Better Baker Club

  • Sourdough Recipes
  • Start Your Bakery
  • Copycat Recipes
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Sourdough Recipes
  • Start Your Bakery
  • Copycat Recipes
search icon
Homepage link
  • Sourdough Recipes
  • Start Your Bakery
  • Copycat Recipes
×
  • sourdough scone recipe
    The Best Flaky Sourdough Scone Recipe
  • 6 inch pie recipes
    Easy 6-Inch Apple Pie for Two (with Flaky Crust)
  • amish fried pie recipe
    Easy Amish Fried Pie Recipe With Homemade Apple Filling
  • mini pumpkin muffin recipe
    Mini Pumpkin Muffin Recipe with Cinnamon Glaze
  • maine whoopie pie recipe
    Best Maine Whoopie Pie Recipe with Fluffy Filling
  • sourdough cookies recipes
    Scaling Recipes for Baking: Tips to Size Up or Down
  • how long does sourdough starter last
    How to Feed and Maintain Your Sourdough Starter 
  • how long to let cake cool before icing
    How to Cool and Frost a Cake [Step-by-Step Guide]
  • coffee cake recipe without sour cream
    Easy Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake Recipe
  • tiktok brownie recipe
    Try The TikTok Brownie Recipe Everyone Is Making!
  • crumbl monster cookie recipe
    Bakery-Style Monster Cookies (Crumbl Copycat)
  • raising cane's bread recipe
    Copycat Raising Cane’s Bread Recipe

How to Grow Your Local Following on Social Media

Published: Jan 15, 2021 · Modified: Mar 22, 2024 by Better Baker · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

 

If you are a cottage baker then you probably know how hard it can be to grow your local following on social media. Your success and your confidence can take a big hit if you don't have enough customers for your next pop up sale.

If that sounds like you, you'll want to read this article all the way to the end because I am sharing my social media strategies to get more followers and expand your local reach online.

Using Instagram to grow your local following

Bakers are lucky because our work is just so pleasing to look at! Who wouldn't want to have a newsfeed filled with beautiful images of perfectly frosted sugar cookies and gooey soft cinnamon rolls? 

While drool-worthy photos are nice to look at, you'll want to communicate to your followers that the photos you post actually products for sale. So before we dig into growing your following make sure everything you post has clear messaging and a call to action. 

Use the right hashtags to grow your local following

Be selective with your hashtags and use them to narrow the search and place your items in front of the right audience. If you aren't sure which hashtags to use, make a list of local vendors and businesses that are popular in your town. See what local hashtags they use and add those to your list. You can also do a search for "hashtag+your city" and "hashtag+your state". You may find some new ones that way too!

Follow local vendors 

Commenting on other people's posts is a great way to increase your visibility. Start liking, sharing, and commenting on local vendor's posts. With any luck, they will return the favor and do the same for you. The art of "borrowing" their local audience will help you grow locally and expose you to a group of followers you may not have been able to find on your own.  

Use Geotags for local engagement

What's a geotag, you ask? Geotags are specific physical locations that are added to your posts on Instagram. You can add a geotag by tagging yourself in your location when you post. Some research shows that posts with a tagged location result in 79% higher engagement than posts without a tagged location.

Do a local giveaway

While giving away your product may be a more costly option to grow your local following, consider using a giveaway more strategically to boost local follows. If you are baking for a paid order, bake a little more for a give away. You'll save time and maybe even use ingredients that were extra anyway. When you are hosting a pop-up sales and you have extra items that did not sell, use those as your give away promotion. 

Team up with local influencers

Thinking that the term "influencer" is a little extreme for your small town? All you really need to do is find someone with a good local following. It can be a friend or a business. Think about ways to work together. Work together to cross promote each other's products, or have them sample your treats and post about it. Get creative about different ways to network together. 

You may also enjoy another blog post I have written called Three Sure-Fire Ways to Increase Your Sales Today.

Other Social media ways to grow your local following

Here are a few more ways to increase your local following that are worth mentioning. 

Use Facebooks Groups

Facebook groups are a another great way to bring your local followers together. Try searching in the Facebook Groups tab for the word "local". Join as many niche appropriate groups that you can. You can also search for:

  • Neighborhood groups (not just yours, but surrounding ones as well)
  • Buy, Sell and Trade groups
  • Parenting and Mom groups 
  •  Artisan Craft groups
  • Foodie groups 

Try using the Nextdoor App

Nextdoor is a social app that connects neighbors, businesses, services and news updates. It may or may not be active in  your area, but its worth a look. Its free to join and you may make a few additional sales from it.

Spend some time on social media and grow your local following and you're sure to gain a few new customers

Now you know a few of my tricks for tapping into the local population on social media. You can spend some time on Instagram interacting local businesses, or network and promote your business even more! Try joining those local Facebook groups as well to really round out your clientele. What it comes down to is that social media marketing is work! If you put in the time, you will get better results.

 

You may also like:

Photographing Baked Goods With Your Smartphone

Allyson Burns Better Baker Club

More Welcome To The Blog!

  • swans cake flour recipe
    Easy Swans Cake Flour Recipe – Back of the Box
  • overnight bagel recipe
    Easy Overnight Bagel Recipe with Sourdough Starter
  • substitute for bundt pan
    Best Substitute for a Bundt Pan & How to Bake Without One
  • Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe Without a Dutch Oven

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Hi, I'm Allyson!

Some people bake for fun. Some bake for work. I’ve spent 30 years doing both! With four bakeries under my belt and a passion for recreating bakery favorites, I love sharing recipes that bring your favorite bakery classics home.

Read more

Follow me on social!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • TikTok

My Latest Posts

  • graduation cut out cookies
    Buttercream-Frosted Graduation Cut Out Cookies
  • How to print a picture on a cake
    How to Put a Custom Photo on a Cake
  • Amish Apple Fritter Bread
    Amish Apple Fritter Bread: An Awesome Country Recipe
  • chocolate sourdough bread recipe
    Sourdough Chocolate Mocha Bread: Double Batch

Footer

↑ back to top

Helpful Info

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure
  • Terms and Conditions

More About Me

  • About Allyson
  • Contact Me

Popular Resources

  • Recipes
  • Start Your Dream Bakery
  • Better Baker Academy

Copyright © 2025 Better Baker Club LLC