The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for CPG Food & Beverage Brands

“Sarah, what’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever accepted?”
“Trying to condense the entire world of social media and how to use social media for CPG food & beverage brands into one blog post”

There’s SO much to talk about. But I’ve done my best to create the ultimate guide to social media for CPG food and beverage brands. To keep this under a ten-minute read, I’ve linked to additional resources throughout. I recommend bookmarking this and exploring those as needed.

Why Social Media for CPG Food & Beverage Requires a Unique Approach

CPG Food & Beverage is a Very Specific Niche

A social media marketing client once told me that I make her life easier simply because I understand her niche.

Yes, you can hire a social media strategist who works with anyone. They’ll have the skills necessary to do the job.

But wouldn’t you rather someone who gets you, your business, your product, and your entire industry?

Instagram is the New Grocery Store Shelf

Six years ago, Instagram was confidently touted as “the new homepage”. The theory was instead of pulling up your website, consumers pulled up your Instagram. It signaled a major shift in consumer behavior.

Today, social media isn’t just your new home page; for early-stage CPG founders, it’s the new grocery shelf.

Especially considering how laborious and expensive it is to get on those grocery store shelves. But an Instagram account? That’s free. And you can do it today. And reach hundreds of thousands of people. A Walmart doesn’t even get that kind of foot traffic in a week.

Instagram Provides the Social Proof You Need for Growth

Instagram is also where retail buyers go to discover new products. Retail Buyers don’t onboard brands on a whim; they have a meticulous process for hunting down the latest and greatest in CPG. They want products that sell well, are profitable, and will attract new customers to their stores.

One of the most valuable lessons I recieved as a young freelancer came from the Food & Snacks Buyer at a large, online wellness retailer. She told me to always look at a brand’s social media presence before bringing them on as a client.

Why? Because that’s what she did before deciding if a brand was worth onboarding them herself. She, like everyone else on the planet, considered social media to be a form of social proof, indicating whether or not people care.

Consumer Behavior on Social Media Has Changed

Proving that consumers care about your brand is getting trickier. According to Rival IQ, social media engagement is down across channels, with Instagram seeing a 16% drop and TikTok a 34% drop.

What worked five years ago is not going to work today because how consumers use social media and interact with brands online has changed. Which means brands need to adjust their strategy accordingly.

The Role of Social Media in Your Growth Strategy

• Brand awareness
• Product discovery
• Consumer education
• Consumer trust
• Community
• Consumer loyalty

Social media’s most important role in your growth strategy is brand awareness and product discovery. This isn’t just for early-stage brands; you’ll always need marketing to acquire new customers.

Another important role of social media for food and beverage brands is staying top of mind. This happens every single day on social, whereas it’s much less frequent on other marketing channels.

Finally, social media is meant for building community. There’s just no other marketing channel that creates the kind of community that social media does.

Before You Start on Social, Do You Understand Your Customer?

Most CPG social media falls flat when the founders are only posting from their perspective.

They’re using messaging that assumes too much knowledge, they’re only talking about the backend of the business, and the content feels more like their personal diary than a brand account.

If you love creating that kind of content, I highly recommend creating a public “founder account”. Most of that content can live there, with some of the posts published as collabs between you and the brand.

Don’t get me wrong; founder-led storytelling is so important. But it should be done in a way that’s relevant and engaging to the customer.

If you take anything away from any of my content, it’s that the brands with the best social media results don’t post for views. They post because their content helps their customers. When helping is your strategy, the views will follow. Learn your customer, understand what they want, and create content that helps them achieve that.

How to Choose the Right Platforms

Instagram

Instagram is the best social media platform for CPG food and beverage brands. I explain why here.

TikTok

Second to Instagram is TikTok. I talk about the benefits of TikTok here. While it doesn’t have the reach of Instagram, it does have a more engaged consumer base which is deeply important as a consumer brand.

And because of the finely-tuned algorithm, TikTok has become a search engine, with consumers using it to find specific products they’re looking for. Instagram still falls short in that capacity.

Facebook

I don’t love Facebook for early-stage consumer brands. But if you started your businesses’s Facebook page several years ago, it might be worth it.

While the reach is higher, the consumer base is less engaged, they’re older than users on Instagram and TikTok, and unless you’re running ads the results just aren’t there compared to Instagram and TikTok.

The Simplest Path to a DIY Social Media Strategy

Every brand will have a different strategy because your social media strategy is based on your brand strategy, business goals, and ultimately the vision you have.

My best advice is to align your social media goals with your business goals. That’s why the Get Seen Framework covers visibility, engagement, and revenue; three goals almost every business has.

Visibility is what gets you new customers.

Engagement is what builds brand loyalty and gets you repeat customers.

Revenue is essential. At some point, you can’t grow a business without revenue. Savings and investments only get you so far.

If you want reassurance your strategy is on the right track, I’ll review it myself in a 1:1 Clarity Call. Since each Clarity Call is limited to sixty minutes, you can also book a Make it Make Sense Instagram Audit for a comprehensive review of your Instagram bio, profile, content, and engagement strategy, with 14 days of support as you implement the changes I recommend.

Systems that Work Best for CPG Founders

You need some kind of system to show up consistently. Posting when you’re inspired or when you have the time is very whimsical of you, but it’s not going to grow your CPG business online.

I had a food and beverage client with that exact mindset. Once we made her a Notion content calendar, got her planning 30 days at a time, and focused only on reels, carousels, and stories, she saw:

• 295% Instagram reach
• 455% Instagram engagement
• 355% Instagram website tabs

If you want to scale your business, you need systems.

When to DIY and How to Delegate

This blog post will help you determine when it’s time for you to outsource. This blog post will teach you how to outsource.

Common Social Media Mistakes

The most common problem I see on social media for food and beverage brands is posting without a strategy or content plan. We already covered the solution: align your content with your business goals.

Another problem for CPG founders is chasing trends and posting like an Influencer. Remember that an Influencer’s job is to get as many views as possible. Your job is to get as many views as possible from the right people.

A lot of founders ignore their analytics. I know this because they turn into my clients who say they don’t care about the numbers. That usually lasts a few months until I point out patterns in their monthly reports. Then they realize that by looking at the analytics, they can improve their content strategy to reach more people, build a more engaged audience, and drive more revenue.

And finally, a common social media mistake is expecting social media to save your business. Marketing can’t outwork poor market fit, boring positioning, or a clunky-ass checkout. Those three factors alone have killed more brands that we all would like to admit.

Your Next Steps

If you’re in the DIY stage of social media (which I recommend for the first 2-3 years), head on over to the shop for digital tools that’ll make your life so much easier.

If you want some marketing support, check out Clarity Calls and the Make-It-Make-Sense Instagram Audit. And if you’re ready to never think about your marketing again, apply to be a social media marketing client.

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Wait, Who Am I?

Hiiii! 👋🏻 I’m Sarah, a CPG social media strategist with over 10 years of experience. I went from starting a clean beauty blog right out of high school to managing social media for Canada’s largest wellness retailer. Now I live in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, helping high-growth entrepreneurs get SEEN so they can build a crazy fun life their business supports, and not the other way around.

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