Posting with Purpose: What a Donut Shop Taught Me About Strategy

The Final Sprinkle

I can’t believe I’ve already reached the end of my very first social media campaign. It has truly been a journey, and I’ve learned so much more about using social media for businesses/brands.

One of the biggest takeaways for me has been recognizing the difference between using social media for a business and using it for personal reasons. Creating content for a brand requires careful planning, thoughtful timing, and a clear sense of purpose. While personal use may feel more spontaneous, both approaches still require a certain level of vulnerability.

Whether you are posting as an individual or representing a brand, you are putting something out into the world and hoping it resonates with others. Learning how to combine authenticity with strategy has been one of the most valuable parts of this experience.

In addition to being open and genuine with an audience, I also learned how important it is to create content that encourages interaction. A successful post should do more than look nice on the feed. It should invite conversation, spark interest, or prompt some kind of response. Engagement is not just a metric, but a reflection of connection.

The donut Campaign

For my final social media campaign, I decided to work with Captain Baker’s Donut Shop, a small business on Cape Cod. After completing a detailed social media audit, I noticed that although the shop had a strong following on both Instagram and Facebook, there was relatively low engagement on their posts.

Much of the existing content featured appealing visuals of donuts or the storefront, paired with brief captions and quick calls to action. While the visual aspects were strong, the posts did not do enough to drive the audience to participate. There was little prompting for viewers to comment, share, or react. That observation was what really shaped the direction of my campaign and encouraged me to focus on creating content that felt more interactive and conversation-driven.

From there on out, I made sure to include in my CBDS content calendar, content that asked questions, created conversation, and provided some type of instant value to the viewer.

Food for Thought

At the end of the day, I think I’m finishing this campaign on a really strong note. I learned so much from all the experience and look forward to being able to implement what I have learned into other social media campaigns moving forward.

Have you guys ever created a social media campaign? Let me know in the comments!