instagram page where they showcase local small business owners and operators in their “Meet ‘Em Monday” series. This is a great way to feature their customers, and create a sense of community around their local brand. Showcasing these local entrepreneurs is also a great way to build connections with their followers by giving them something to look forward too every Monday. It is important that if you are on social media you are staying true to your business, products, customers, and community.

We asked Made Coffee what has led to their success on Instagram and they replied with, “What first comes to mind is fluidity and staying true to who we are. We are native to Florida and are very much a brand inspired by our state and its culture. We want that to come through in our photos to keep the brand presence bright and fun. Keeping the same over all look and feel is essential but, in our case, you also gotta mix up the content of photos to show the versatility of the product. We want to engage not only through the photos but through the voice of our feed.  I think the Insta story is attractive to our followers because our personalities are able to come through.”

Social media is all about story telling. Made Coffee has a series titled “Meet ‘Em Monday” where they showcase local business  owners in the area every week. When we asked them what inspired this series they answered, “Meet ‘Em Monday was developed as a way to give back to our accounts. We greatly appreciate our relationships and look at the Meet ‘Em Monday series as a way to grow our business as well as theirs. The series helps to lend a human aspect to our feed.”

(Courtesy: @madecoffee on Instagram)

Ashe Couture Boutique @ashecoutureboutique

Ashe Couture Boutique is a local women’s clothing boutique in St. Petersburg. They do an amazing job at connecting with their followers by engaging in conversation and building relationships. They use their Instagram to showcase their newest arrivals and specials going on throughout the store. When someone comments on a picture they are always responding and connecting with the customer which is exactly what social media is for. You can not just be posting content just to never look at it again. It is vital for your business to respond to all comments and build genuine relationships with your followers.

Social media is a platform where you need to be social. We asked Ashe how they build genuine connections with their followers, and they replied “Interaction! Liking their comments when they tag a friend and answering all questions. I’m constantly on my phone, so if a customer asks something on social media, I can answer it in a timely manner.” When asked what has led to their success, they answered with “consistency”.

(Courtesy: @ashecoutureboutique on Instagram)

I Love The Burg @ilovetheburg

I Love The Burg is a local media company that shares pictures and videos of what’s going on around St. Petersburg. They utilize user-generated content by encouraging their followers to share pictures using the #instaburg hashtag. This is a great way to get content to post on your social media platforms, but it is also a great way to build relationships with your followers. It is a win-win situation. If you are going to implement user-generated content it is important to make sure that you already have a following, aren’t asking for too much, and make it easy for your followers to submit their content by creating a branded hashtag. The best practice is to create a branded hashtag that they can use when posting to their accounts.

(Courtesy: @ilovetheburg on Instagram)

There are many small businesses in the ‘burg that are rocking social media, but these five accounts made the cut for one reason: authenticity. They are using social media the way it was intended and utilizing all of its features. If your small business needs help with managing its social media presence, contact us today at info@kapokmarketing or (727) 214-5844 to see how we can help.