Advice for the Perfect Cup
For half a decade now, Maman has grown from a small coffee shop with a lot of dreams into a beloved brand across New York City. With shops in NoMad, SoHo, on Hudson Street, in Tribeca, and in Greenpoint, Maman is only growing its brand. The COVID-19 crisis has set us back in the last few months, but with the return of indoor dining and the well-orchestrated outdoor dining adjustments made by our various stores in the city we are back in rhythm and ready to burst back onto the social media scene! Thank you for joining our team, and welcome to the Maman experience!
While we do have other social media sites for various purposes, Instagram is our key platform for branding and marketing. The ability to combine high quality images of our locations and products with hashtags and captions that best capture the drive and style of our company makes Instagram the place to be for Maman. So what is that drive and style? Since it’s inception in Soho in 2014, Maman’s brand has been all about creating an ideal cafe experience for both the on-the-go New Yorker and the local celebrity, all while providing the care and comforting touch of your French mother (hence the name ‘maman’). This is exactly the voice and style we try to bring to our Instagram page — one of originality and a certain posh panache, but one that is also approachable and welcoming to any traveler who may visit. This may seem like an impossible balance to strike, but with a couple pointers you’ll be able to help us continue the unique, successful Instagram branding that we’ve managed to produce in the last 2–3 years.
The first, and most important type of company post, is what we call the ‘product spread’ post. Our company does a great job of taking beautiful photos of our bakery and coffee products, usually on a rustic background such as the one as you see above. These photos, as you can imagine, are very important for Instagram, as the quality captures the user before we even need to say anything to entice them. In addition, high quality images of our products invoke the plush view of our company that we are trying to achieve — we don’t just sell croissants and coffee, we give you a beautiful French pastry experience that you want to share with everyone. These product spread posts alone are responsible for our popular Instagram identity, so we have to make use of them when possible. Make sure the photos are as high quality as ones past, make sure the photos highlight the latest seasonal product offering, and make sure to tag the location of the Maman cafe which played host for the photo, so as to alert viewers of our various New York localities.
Our wonderful owner Elisa recently had a baby, Yves. This has provided us with a focus for our brand that enhances the approachable feel of our company: the ‘baby at home’ post. Work with Elisa to showcase milestone moments in Yves life on our Instagram page, so that we can share his journey with our fans in a warm but brand-respectable way. Obviously we don’t want to just post random baby pictures on our main page, but simple posts like the one above — even featuring quaint artwork! — can remind our buyers that we aren’t just a fancy brand; we are a family born of mothers just like yours. With a company named after the traditional matriarch, we must be sure to stay connected to our family roots. Posts about Baby Yves are a perfect way of keeping this connection — but always remember to run these plans by Elisa first!
A major trend that has emerged in Instagram branding is the use of influencers to help promote company image across the Instagram sphere. Maman has started to use influencers as well — primarily those influencers who work in the New York area so as to market to New York Instagram users. Above is an example of how our shop in Toronto has used Instagram influencers to promote their brand, but one idea for the future would be to have influencers promote our brand from their accounts rather than us feature images taken by the influencers. These influencers have many more followers than us and have their own unique spin to help promote our brand, so when reaching out to influencers try to trust them to help us in their own way. After all, if you appreciate their page aesthetic, you can trust that they will do wonderful things for your brand! Influencer culture is a vital ingredient of Instagram branding culture, and we as a company have a unique advantage because we are a part of New York City where many of these influencer operate. Don’t sleep on influencers by any means!
These tips and brand trends that are effective on Instagram will help you continue our brand success on the platform. In addition, make sure to post at least twice a day and at peak Instagram performance hours (usually 3 PM on Weekdays). Incorporate hashtags to help new followers find us. Make sure to use a maximum of 3 to keep our posts clean and concise; utilize those hashtags effectively! Finally, respond to our followers! Make sure to keep our Instagram page open to feedback and respond to this feedback within a tight 2-hour window. After all, a company that doesn’t listen to its customers isn’t approachable in the slightest! With the updated Instagram business tools and our well-established brand and platform palette, you should have an engaging experience working with our Maman social media marketing team. Now go and make it happen!
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