When I showed up at Ardmore Coffee they had less than 200 followers on their Instagram account, two posts, and no Facebook activity. Over the course of a year, I took photos and used them for Instagram and Facebook content; this not only gave the local community a reliable news source on the shop happenings, but also helped to bring in new customers.

Advertising in store made regulars aware of our updated pages, which was great because they could rely on online announcements instead of messages taped to the front door. This especially came in handy on those snowy mornings when the shop was open to anyone willing to make the trek.

As we gained more followers, people would come in because they saw our increasingly popular photos geotagged in Winston Salem. At this point the shop would see new people on the weekend who “saw this on Instagram and had to visit!”. Requests for beautiful latte art were common; what better way to tempt your friend into a coffee date?

At the time I moved on to my next venture, we had around 900 followers and plenty of content that established the shop. The reputation had risen from “Do y’all sell coffee?” to “I have to try one of their lattes!”. The baristas after me had a great set of reference material to make their own content from, and Ardmore Coffee’s following and place in the Triad coffee shop scene continues to rise.