Social Media & Fresh Produce

Author: Kate Cook

The age of social media is upon us, and with it comes a range of opportunities for businesses to reach customers in a whole new way, all you have to do is take the first step!

WE can’t avoid the reach of social media these days: everywhere you go someone is taking a picture of their friends, the view, an activity, or a simple photo of a great meal. This trend of cataloging your life through social media is showing no signs of slowing, with Instagram and Facebook becoming the new photo albums of the modern age.

The food industry has latched onto the benefits of these social platforms, and companies now use these sites as a free and direct path to their customers, and a great source for statistics on user habits – you would be crazy not to get involved!

If you look at the way that people are using their phones these days it is clear that social media is an ever-growing power in the marketing industry and can greatly influence consumers. A total of 79% of Australians were recorded using social media sites this year, which is up 10% from 2017, and 4 out of 10 users have posted pictures of their food to these sites.

Avocado toast is a great example of the power of social media; it has come to represent an entire generation of millennial consumers who are now said to “not be able to afford a home” because of their love of this instagrammable fruit.

Although this depiction of millenials is an exaggeration, the popularity of the avocado is not, and the fruits’ popularity is still on the rise – nearly all brunch menus in Melbourne serve avocado toast, or at least a side of smashed avo, and all of these are served beautifully to encourage customers to capture that instagrammable look and share it with the world.

Another strength of the visual power of these social media sites is that they can easily tell a story. The emphasis on knowing where your food has come from, supporting small businesses, and ensuring your food has been made ethically and is truly healthy has never been higher, and many businesses are taking advantage of social sites to show off all the good things about their produce.

Along the entire food production process of farm to plate, the growers, pickers, transporters, wholesalers, and sellers are all using the power of social media to connect consumers to their food and create a shared experience and a complete story of fresh produce.

So, if you are new to the business side of social media, how do you use it well? The best way to launch or reestablish your business on any of these platforms is to make sure that your information is up to date, make sure to link your social media to your business website for more information, think about who you are talking to in your posts, invite your followers to interact and respond to your products online, and go heavy on the visuals. Pictures are an easy and exciting way to show off what you do and the great things you have on offer.

There is definitely something to be said for an older industry like fresh produce coming into the new age of technology and taking advantage of all these new trends. Businesses now can show their customers the great produce that is out there and encourage them to try something new through bright and enticing photos and recipe ideas, and by using smart statistics and tracking user habits to stay on trend and give the customers exactly what they want.

Customers may be spending less time in stores and more time online, but this means that there is a new way to meet your customers – perhaps no longer through face to face interaction, but with the amount people have their phone in their face nowadays it’s really not that different.