âThe Sell Siderâ is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community.
[AdExchanger | The Sell Sider]
â[The Sell Sider](â is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community.
After this exclusive first look for subscribers, the story by AdExchangerâs Sarah Sluis will be published in full on [AdExchanger.com]( on Wednesday.
With its impeccable food styling, Food52 has always been a natural fit for Instagram.
When the online food publisher started posting on Instagram, it viewed the platform as a place for community building and brand awareness, said Kaitlin Bray, Food52âs director of social media. But as Instagram cooks up more shopping-driven features, Food52 finds the social platform quickly catching up to Facebook as its strongest commerce channel.
âFacebook used to be where our commerce efforts were focused,â Bray said. âBut with the different ways to tell stories through Instagram, itâs been closing the gap as our largest commerce driver.â
Food52 uses a mix of Instagram-native commerce products and its own tactics to showcase products to its [2 million followers](. It strives for a natural blend of content and commerce. Links to buy a [cake stand]( in a post, for example, provide a utility to readers. Posts highlighting a product should be interesting or entertaining even if someone isnât in a shopping mood, Bray said.
âI always want there to be a takeaway, whether or not they can buy the product,â she said. Since Food52 doesnât ship internationally, a slice of its audience canât buy anything â yet another reason why posts shouldnât be too commercially minded.
Commerce in Instagram Stories
Video-focused Instagram Stories offer multiple ways for Food52 to sell products, such as taking readers deep through a multislide product backstory or a quick one-slide reference thatâs part of a larger story.
For example, it created a [multislide]( Story about the Japanese factory that crafts Food52âs uber-sharp knives and a tutorial for how to use a clever colander. âThe products we select and sell have an interesting story, whether itâs the maker, the material or something hand-thrown,â Bray said. âInstagram Stories has been great for us to tell the narrative of our products.â
Engagement tends to be lower for these clearly marked commerce posts â âSome people automatically see you are trying to sell something and say, âMeh, not for me,ââ Bray said â but Food52 sees higher sales when people complete a story.
On the flip side, reusable paper towels, for example, are interesting but self-explaining products that Food52 can quickly highlight in a single slide.
When closing a sale on Instagram, price matters. More people will buy a [$29 colander]( on Instagram than a $150 knife. âThere is a very distinct divide in terms of the price point where we see products move,â Bray said.
Commerce in the feed
While Instagram Storiesâ ephemeral nature allows Food52 to post frequently and more prolifically, the main Instagram feed requires more precision because real estate is limited. Plus, a post with low engagement can lead to another with even lower engagement.
âYou can go down a spiral,â Bray said.
The fear of low engagement has made Food52 cautious about tagging its posts with products. Bray doesnât know if tagged posts feel more sales-y to readers or if Facebookâs algorithm suppresses them, but she does notice a slight dip in performance for commerce-tagged posts.
âAnecdotally, I donât tag every product with Instagram shopping tools because I think they will suppress products with shopping tools,â Bray said, with the caveat that she doesnât have hard evidence for this distinction.
Instead, Food52 relies on third parties like Soldsie, which make it easy to [link to products]( on the main profile page of Instagram, which used to be the only place where a page could link out.
Food52 trained its audience to go to the link in the profile so it doesnât need to tag every post with Instagram shopping tools, Bray said.
Pairing a [recipe with a complementary product]( allows Food52 to make a softer sell. For example, the site sells a rolling pin that allows bakers to roll dough to a specific thickness âthat trips up new bakers,â Bray said.
To feature the product, the team [created a video]( post using the pin to make Lazy Maryâs lemon tart, one of the siteâs most popular recipes. Subtle call-outs allowed readers to follow up and buy the pin â or just watch the lemon tart being made.
âRegardless of whether or not you were into the rolling pin, you would like this video,â Bray said.
The video performed so well that Food52 gave the content to its social media agency, which created a paid ad for the product. The rolling pin became the top seller across Instagram and Facebook.
Future-proofing commerce
Brayâs three years of experience running Food52âs social media has taught her to quickly adopt new features. Instagram just released a shopping sticker for Instagram Stories, and Bray created [a post using that sticker]( within days.
âWe know that because it was a brand new release, a lot of people would click on it because theyâve never seen it,â Bray said.
Instagram Stories is in its prime now, with plenty of attention to go around as readers eagerly consume the video stories. But Bray is cautiously awaiting the day when Stories becomes âincreasingly saturated.â
âYou canât just rest on your laurels, because the content thatâs performing now is not guaranteed to perform a year from now,â Bray said. âWe always have to be trying the new thing.â
Follow Sarah Sluis ([@SarahSluis]() and AdExchanger ([@AdExchanger]() on Twitter.
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