#50: Social Strategies We Love featuring
Black-Owned Brands
Welcome to Podcast #50: Social Strategies We Love featuring Black-Owned Brands! Today, we’re delving into a special episode dedicated to Black History Month with co-founder of UMAI Marketing, Karin Samelson. Join her as we explore standout Black-owned brands, including Partake, A Dozen Cousins, and Me & the Bees Lemonade. Discover what sets these CPG brands apart and how their organic social media strategies help them to stand out from the crowd. Let’s dive in! 🤓
Let Us Break It Down For You…
[0:58 – 1:29] Black-Owned Brands Spotlight: Social Media Strategies
[1:30 – 1:59] Partake Origins: A Journey from Food Allergies to CPG Leadership
[2:00 – 9:07] Partake’s UGC, Founder Posts, Collabs, & Retail Focused Social Media Approach
[8:08 – 9:07] From Childhood Inspiration to Wholesome Convenience: A Dozen Cousins Story
[9:08 – 14:00] Exploring Social Series Strategies
[14:01 – 15:12] Me & the Bees Lemonade’s Sweet Journey
[15:13 – 18:47] A Fresh Perspective on Organic Engagement and Storytelling
[18:48 – 19:20] Outro and DM @umaimarketing for Marketing Support!
Mentions from this episode:
Partake Foods, Instagram
A Dozen Cousins, Instagram
Me & The Bees Lemonade, Instagram
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#50: Social Strategies We Love featuring Black-Owned Brands
Alison Smith: [0:17]
Howdy, listeners. We’re Alison.
Karin Samelson: [0:18]
And I’m Karin.
Alison Smith: [0:19]
And we love growing CPG brands.
Karin Samelson: [0:22]
We’re the founders of a digital and social media marketing agency, UMAI Marketing, and creators of The Consumer Goods Growth Course, where we’ve helped grow dozens of brands to six and seven figures.
Alison Smith: [0:32]
We’re former in-house marketers turned consumer goods marketing educators, who’ve set off on a mission to provide CPG founders and marketers with actionable strategies that drive community and sales. We’re talking real results.
Karin Samelson: [0:46]
If you’re wanting to learn simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies needed to drive real brand growth, without breaking the bank or sacrificing your social life, then this is the podcast for you. Let’s get into today’s episode.
Karin Samelson: [0:58]
Welcome to the UMAI Social Circle, where we taught consumer goods tips to help business owners and marketers grow. I’m Karin, co-founder of UMAI Marketing, and today we’re sharing an extra special episode in honor of Black History Month, where we’re looking at a few of our favorite Black-owned brands and discussing what we love about their organic social media strategies. The brands we’re going to be diving into today are Partake, A Dozen Cousins, and Me & the Bees Lemonade.
[1:30]
So, first up is Partake. Partake was founded by Denise Woodard for her daughter who was diagnosed with multiple food allergies, so that she could still enjoy treats like cookies, pancakes, and waffles. Denise is also the founder of Black Futures Fellowship, which is a fellowship program that mentors students from historically Black colleges and universities to help them secure internships and jobs in CPG. We’ll link the fellowship in the notes so that you can check out her amazing work there as well.
[2:00]
For now, we’re going to jump into strategy and our thoughts on what they are doing on social. So, up first is Instagram. So, we’re seeing a really good mix of UGC-style content, some studio shoot content, a good amount of founder-forward posts, and a lot of collabs, too. So, both with like-minded brands, other like-minded brands, other stack brands, influencers, and even bigger partners like Kevin Hart and his restaurant, Hart House. So, they got a little budget here as we can see.
[2:38]
And another thing we really wanted to touch on is a very healthy amount of retail-specific content. So, some brands will only talk about retailers when there’s an announcement to share, like a new retailer has picked them up or there’s a new skew available at a certain retailer or there’s a sale going on at a retailer. But Partake talks about retailer any chance they can get, which is really cool. They do this with graphics. They do this with in-store shoots and on-shelf content. They share about demo content. They even have some influencer partnerships for retail announcements and other news. And this is really cool.
