Stop Overthinking Social Media: Simple Strategies That Actually Work for Florists with Sarah LoBue
Vonda is on vacation, so Lori is joined by Audrey and by Sarah LoBue AIFD of Main Street Florist, whose "Elevate Your Social Media Brand" workshop at AIFD Symposium ran at 8 a.m. — right before Lori's own session, which is why Lori never made it over. Audrey did, and came out raving. So this is the recap, and it's built on one reframe: your online presence should feel like a window into your brick and mortar, not a billboard.
Sarah bought Main Street Florist sixteen years ago this fall with no prior floral experience — her background is graphic design and interior architecture. She figured she'd buy a flower shop and work it out, inherited a great team in the transition, and joined AIFD because that was going to be her education. Social media came early and for a practical reason: a Facebook page was cheaper than print ads. Then COVID turned it into the answer to a bigger question — how do I get in front of customers when my doors can't open?
Your brand isn't your logo
The theme of Sarah's workshop was making your social presence match the brand of your actual shop. We tend to think brand means logo, tagline, colors. Sarah's version is different: what does your business feel like? What's your customer's experience? Shops think hard about that in person and then forget it entirely online, and the two need to match.
Lori's test as a self-described chronic scroller is whether a shop's feed makes her want to be virtually invited in — not "should I send flowers," but "I want to go in that store." Audrey's takeaway from the session was storytelling: customers connect when they can see and hear what's actually happening in your shop. And as Lori points out, that's precisely what separates a local shop from an order gatherer. You can say come on in, we're having a blast, want to hang out with us? They can't.
Mix the content, and don't chase every trend
Call them content pillars or content buckets — the point is to rotate. Sarah runs educational videos teaching customers about flowers, personality posts showing her team being ridiculous, and straightforward product posts. Show the same thing repeatedly and your audience gets bored, it becomes predictable, and they scroll past.
On trends, she's a yes with conditions. Tweak it so it's relatable to your business, and don't be three weeks late — trends die fast, and turning up after the fact reads worse than not showing up at all. She also notes trends tend to break on TikTok first, then Instagram and Facebook. Where she'd draw a hard line is music with language you haven't checked, and Lori adds politics: keep the shop's pages clean, and stick to puppies, flowers, and weddings. Turning off a chunk of your local audience for a few extra clicks isn't a trade worth making.
You also don't need to be on every platform. Pick what you can sustain.
Show a face, and stop waiting to be perfect
One statistic from Sarah's session stuck with Audrey: people scroll and scroll until they see a face, and then they stop. Which leads to the advice most owners find hardest — get in front of the camera.
Sarah's on-ramp is Stories. They last 24 hours, nobody expects them polished, and it can be as small as "it's Friday, here's what's in the cooler." The more you talk to a camera the easier it gets. Record a few without posting if you need to warm up — though she's clear you should post them.
She makes an argument for imperfection that's specific to this moment: with AI video everywhere, people are already questioning whether what they're watching is real. Showing the unpolished, authentic version of yourself is worth more now, not less. And if it doesn't have to be your face, it can be a customer, a bride, your team — even a dog. Something with eyes slows the scroll.
Getting a team on board took a few years. What worked was modelling it herself: once she was doing it consistently and they could see the results, they came along. Now one of her employees sent her a ridiculous reel about singing to your plants, offered to film it on Sarah's day off, and Sarah posted it without hesitation.
Consistency beats creativity
Asked to choose between the two, Sarah picks consistency — and admits that's hard for a creative person to say. Her reasoning is structural. We're on borrowed land: the platforms are businesses, and they reward accounts that reliably bring people back. Post inconsistently and the algorithm has no reason to trust you'll post next time. Post consistently and you're both putting more out and being rewarded for it.
Consistency also doesn't mean matching anyone else's pace. Pick a speed you can actually hold — three posts a week, five, whatever — the way you'd set a realistic workout schedule. Don't promise yourself fourteen posts you'll never make.
On measuring it, Sarah is refreshingly unbothered by vanity metrics. She watches which demographic engages, and she pays real attention to Facebook comments from local customers. But what means most is someone walking in and saying they saw the reel, or came in for a product they saw that day. She notes a lot of her Instagram followers are other florists saving posts for inspiration — those numbers look great and aren't her buying audience. Facebook engagement and in-person feedback tell her it landed.
Sympathy work, and the post that took off
Lori raises the question florists argue about: should you post sympathy work? Sarah thinks shops should do it more, herself included. The tension is permission — and the moment someone is ordering flowers for a funeral is not the moment to ask. Her approach is to hold the images, sometimes six months, until she crosses paths with a family member and can say the piece was so him, would you be comfortable if we shared it?
Audrey makes the case for showing it: many Flower Clique members do extraordinary custom tributes, and being able to show that you can create something personal for the person being honored matters. Lori names Steve Rogala's catalog of custom work as the standard.
Sarah raises a related blind spot — services shops never mention because they feel awkward. Hers is seasonal cemetery delivery, changing flowers out through the year. She's uncomfortable photographing a headstone, though she's edited names out before. Lori's workaround: it doesn't have to be a specific stone. A quick scan of the cemetery, or the designers building the piece, with "did you know we offer this?" Plenty of customers have no idea the service exists.
And the post that went unexpectedly viral? A cardboard box of returned vases with a sign saying we recycle. Not a beautiful arrangement. A box.
Sarah's three tips
Asked for the three things a shop owner should do if they're ready to lean in: be consistent at a speed you can sustain; show a face, whether it's yours, your team's, a customer's, or the shop dog; and don't be perfect — lean into the fear, hold your breath, hit post.
Lori's proof for that last one: the two best-performing posts Flower Clique ever ran were Cami fake-smoking a bubble cigarette, and Lori jumping up and down inside a trash can to smush it down during a photo shoot. Silly, unpolished, and instantly recognizable to every florist who's done the same thing.
Follow Sarah at Main Street Florist — on Facebook it's spelled out in full, and on Instagram it's @mainstflorist.
Key takeaways
- Treat your feed as a window into the shop, not a billboard. Brand is what your business feels like, not your logo.
- Rotate educational, personality, and product content so the feed doesn't get predictable.
- People stop scrolling when they see a face — yours, your team's, a customer's, or a dog's.
- Consistency beats creativity. Pick a pace you can hold; the algorithm rewards reliability.
- Judge it by local Facebook engagement and customers mentioning it in person, not by follower counts.
- Hold sympathy images until you can ask the family, and stop hiding the services people don't know you offer.