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Running a small bakery taught me more about social media than any course I took
Posted by on May 26, 2026 at 11:10 amI have been running a home bakery for two years and managing my own Instagram the whole time. No agency, no tools, just me figuring it out by watching what worked and what didn't.
The thing that genuinely surprised me was that my worst performing posts were always the most "professional" ones. Clean white background, nice lighting, proper product shots. Meanwhile a shaky video of me decorating a cake at midnight with flour on my face got more saves than anything else I had posted that month.
People don't follow small businesses for perfect content. They follow because they like the person behind it. Once I understood that, posting stopped feeling like work.
What has been your biggest social media lesson from running a small business? Would love to hear what actually clicked for others.
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1 Reply
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Realtor here, and I learned the same thing.
My most polished listing walkthroughs (steady gimbal, color graded, drone shots) consistently got fewer saves than quick phone videos of me pointing out something weird about a house, like the closet that’s secretly huge or the staircase that creaks.
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true ppl vibe more with raw midnight cake vids than polished studio shots 🍰 authenticity > perfection every time.
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spot on. i think a lot of brands treat social media like a high end magazine cover when they should be treating it like a conversation at a coffee shop. people crave authenticity because they are tired of being sold to 24/7. when you show the messy side of the business you are actually building trust, not just brand awareness.
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I totally agree with you! And for me, the best performing content is typically the “silliest”. Those posts are definitely not polished and make people smile.
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nice
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I completely agree. They are emotionally invested in the person. Ups, downs, wins and losses. Coming from someone who has 700k followers.
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