They’ve built a following that is super engaged and is just rooting them on. So, while retailer posts don’t generally do that well for other brands, it does really well for them and they continue to do it, which is really, really, really a positive sign that you guys should be posting about all of your wins in retail as well, even when you’re just visiting a store and see your product on the shelf. Grab a quick clip. Take a photo. You worked so hard to get there, share about it as much as you want and let your audience engage with you and root you on as well.
[3:57]
Other things we see very, very typical but really high quality, we see a lot of recipe reels. We see some behind the-scenes and team-focused posts. We always love to see this because people love to see that face. They like putting the face to the brand. And Denise does a really good job about showing up. But want to give her team props as well because it’s always a plus if your team is willing to be in front of the camera for content purposes, because people like seeing that type of content. They want to see the behind the scenes of how the brand functions, who does the work, who makes all the magic happen. So, very cool to see all of those things happening on Instagram.
[4:41]
And then jumping into TikTok, one thing we’d like to note here is that we would love to see all of the amazing reels from Instagram repurposed on TikTok and vice versa. You’re doing all of the work, so you might as well put it in as many places as you can. So, all the content posted at TikTok could be repurposed on Instagram, too. All you got to do is use a third party website like SnapTik is one that you can use to download your TikTok videos that have already been published. You can download it to your computer without the watermark and then you can post it to Instagram. So, definitely use that cross reposting across channels so that you don’t have to do the work twice, you already did it. Spread it as far and wide as you can.
[5:27]
On LinkedIn, which is always really interesting to see how brands are engaging on LinkedIn, especially when it comes to when they’re trying to make new retailer partners or investor opportunities. And if you’re a public brand, it’s really important to have a really good presence on LinkedIn, but how they’re using it is, Denise comes on, there’s a lot of good founder posts, definitely a lot of retailer posts. So, any of those wins that you have in retailer, put it on there. Show how big and amazing your brand is and all of the work you’re putting in.
[6:06]
And they also put a lot of effort into sharing about their philanthropies. So, they are sharing about Hunger Action Month, Eat, Learn, Play Foundation. So, all of the good that they’re doing in the background that they might not talk about too much across all platforms, they’re definitely posting on LinkedIn.
[6:23]
And then last but not least for Partake is Pinterest. They have saved several really, really, really popular boards from other creators centered around best healthy recipes, healthy foods, things that their demographic would like to see and would get people into the fold and learning about Partake from those boards. And a good curation of boards with things that relate to the brand like healthy snacking are taking in parties, getting cute with that pun, better for you treats, things like that.
[6:58]
But then also, obviously they’ve created a handful of recipe and product focused pins from their own brand. And a lot of that photography and those pins and across their social and website is super high contrast with bright, colorful backgrounds that really help to stop the scroll, which is something you can always consider depending on your brand identity when doing your own photo shoots. Always be thinking about how to grab a viewer’s attention right off the bat. They’re consuming so much content, how can you get them to stop? And with Partake, it’s a lot of high contrast, brightly colored imagery. And linking back from Pinterest to the recipe content on their site is always a super smart idea and it looks to be really effective for them based on their 72,000 monthly pin views, which we’re sure results in a good amount of clicks to their site, too. And hopefully a lot of sales. So, really, really like their entire social strategy across all of these different platforms. They’re doing a really incredible job here and we’d love to see it. Love to see a good brand that does good, doing good.
[8:08]
Okay, so A Dozen Cousins is up next. A Dozen Cousins is a healthy take on convenience sides and meals influenced by Creole, Latin American, and Caribbean recipes. Founder Ibraheem Basir grew up eating Black and Latin cuisine, but as he got older found it difficult to find convenient and authentic foods in this category at the grocery store that also use wholesome ingredients that was good for you. So, he went and created what you see on shelves now. The name A Dozen Cousins, it rolls up the tongue so nicely, it’s named after his daughter and her 11 cousins. And we just love that mental image that the brands name evokes thinking of a big family getting together for a warm meal, it’s just so cozy and lovely. His team’s mission is to provide underserved communities with convenient food that doesn’t compromise on taste or quality ingredients, a mission we can all get behind.
