In this short conversational video, Shaun Whynacht and a co‑speaker discuss the strategic purpose of social media for businesses. They contrast two mind‑sets: treating platforms merely as sales channels versus building genuine community. The speakers argue that the most successful brands focus on community, using relatable, locally‑rooted content that resonates with both local audiences and those far from home. They illustrate this with a case study of Halls Harbour Restaurant in Nova Scotia, whose culturally‑themed video about being a true Nova Scotian earned 200,000 organic views and massive comment activity despite the brand’s modest follower count (10‑15k across Facebook and Instagram). The discussion highlights relatability as a key driver of engagement, suggesting that authentic, community‑focused posts outperform overt sales pitches.
Is social media still about, about community? Is that what you want to do? Is you want to focus on, on how can I build that community around an audience? Or should you just look at it as another sales channel? Like, I just, I need to go on there just to sell my services and all that.
I think what makes people stand out now is that they focus on the community aspect of it. So I think a lot of businesses are taking the approach of looking at it as it's just another sales channel. But the businesses that actually do well and get sales from social media are focused on the community building. And I'll give you a perfect example. We had a client of mine, Halls Harbour Restaurant. They— we did a video for them. Are you really Nova Scotian if— and, you know, if you haven't, whatever, if you haven't, whatever. And we have, I think, a combined— it's, you know, 10,000 to 15,000 followers on both Facebook and Instagram. Instagram combined, and that video organically had, you know, I think 200,000 views, um, and hundreds and hundreds of comments because we're talking about being Nova Scotian. Is that necessarily 100% tied back to the restaurant itself? Not necessarily, but, you know, we threw in the lobster, we threw in, you know, if you haven't been to Halls Harbour, that kind of idea. So there's still, still relevant to the business, it's still getting people's eyes on the business, but it's talking about community. Everybody was talking about what it means to be Nova Scotian and how, oh, you know, the tartan mug and drinking tea and, uh, you know, all that stuff. It's, it's— those are the posts that perform best for pretty much every business that you can think of, is the community building side of things.
And I think a word that stands out in that is relatability. Can people relate to the content? Can they, can they attach themselves to that? Um, in those community-based posts and content where especially people that are away that are from that area where that business is, right? It's a piece of home, right? It's a piece of way to, to be connected.
100%. And I mean, I always say to my clients, at the end of the day, social media is a social networking app. It's about staying in touch with people. And so when somebody chooses to follow you, they're choosing to stay in touch with you. So don't be the person that is constantly shoving sales down their throat and your products and whatever. That's not why they followed you. They want to know about your brand as if it's a person, right? So person isn't just one-sided. It's not, you know, a simple, this is what I sell, this is what I do. It's, this is who I am, you know, to take that approach and not just be, you know, one of those other businesses that are constantly posting ads. We see so many ads in a day. We are so numb to it. Like, be the, the real authentic brand because that's how you stand out now.
