Social media post ideas for bakeries: what to post, when, and how

A bakery's feed runs on the clock

A bakery is one of the easiest businesses to post about and one of the hardest to post for. Easy, because everything you make is beautiful and changes daily. Hard, because the most useful thing a post can tell people is time sensitive: what is out of the oven now, what is nearly gone, and when to order for the weekend.

So the best bakery feeds work like a notice board that happens to be lovely to look at. They show the bake, say when it is available, and make it easy to order. Everything else, the flour, the early starts, the people, is what makes customers care enough to set an alarm.

Here are twenty-eight ideas to fill that notice board.

What is on the counter

1. This morning's first tray, straight out of the oven, posted before you open.
2. The weekend special, announced on Wednesday or Thursday so people can plan.
3. A new bake, with one line on how many tries it took to get right.
4. The seasonal return: hot cross buns, pumpkin loaves, stollen, mince pies.
5. The sell-out: a photo of the empty tray and when the next batch is due.
6. What is left at three o'clock, for the people passing on the way home.
7. The quiet favourite that deserves more attention.

How it is made

8. The starter, and how long you have kept it going.
9. Lamination: butter being folded into dough for croissants.
10. The shaping bench at five in the morning.
11. Scoring a loaf, in slow motion.
12. The flour you use and the mill it comes from.
13. Why the sourdough takes two days.
14. A cake being decorated, from bare sponge to finished.

Orders and occasions

15. How to pre-order for the weekend, and the cut-off.
16. Birthday and celebration cakes: sizes, flavours, how much notice you need.
17. Wedding cake tastings, if you do them.
18. Office orders: a box of pastries for a meeting.
19. What you can make without gluten, dairy or eggs, and what you honestly cannot.
20. Gift boxes before Christmas, Easter and Mother's Day.

The people and the place

21. The baker who starts at four, and what they listen to while they work.
22. The person who knows every regular's order.
23. The queue on a Saturday, and a thank-you to the people in it.
24. A regular's usual, with their permission.
25. Your shop window, dressed for the season.

Small, useful answers

26. How to keep sourdough fresh at home, and how to revive it.
27. Freezing pastries so they bake up well on Sunday.
28. Why the crust is dark, and why that is on purpose.

If you only have time for one idea a week, pick the bake that matters most and tell it three ways: announce it, show how it is made, then show the empty tray. That approach is set out in one good idea can carry your week.

Three example posts

These examples are written for an imaginary bakery called Crumb & Co. Swap in your own bakes, times and prices.

Example one, Instagram: Cardamom buns are back on Saturday. Twisted by hand, baked from seven, gone by about eleven last time. If you want to be sure of some, pre-order by Thursday at 5pm through the link in our bio. #cardamombuns #bakery

Example two, Facebook: Planning a birthday? Our celebration cakes come in two sizes: one for eight, one for sixteen. Chocolate, lemon or carrot, with your message piped on top. We need four days' notice, and a little longer in December. Pop in or message us to order.

Example three, TikTok or Instagram Reels: Hook: "Five in the morning, and this is the first thing we do." Shots: lights on in the kitchen, the starter being fed, the first loaves going into the oven, the timer, the tray coming out. Last line: "Doors open at eight. The sourdough is still warm."

A simple weekly rhythm

A bakery can post more often than most businesses, because every day brings a new tray. A comfortable rule of thumb is one main post three or four times a week, with short stories on busy mornings.

• Monday: the week's specials and any closing days.
• Wednesday: behind the scenes, how something is made.
• Thursday: the weekend bake and the pre-order cut-off.
• Saturday morning: what is fresh right now, and the sell-out later if it happens.

If a whole weekly plan still feels like a lot, a social media plan that takes an hour a week walks through it step by step.

Mistakes to avoid

Announcing too late. A post about Saturday's special that goes out on Saturday at ten reaches people who have already had breakfast. Tell people on Wednesday or Thursday, then remind them on the morning.

Not saying when things run out. If the cinnamon buns sell out by ten, say so. People do not mind missing out when you warned them. They do mind making the trip for nothing.

Unclear pre-order cut-offs. Put the day, the time and how to order in the same post. Not "order soon", but "order by Thursday at 5pm".

Allergy promises you cannot keep. A bakery is full of flour, nuts and eggs in the air. If something is made without gluten but in the same kitchen, say exactly that.

Yellow, dim photos. Pastry looks best in daylight. Take the photo by the window or the shop door, with the tray level and some space around it.

How Synis can help

Bakers get up before everyone else and are exhausted by the time the shop shuts, which is exactly when most people sit down to write posts. Synis takes that bit off your plate. It reads your website to learn your name, colours and the way you write, then drafts each post in your voice with a version for each app.

Give it one line, like "cardamom buns on Saturday, pre-order by Thursday", and it writes the post and makes a picture in your colours at the right size, or uses your own photo of the tray. You edit what you want, and it learns from your edits. Once you approve, it goes on the calendar and out at a good time for each account, so Thursday's reminder posts itself while you are shaping dough.

For Christmas or Easter orders, plan a month of posts from a single idea. For the five o'clock clip, Synis writes a short video script with a shot list you can film on your phone. See how a single post comes together on the AI social media post generator page, and try it free.