[9:08]
So, on social, we’re going to dive into their three main social channels, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. So, a quick few thoughts on these strategies here. So, for Instagram, we love when the founder comes on, shows face and creates content. We talk about it all the time. We will never stop talking about it because unless you have humongous budgets, unless you’re the big dogs playing on this field, it is so helpful for your brand to build that relationship with your customers so that they know, like, trust you and want to purchase from you. So, when budgets are a little slim with these smaller and emerging brands, it’s such a good opportunity to reach more people and to make that connection and to drive more sales. So, we really, really love when Ibraheem comes on and does a deep dive on the history of our favorite foods through their series, Dishes Deconstructed. He has videos for the history of things like bone broth, the history of Black cake or rum cake, the history of coconut rice, jerk chicken, and just so much more.
And this is so cool for so many reasons. And one being founder-forward content is always a win. Like we just said, it’s always a win to come on and feature your founder. And making it a recurring series, so, this is a recurring series, the Dishes Deconstructed. They post about it occasionally. They share about it pretty consistently. It gives the founder structure. We love a series, especially for this reason. It gives the founder structure, which will save them time when … That’s something they’re always looking for more of. If you’re a founder listening to this, you can definitely relate with that.
And if you’re a marketer that wants to get their founder involved, you know how busy they are and how hard it is for them to sit down and create content. So, making it a series makes it just so much easier for them to wrap their head around it, know what to expect, have a “recipe or template” to success. And that’s really, really helpful. And it’s also an opportunity here to tap into the founder and their culture. We’re not just learning about the history of the foods, we’re getting a peek into Ibraheem’s culture through food that we all love to eat. And that’s really cool because that’s what the brand is all about.
And we really love when a brand takes time to curate and show its customers how to use products, use their products with really yummy recipes. So, creating recipe content can be utilized in so many ways and they do such a good job of this. So, it can also be used as blog posts to help with web traffic and organic surge. It can help increase engagement for your social channels through sharing and saves.
Sometimes recipe content isn’t always a hit, but repurposing it, making it short, making it long, having voiceovers, having a different hook, having a different call to action. You can utilize the same recipe content across social so that you don’t have to create something new every single time. Not only creating something new every single time, but only having it live in one place once, you can have it live in so many places. You can also make step-by-step recipe emails and share them with your biggest advocates that are signed up for your emails. So, really, really love all of the recipe content, all of the founder-forward content and the series especially that they’re doing on Instagram.
[12:47]
And then for TikTok, same as our recommendation with Partake, repurpose, you guys, repurpose. There are so many cool videos on Instagram that would do great on TikTok, including all those Dishes Deconstructed videos. So, at the very least, you can even choose the highest performing videos from each channel and repurpose everywhere. So, if it’s too much for you to be like, “Okay, I have all of these videos on Instagram that I did. I don’t want to have to post all of them to TikTok, I don’t have time for that.” You can just say, “Okay, here are my highest performing videos on Instagram.” Post them to TikTok, see what happens and vice versa.
[13:24]
And then for Facebook, what we’re seeing here is a lot of graphics and static images and we want to tell all of you guys to not be afraid to post video content, especially recipes on Facebook, too. You’re already doing the work, like we said, so might as well share it as many places as you can. Try to get the biggest reach out of everything that you can. Using a scheduling software is really helpful for this. Just get it out everywhere. Okay, really love what A Dozen Cousins is doing. Their website is so gorgeous, check them out. Highly recommend the product as well. So, so tasty.
[14:01]
Okay, and so last but not least is Me & the Bees Lemonade. This brand was created by a four-year-old, yes, a four-year-old, who combined her great grandma’s flaxseed lemonade recipe and subbed the recipes called for sugar with honey. So, at nine years old, Mikaila became the youngest supplier to Whole Foods. And with each sale of the product, Mikaila who is now 19, donates a percentage of profits towards saving the bees. So, a lot of good philanthropy with this brand as well.
