Daily Harvest Is A Company Showing Us The Way In Social Media

Using social media to tell your story might be the cheapest way to build your business.

In an interview with Business Insider Rachel Drori, Daily Harvest’s founder and CEO describes how she has used Instagram to build her business, and gives us insights into what every brand, and supermarket should learn. 

Daily Harvest is a soup and smoothie subscription service.  And in a little over a year since it went national, the startup has managed to surpass 1 million smoothie sales, attract high-profile investors like Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams and amass a significant number of social media followers. 

"Instagram has absolutely helped us build our brand," Rachel Drori, Daily Harvest’s founder and CEO, told Business Insider. "Both our packaging and products are visually vibrant, and lend themselves perfectly to Instagram."

Instagram is the biggest driver of Daily Harvest’s marketing. The startup has sidestepped traditional advertising to focus on social media, with Instagram forming the bulk of its efforts. A majority of Daily Harvest’s marketing efforts on the platform have been organic posts, sprinkled with paid ads. It frequently posts both images and GIFs that play up and tap into the “food porn” aspect of the platform. 

BI reports that Daily Harvest just launched its range of healthy sundaes, turning its Instagram page into a mosaic of pink and yellow. And that they are not alone A legion of new health-focused brands, from meal plans like Whole30 and delivery services like Sakara Life, have built their businesses on Instagram.  

Certainly we can’t discount how more and more Americans are concerned about their diets and making healthier choices, and want to know more about the companies making these foods – and want to form a relationship with them – and these companies fit right into that category. But it’s what they are doing on social media that is worth noting. 

Drori admitted that Daily Harvest’s success can be also be attributed to the fact that it built itself on the back of a lifestyle, rather than products. It focuses on pitching itself as a helpful friend, rather than a company selling products, she said. A lot of this involves educating its customers —frozen produce that the brand uses is apparently more nutritious than fresh produce, as it is picked at peak ripeness and frozen within hours to maintain its nutrients.