#myopenkitchenstories CHALLENGE
Are you looking for some new ideas, inspiration, a kick up the bum to get a bit more variety and interest into your IG feeds? Aren’t we all?
So here’s my suggestion – lets all do the #myopenkitchenstories hashtag challenge.
This is something born of the My Open Kitchen e-course, (applications for the next round – September – open in a fortnight, sign up to the newsletter to get all the dets). Our July group is just easing into week one where we talk lots about how important it is to have a consistent approach to your social media feeds. And one of the most helpful ways to do this is to have a list of topics that you use to tell your story. So, for our #myopenkitchenstories hashtag challenge I want us to work our way through the a few topics that are super useful and engaging.
Anyone is welcome to join in our hashtag challenge and I’ll be collecting and sharing favourites each week. So here goes…
Challenge one 30 July – 6 August – ‘What makes me tick’
As I’m always always saying to anyone who’ll listen – ‘People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it’ (thank you Simon Sinek for this quote). So this week’s challenge is to share your why with your people by posting a photo and caption that gives us a glimpse into what makes you tick. The photo could be a portrait or selfie (preferably – because we all want to see your lovely face pop up on your feed every now and then). And in your caption, please share a little (or a lot) of your ‘why’. It could be something like ‘Hi I’m Rosie and I make xyz product because…and it means so much to me because.…’ or it could be a list of your five things you really believe in, it could be a testimonial from a favourite customer followed by a blurb about how really serving your people and making their lives better is what gets you out of bed in the morning or it could be a photo of your farm and a story about why you work so hard to regenerate the natural pastures you are custodians of and why this makes the meat that you produce from this land is so special. Catch my drift? x
Challenge two, 6 – 13 August – Adding value
‘Value’ posts are what make good social media accounts tick – and by this I mean, recipes, DIYs, five juicy facts about what you do that will be of interest to your people etc. We are all an expert in something so find what your thing is and share it. If gardening is your thing and you have a store selling beautiful gardening tools, then share your expertise in a seasonal way, a simple post explaining how to transplant seedlings for example. Or if you produce ground ginger for example, the obvious one would be sharing an easy recipe for say a wholegrain ginger and banana loaf that highlights your ginger and also solves a problem for your readers; I need a snack for my kids’ lunchboxes that’s easy to make but nutritious as well.
Challenge three (13 – 20 August) Ask for advice or customer feedback
One of the best ways to encourage engagement on your social media feeds is to ASK FOR IT. So it could be a post saying that you are off to Sydney next week for a big trade show or to meet with chefs and show them your produce, and ask for recommendations for the best coffee/breakfast/dinner place in town. I promise you that your ‘people’ will be super excited to share their tips and something like this can start a really fun, lively comment thread – and the algorithm loves that kind of thing! Or maybe you are make beautiful preserves but need to streamline your packaging so you have only one size in jars available – hold them both up in a photo and then ask your people which they like better. you could also follow this up with a poll in IG stories!?
Challenge four (20-27 August) – Behind the scenes
Share a flat lay photo of the tools of your trade, a process shot of something in the making? If you are a baker, the loaves lined up proving on the bench and that kind of thing. Or if you are a farmer, feeding your livestock, checking soil temperatures, whatever. Invite your people into your world, share with them what happens behind the scenes and invite them into your kitchen, behind the farm gate etc.
Challenge five (27 August – 3 September) Inspiration
What inspires you? What inspires the work that happens on your farm – share that inspiration this week. It could be a quote from someone else or it could be a list of five makers/producers/people in your field who inspire you every day (make sure to tag/link them in your post so they know you are sharing the love) or it could be a photo of your farm/kitchen/workpsace etc and a paragraph or two about
Challenge 6 (3 – 10 September) Sales
The general rule of thumb with selling on social media is the 80/20 ratio – 80% of your posts should be bringing value, inspiration and good feels to your people and 20% can be selling to them. So when it comes to creating these sales-y posts, please remember to clearly illustrate the FAB of your product (features, advantages, benefits – we cover this concept this week in the coursework) and then to ensure that the road from reading that post to making a purchase is as easy and pain free as possible.