And perhaps the biggest factor to Me & the Bees’ success is their ability to tell a great story. So, not only is the young founder’s story incredibly inspiring and interesting, but the brand’s mission to help balance our ecosystem by saving honeybees is super sweet. And she was on Shark Tank at a very, very young age with her father and the story resonated really well. She got a deal. It’s all a very really lovely story. And I mean, her face is on the bottle. Storytelling is paramount with this brand.
[15:13]
So, a couple of our thoughts on their organic social strategy. So, with Instagram, it’s proof that you don’t need a picture perfect feed with thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars invested in professional imagery in order to create a profile that is really highly engaged with. Their engagement rate is really, really good. Mikaila’s brand is built around her as the founder and that’s definitely the case when we’re looking through her Instagram feed. It would be really disappointing honestly to have a product where the founder has her photo on the bottle and then going to her social channel and she’s nowhere to be seen. So, they don’t disappoint us a bit. She is all over here. The content heavily surrounds her endeavors both in business and her personal life, which is just a testament to the storytelling they’ve continued to build around this young founder and her brand. And it’s proof that building, again, that know, like, trust with your audience, it’s what’s going to get your product off the shelves for an emerging brand. There are so many different drinks to choose from on the shelf, but there’s not as many founders that you know of that you want to actively support. So, building that know, like trust, being a founder that people really want to connect with and support and love is such a big deal.
[16:34]
And that kind of translates to what we’re going to talk about on TikTok, too. So, it doesn’t look like they have a TikTok channel created, but they have so many mentions, so much love on TikTok of the brand. So, some of these videos have 65,000, 37,000, one even had 760,000 views over 87,000 likes on it, almost 400 comments, almost 2,000 saves. That’s such amazing and free brand awareness built all around having a young Black female founder of this CPG product. It looks like even though they don’t have a TikTok, they do reshare some of that tagged content on Instagram, but it would be so great to just create a TikTok, repost what you do on Instagram to TikTok so that you can respond to these folks, too. So, when a big mention like this happens and it’s a dream come true, honestly, when a brand has an influencer that posts about them or has just an everyday person who goes viral posts about them. And when that happens, a brand should and, well, could and should be going into those comments and responding to everybody individually. Obviously, if there’s what, 400 comments, that might be hard, but it’s a good time investment to go in there, appreciate people, at the very least like their comment. If they say something really sweet, respond to them and just again, build that relationship. It is all about community building, community on social. That is our goal here.
A lot of people are like, “Okay, what’s the ROI on organic social? How many sales are we getting on organic social?” Let’s take a step back and always, always, always remember that organic social is about building community. It’s about entertaining people with educational and engaging and entertaining content. I said entertaining a couple times, but it’s so true that that is a really great way to build your brand on social and it will generally result in higher sales, too. We love that brand awareness, we love that community and we love sales. Let’s be real.
[18:48]
So, three amazing brands that we got to do a little bit of a dive into, three brands that we purchase from and love and we’ll continue to, and hopefully you all got a little bit of something that you can get inspired by and take from this episode. So, thanks so much for listening to today’s episode covering some of our favorite Black-owned brands in honor of Black History Month.
If you are a brand or marketer looking for extra support with your marketing, shoot us a DM on Instagram @umaimarketing. We’d love to chat. All right, thanks y’all. We’ll talk to you next time.
Karin Samelson: [19:21]
Thanks for listening to the UMAI Social Circle y’all. We’re here to support you in your CPG journey, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any new podcast episodes. And while you’re at it, please leave us a review on your listening platform of choice. Shoot us a DM @umaimarketing on Instagram if you have any topics you want us to cover on new podcast episodes.
Alison Smith: [19:39]
And don’t forget to access our free masterclass, where we’re showing you how to create a solid marketing strategy. You can access that at umaimarketing.com/masterclass and we’ll meet you back here for the next episode.
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