Beyond the Likes: What Managing a Local Café’s Social Media Is Teaching Me

How working with McGreevy’s in Downpatrick is helping me connect creativity, content strategy and digital analytics.

Creating content for my own businesses sparked my interest in marketing. Taking responsibility for another business’s social media has pushed that interest further. It means understanding someone else’s vision, making decisions around their audience and evaluating what the content actually achieves.

 On 15 September 2026, I began managing social media for McGreevy’s, a café, deli and butchers in Downpatrick, through CROSÉ CONTENT. Their brief was clear: they wanted a brighter, more active and community-driven page that gave people more reasons to visit.

This experience is teaching me that successful content involves more than making a business look good online. 

Turning a Brief Into Content 

My regular schedule has involved two reels and one post each week, alongside story content. Having that structure gives me a framework for planning while allowing individual posts to respond to new products, seasonal changes and everyday café moments. 

The content has included a new-menu launch, coffee videos, food photography and reminders about ordering online and collecting. Each offers a different reason to pay attention, whether someone is planning brunch or looking for a convenient lunch. 

For me, making the page community-driven means considering how the café fits into people’s everyday lives. Food imagery can attract attention, but the accompanying message needs to make sense to the people who could realistically visit. 

I am learning to ask more specific questions before creating: who is this for, what makes it relevant to them and what would I like them to do next? 

What the Results Show 

   

                                  

           1 - 31st August, 2026                                                                      Latest 30 day reporting period,
                                                                                                                        captured 21st October, 2026.

The account’s dashboard recorded 29,141 views during August, before I began managing the page. The latest 30-day dashboard available when writing this article recorded 106,000 views, with no paid advertising or boosted posts during my management. 

That is approximately 3.6 times the earlier total. However, the comparison needs context: August contains 31 days, the later dashboard covers 30 days, and the totals include Facebook views alongside Instagram views. These are content views, rather than a count of individual people. 

The latest dashboard also recorded 127 net new followers, approximately 1,000 profile visits and 239 bio link taps. 

These figures are encouraging, but they answer different questions. Views indicate how often content was viewed. Profile visits and link taps show additional actions, although neither confirms a purchase. 

Peters et al. (2013) provide a framework for selecting and interpreting social media metrics. Their work gives me a useful basis for considering several measures together rather than treating one headline figure as a complete assessment of performance. 

The Highest Views Do Not Tell the Whole Story

One café reel recorded approximately 20,000 views. However, the new-menu reel, with approximately 7,700 views, attracted 197 likes and 77 shares. 

That difference stood out to me. The reel with the largest viewing figure was not automatically the strongest across every measure. 

The menu reel’s shares suggest that some viewers considered the content worth passing on. I cannot know their reasons from the dashboard alone, but sharing is a different response from simply watching. This has encouraged me to evaluate content according to its purpose. 

If a post introduces a menu, shares and menu-link activity may help me understand the response alongside views. If the aim is visibility, viewing figures remain relevant. 

 Hoffman and Fodor (2010) argue that social media measurement should begin with customer motivations and marketing objectives. Applying that thinking helps me move beyond asking whether a post “did well” towards asking what kind of response it generated. 

Visibility Is Only Part of the Brief

The client wanted a more active presence and a stronger desire to visit. The viewing figures provide evidence of increased visibility, but they do not establish how much additional footfall or revenue social media generated. 

Even the 239 bio link taps need careful interpretation. They show that people tapped a link; they do not show how many completed an order or later visited the café. 

There are also other possible influences on performance, including the new menu, seasonal demand, existing customer interest and platform distribution. My content formed part of that wider picture.  

Recognising these limits does not take away from the progress. It helps me explain the results more accurately and identify what evidence would be useful next. 

What I Would Measure Next 

My next step would be to agree clearer, measurable objectives with the client and review them over consistent reporting periods. 

For example, we could monitor menu-link activity, ask whether customers mention seeing particular posts, and explore whether online orders can be linked to social referrals. Customer feedback would also help assess whether the page feels welcoming and connected to the local community. 

I would compare content by its objective and format, rather than assuming that reels always perform better than photographs or carousels. The results already show that different formats can contribute. 

Building My Confidence Through Practice 

Working with McGreevy’s is helping me develop confidence in both the creative and analytical sides of marketing.

I enjoy producing content that makes the food and café experience appealing. I am also learning to explain my decisions, question my assumptions and look beyond the most impressive number. 

The increase in views is something I am proud of. More valuable for my development, though, is learning how to interpret that attention and identify what I still need to understand. 

That is the experience I want to document through Built From Scratch: applying what I study, reflecting on real work and improving the decisions I make along the way. 

Reference List:

• Hoffman, D.L. and Fodor, M. (2010) ‘Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?’, MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), pp. 41–49. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1697257. 
•  Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A.M., Ognibeni, B. and Pauwels, K. (2013) ‘Social media metrics—A framework and guidelines for managing social media’, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp. 281–298. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.007. 

Case-study Evidence:

McGreevy’s social media dashboard screenshots supplied by the author, captured on 21 October 2026, including the August reporting period and the latest displayed 30-day period.