Montclair Businesses Go Social

Two local businesses take different marketing approaches to build their brands

MONTCLAIR NJ 03–18–22 MONTCLAIR BREAD CO-WORKER THINKS OF HER TEAM AS FAMILY Haley Thomas can be seen giving one of their best-selling items, an iced coffee, to a customer through their ordering window. Thomas has been working with the Montclair Bread Company for quite some time and she shared that their staff is only a handful of people. Every day Thomas and her co-workers make dozens of trays of doughnuts to prepare for the busy day ahead. While a small team seems though, it works best for the Montclair Bread Co. to help them build a community not only in person but through their social media accounts as well.

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The Covid-19 pandemic was hard on a lot of businesses, especially small, locally-owned shops. Montclair is known for its large collection of varied local businesses, making it no exception.

Many businesses there turned to social media for advertising, promoting events, and even sharing behind the scenes what makes their business so special.

Many small businesses shutter their doors and run things a little differently. On average, there was a heavy increase in usage across all platforms. From Instagram to TikTok, people were now downloading the apps, posting to apps, and scrolling more than in previous years.

Across all apps, small businesses took to posts, reels, videos, tweets, pictures, and other forms of content to inform their followers that just because the world had seemingly shut down, didn’t mean they did. #Smallbusiness has over 93 million posts on Instagram and over 59 billion views on TikTok.

Montclair Bread and Books: A Social Media Partition

According to Google Trends, the highest volume of searches for small businesses was between March and May of 2020, and it’s still high in comparison to the years before the Covid-19 health crisis.

MONTCLAIR NJ 03–18–22 THE FIRST DAY WARM DAY OF 2022 BRINGS GUESTS TO MONTCLAIR BREAD CO. On the first warm day after daylight saving’s ended, families decided to take the trip to Montclair Bread Co. to enjoy coffee and pastries on their newly re-opened patio. Indoor dining has yet to re-open inside the building due to the company’s determination to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The Montclair Bread Company is one of the businesses that have taken to social media to help their businesses flourish in uncertain times.

The Montclair Bread Company sells artisan donuts, bread, and pastries. Freshly made each morning, and with flavors changing on a monthly basis, they feature new flavors, behind-the-scenes clips, and showcase patrons on their social media accounts. They have a heavy Instagram presence, with a verified checkmark and over 30,000 followers.

MONTCLAIR NJ 03–18–22 MONTCLAIR BOOK CENTER LONG TIME EMPLOYEE An employee of the Montclair Book Center, who wished to remain anonymous but agreed to be photographed, checks out a guest who placed an order for a newly released novel. The Montclair Book center places orders for customers just like the anonymous guest in the image above. The bookstore also places orders for certain cassettes, DVDs, and records!

The Montclair Book Center has been selling a wide array of books, CDs, records, cassettes, and other media since 1984. They are one of the largest private booksellers in the state. Three floors of new and preowned merchandise are truly a book or music lover’s paradise.

On Instagram, you can find memes, book recommendations, and pictures of the cozy bookstore. On Instagram, they have a little over 2,000 followers- a smaller, but very loyal following. For both companies, social media has a rather extreme reach for such a small business in a little town in North Jersey.

“ We have a lot of customers that follow us within the community of Montclair and far away across the country,” says Bread Company social media manager, Haley Thomas. “We’ll meet people every day that they flew in to see family, and they wanted to stop by the bakery because they heard about us on Instagram.”

MONTCLAIR NJ 03–18–22 MONTCLAIR BOOK CENTER The Montclair Book Center is New Jersey’s largest new and used book store. Since the start of the pandemic the book center often finds its shelves filled with not enough customers to purchase books. The local business has taken to social media as a solution for the lack of businesses that way as the weather gets warmer, New Jersey residents will come and buy new/used books.

This trend isn’t uncommon either. Even the book store has seen this kind of action.

“ I have gotten phone calls from people who are out of state or out of the city who have seen it as well,” says Emily Mascloo, Montclair Book Center Employee and Social Media Manager.

Social media usage isn’t cut and fit for every business but can be adapted to work for most. The Bread Company has spread itself across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. The Book Center is on Facebook and Instagram. Both stated that they use what they think is best for their platform.

According to Keith Green, “Things had to change in order for businesses to survive. It started to become more important because many local businesses who relied on a small customer base found out very quickly that they couldn't reply on that once the pandemic hit.”

Since the book store garners an older crowd, they tend to lean more on Facebook, whereas the donut shop sells merchandise that’s well suited for photographs, so they rely more on Instagram.

During the lockdown, social media posts helped both companies stay attached to the close-knit community. Montclair Center is an organization that supports all the small businesses in town. Both the Bread Company and the Book Center have been featured on Montclair Centers’ Instagram page.

They also have very strong ties to the community as a whole, frequently tagging other companies and featuring other local businesses and patrons.

MONTCLAIR NJ 03–18–22 MONTCLAIR BREAD CO’S CHANGING MENU The Montclair Bread Co.’s most popular sellers are often their newest items which the crew comes up with together during their taste testing meetings. These meetings can sometimes be found on their Instagram page when the team makes a “doughnut breakthrough!” The ever-changing menu (above Lily Jones) is also displayed in colorful magnetic alphabet pieces towards the back of the kitchen which can be seen through the window where guests place their orders.

From books to bread, social media has changed the way businesses operate. New Jersey pride is strong in Montclair and is heavily tagged in photos and videos online.

Local businesses were under threat during the pandemic but are now able to spring back and stay more connected than ever to their community.

Tiffannie Coy is a junior majoring in Journalism at Montclair State University. She is expected to graduate in May of 2023. She is currently a writer for the Entertainment section of The Montclarion. You can connect with her on Linkedin and Instagram.

Courtney White is a senior majoring in Journalism at Montclair State University. She is graduating in May of 2022. She is a writer for HerCampus, BoldTV, and The Montclarion. She is also a 4 time published novelist. You can connect with her on Linkedin and Instagram.