These businesses have their socials working hard for them to build reach and gain customer loyalty. We’ve selected these particular brands not necessarily because they’ve a tonne of followers. That’s easy to do, you can buy followers, we all know this is just a vanity metric.
These businesses are innovative with their marketing. Plus, the quality of their engagement proves that taking chances with your marketing strategy pays off.
Titanic Belfast
Belfast’s biggest tourist attraction, the Titanic Experience Belfast showcases the importance of user-generated content (UGC). At the time of writing this, the attraction has 133k followers on Facebook and 23.5k on Instagram. There’s also the 20k Google reviews to browse through. The social channels are really diverse, with posts ranging from interesting facts about the Titanic, beautiful imagery and videos.
In Remembrance is one of these videos that reached 44k views on Facebook:
The posts inspire and create dialogue in the comments – encouraging people to share their experience of witnessing the Titanic story.
Zara Ceramics
Zara McLaughlin is a ceramic artist/maker and creator of Zara Ceramics based in a small town in Antrim called Ballymoney. This talented artist is already building a name for herself and building a collection of awards to her belt, such as the Future Makers Award: 2020 Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) and The Brundle Award: 2020 Ulster University.
What makes Zara Ceramics marketing so effective is the insight and story that pops out through the images, videos and copy. Muted tones create a minimalist and homely aesthetic that captures the ceramics’ appeal – beautiful, crafted mugs to admire while relaxing with a cuppa.
Another standout part of Zara Ceramics is the beautiful videos. A contemporary, eye-catching style that shows the talent of the maker and the care she takes with each piece. Essentially these videos stop the scroll and make people want to learn more!
Freight Belfast
Image credit: @freight_belfast, Instagram
Freight’s Cafe is a standout. Their content is fresh and not a rehash of trends. They also show a side to their cafe that a lot of businesses skim right over: humour. They’re not afraid to be silly or think outside the box when creating content. Captions are engaging – often with a cheeky or playful slant, and with their high engagement rate, you can see that their audience is lapping it up.
With over 13k followers on Instagram and 8k on Facebook, here’s proof that being innovative gets businesses seen.
Queen’s Belfast
Image credit: @qubelfast, Instagram
User-generated content is a powerful tool for marketers, and you can see how effective it is here with nearly 1,000 likes. The campus and its gardens are unlike any other university in Ireland. The beauty of the grounds is captured and shared time and again on their socials.
There’s a lot that Queen’s Belfast does well – between really eye-catching videos created to attract a younger audience. They also show how dreams do come true in the university:
Image credit: @qubelfast, Instagram
Inspiring and authentic posts such as these help prospective students achieving their own career dreams through this lens. It’s getting more vital for all businesses to do away with overly perfect, unrelatable messaging. 81% of people believe businesses have a responsibility to be transparent on social media.
Having such a rich and engaging mix of content is why Queen’s Belfast high engagement rate, has 114k followers on Facebook and a further 29k on Instagram.
Lily Pink Bakery
Image credit: @lilypinkbakery, Instagram
Lily Pink Bakery is a home-based bakery in South Belfast specialising in delicious buttercream celebration cakes, cupcakes and buttercream wedding cakes. Owned by Claire Magoowen-Brown, this business is a splash of colour and personality. Her posting style is relaxed and friendly.
Standing out as a cake bakery is not an easy task. So with thousands of followers across Instagram and Facebook, Lily Pink Bakery has definitely made a name for itself. Special days in the calendar such as St. Patrick’s are celebrated with a bespoke cake that captures interest and showcases the masterpieces that the bakery creates!
Cool FM
If you’re looking for a laugh, Cool FM’s Instagram and Facebook page are where to go. Their posts are up to the minute, relating the highs and lows of living in Northern Ireland, weather and all, with a healthy dollop of memes.
The content ranges from simple, but highly shareable posts anticipating the opening of beer gardens:
Image credit: @officialcoolfm, Instagram
To the heartbreak of the fires spreading through the Mourne mountains, with an exhausted firefighter harrowed by the three days it took to beat back the gorse fires that extended 3.5km. 
Image credit: @officialcoolfm, Instagram
With over 800k followers on Facebook, 118k on Twitter and a further 107k on Instagram, to say Cool FM has a strong social media following is an understatement. Creating a relatable social platform has been attempted by so many radio stations, but Cool FM stays current, real and hilarious whether on airwaves or feeds.
If you’d like to spice up your marketing strategy and extend your reach, we’re a small team of video storytellers at Videoworks Belfast. In a crowded marketplace, video is essential to create real differentiation for products and services and to boost sales. Delight current customers and excite newcomers to engage with your business today by getting in touch with us here.
