After years of saving food posts, I noticed the same patterns. Here’s what I’ve learned about food content that gets saved and what that means for a brand’s content strategy.
When scrolling through Instagram and other social media, I save all kinds of things to revisit. It’s the digital version of dog-earing a page in a magazine (remember those?).
Judging by recent saves, I’m one giant carb. Je ne regrette rien!
If I tap to like, that’s one thing. But if I save it, I certainly want to find it later. If I save something to a specific collection, I’m really interested. If I save it to more than one collection, I’m definitely giving it a try. May not happen right away, but it’s there and I’ll come back around to it eventually.
What Makes a Recipe Worth Developing for a Brand?
As a recipe developer and food photographer, I keep an eye on food trends, of course. But when it comes to most of the content I save, it’s from my perspective as a hungry home cook to satisfy my own appetite for the things I want to make and eat.
Posts I save teach something genuinely useful, which encourages me to bring the digital experience into my very real kitchen.
Whose stuff do I save? I follow a wide range of food creators, chefs, food scientists, and food media (Food & Wine, Serious Eats, America’s Test Kitchen, and 177 Milk Street are among my faves), as well as some brands, such as King Arthur Baking.
My 6 Food Content Buckets
My saves generally fall into six categories, and there’s a lot of crossover:
I’m a big fan of Bianco DiNapoli’s canned California tomatoes. When I saw they were rolling out tomato paste, I saved that post.
1. Something I want to buy and try. When reviewing my saved goodies, I was surprised by how many posts were simply squirreled away as reminders of ingredients and products that looked interesting. Sometimes, it’s a new or better version of an everyday product (like Bianco DiNapoli’s tomato paste or Heydoh’s premium soy sauce), or it’s a review of different versions of a product (pasta, tinned sardines, olive oil), so I know what to look for when shopping.
Social media tips to cook eggs in my stainless-steel pan were a game-changer for me.
2. A smarter (or new) way to use equipment I already own. As you can imagine, I’ve got plenty of gear – pots and pans, gadgets, etc. – so it’s rare for me to shop for new stuff these days. I’ve been obsessed lately with learning about the Leidenfrost effect to use my (very expensive) All-Clad stainless-steel skillet to cook eggs. It works!
This Food & Wine Instagram post earned a save for giving me a new way to enjoy sardines with pasta.
3. A new (to me) way to use a familiar ingredient. A big part of kitchen confidence is understanding ingredients, and there’s always something new to learn. For example, I’ve got a saved collection for tofu (an ingredient I underutilize, so I’m always looking for ideas) and others for Fish and Beans, both dinnertime staples in our household.
How one ingredient can do more than you think →
I love caramelized onions, but they can take longer to cook than I usually have time for. So I saved this post from America’s Test Kitchen for a technique to make them faster.
4. A clever technique. If you can help me tweak my technique for better results, I’ll love you forever. The many posts I have showing how to use baking soda for so much more than, well, baking are an example of this. Tossing shrimp with baking soda and salt before stir-frying or sautéing improves their texture. Adding a dash of baking soda to onions enhances the Maillard reaction (browning) during caramelization. These are culinary science at its best.
Cooking Without a Recipe: Why Technique Beats Instructions Every Time →
This post showing an antipasti pizza earned a save to my Pizza collection. I don’t even need a recipe to execute this idea, since the toppings can work on store-bought or homemade dough. The idea is beneficial enough.
5. A unique flavor profile I want to try. Often, it’s not even a recipe or specific technique so much as the suggestion of a flavor mashup that looks too good to pass up. Takeaway: It doesn’t have to be anything terribly involved. In fact, simple wins over complicated for me every time.
When Chef Jet Tila gave the popular dumpling bake trend a try, I noticed – and saved it to my Recipe collection.
6. A simple recipe I want to make. From gnocchi to pierogi to gyoza, I love dumplings in all forms, so I’ve got posts saved for sheet pan gnocchi and tasty-looking dumpling bakes. If I can put it on a sheet pan or in a casserole dish, I’m in!
What They Have In Common
Regardless of the source or subject, social media food content I save shares some key qualities:
- It offers solid knowledge. Posts I save teach something genuinely useful, whether it’s an ingredient spotlight, a smart technique, a recipe that I’m confident really works, or even just simple yet clever idea. It encourages me to take the digital experience into my very real kitchen.
- Its content is created by real cooks for real cooks. The food isn’t performative just to chase a trend but is crafted for real people to make and enjoy.
- It has a strong voice and a consistent point of view. Even when individual contributors vary, say, in the case of America’s Test Kitchen, Bon Appétit, or King Arthur Baking, the topic and level of expertise are the same, making the brand itself a trusted source.
What’s missing from my “saves”? Posts that just look pretty without real utility and trend-chasing content that doesn’t connect to real cooking.
When a Food Trend Makes Sense for Your Brand (and When It Doesn’t) →
Putting That Into Practice
Brands that earn saves aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the most polished imagery. They’re the ones who know something their customers don’t and share it in a way that’s both intriguing and useful.
They think less about customers and more about the cooks at the other end. A brand that does this incredibly well is King Arthur Baking, a company that has long leaned into its deep in-house expertise and prioritized baker-focused content to build a following of 1 million on Instagram. This also helps them sell a lot of flour, baking mixes, and kitchen tools.
What a recipe that earns saves looks like →
My take: Brand marketers who can think like editors build relationships while also promoting their products. The marketer asks, What do we want people to know about our product? The editor asks, What does our customer want to learn, and how does our product serve that?
The people behind your brand, even if it’s small (maybe especially if it’s small), have a wealth of knowledge. Even little nuggets help you connect with customers.
Take, for example, Fishwife, the upscale tinned-fish brand with groovy graphics, which is available in stores and sold directly to consumers. They shared a recent post in which owner Becca Millstein explains why the company suspends direct shipments of their anchovies for the summer. (Answer: Sitting in a hot delivery truck, warehouse, or mailbox can ruin the delicate fish.)
It’s solid info that reminds customers what sets their product apart from their competition and directs shoppers to look for it at retail during the summer. It also underscores the underlying message: This is a premium product.
3 Questions to Ask About Your Own Brand
Looking for ideas to create your own save-worthy food content? Ask yourself these questions:
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- When a first-time customer buys your product, what’s one thing they might not know that would make them more likely to use it and buy it again?
- Is your content teaching that thing, or just showing the product?
- Is there something repeat customers can learn about your product, such as unexpected ways to use it or something else give them another reason to buy and use it?
If you’re commissioning recipe content and want it to earn saves, not just eyeballs, start with a brief built around your brand’s specific expertise, not just a product feature list. I made a template for exactly that. Get the Brand Recipe Brief →