In this instructional case‑study video recorded in Dundee, Polly Barnfield examines how Heather Street Food, an independent street‑food van, boosted its Instagram engagement by over 4,000% after sharing the personal news that a team member, Melody, was expecting a baby. The presenter breaks down the post’s components—a striking photo of the expectant parents, a celebratory caption that explains the staff member’s temporary absence, a direct quote from Melody, and a light‑hearted sign‑off—explaining why each element resonated with followers. She then generalises the approach, offering practical tips: put team members front‑and‑center in visuals, celebrate any milestone (birthdays, anniversaries, pet birthdays), tag the staff’s personal accounts to encourage resharing, and use the “Listening Best Posts” feature in the Maybe dashboard to discover and engage with local complementary businesses. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action to use the platform’s 24/7 support button for further help.
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Today we're in Dundee and we're going to look at how sharing good news has increased engagement by over 4,000% for this independent street food van. Heather Street Food is an independent street food van which operates just outside of the V and A museum in Dundee. She has a big following largely due to her location, but the business posts really regularly and gets a lot of likes and some engagement on their feeds. They do this by taking photos of their place, they show their staff and then they also showcase their delicious food as well. But we want to talk about this post here. This saw their engagement go up above 1500 likes and 9 to 8 comments in comparison to a couple of hundred likes and two comments on some of their more recent posts. The reason this happened is because they shared the joyous news that a member of the team was expecting a baby. Melody here. And everyone loves to comment and congratulate on lovely news like this. Any business sharing milestones, celebrating and rejoicing their staff on social media will always see a pickup in engagement because people buy from people. So let's have a look at what they actually did. They started with the image. They took a beautiful photo of the expectant parents outside of the van, which made people want to stop, click and find out more about who these people are. The caption here was all about celebrating their team members. They're letting regulars know why she hasn't been on site recently and simultaneously introducing her to any potential customers. These new customers are much more likely to connect with the business because they're showcasing the human side and telling a bit of a story. They use a direct quote from Melody herself, which was really gushy and thanking the business for being so helpful to her during her pregnancy journey. Again, this cements this independent business really has a heart and helps connect potential customers to them. Then at the end they keep it really fun and light with a sign off poking fun at the workaholic expectant mum. And this shows that the post remains engaging and shows the personality of the team behind the business. So let's have a look at how you can succeed with social media like Heather Street Food. So first of all, think about the image. It needs to be strong and anything that usually involves team members tends to get a lot more reach on Instagram. As I said, putting your team front and center, whether it's through content, through videos, through static posts, through even if it's that you're hiring, making making sure that your team are front and center, celebrate milestones, whether it's a birthday or an anniversary or the dog's birthday, it doesn't matter. Make sure that you celebrate on social media because people want to celebrate with you. And remember, make sure that you tag in your customers. So here I would have tagged in Melody if she has an Instagram account, and then Melody is much more likely to have then shared it on her post as well. So if you want to have a look at businesses within your area that you can engage with, like Heather Street Food, all you have to do is to go to Listening Best Post. Now, this is within your maybe dashboard. Now why would you want to do this? So if I was in Dundee, I would want to find other businesses like Heather Street Food, because if local people who are on their lunch bake are working, you know, working locally, want to visit her for lunch, it might be that they want to come to my salon or my butcher, my baker, you know, things like that. So I would want to find more of these. So all you need to do is go to Listening Best Posts and then you choose a location. So we will pick Dundee. And I just want to find all local businesses in Dundee that are doing well on social media. And then within here I can find other businesses that might complement mine and share the same types of customers. And there you are, there's Heather Street Food right in there. And from my maybe account, I can like and I can go in and comment and I can support her and then she's much more likely to support my business back. Any questions at all, please Inside the maybe platform, simply use the little blue button as it connects you to us 24 7. We absolutely love to help you with all things social.
