The Cut Flower Podcast

How to Go Viral and Use Social Media for Business Growth

• Roz Chandler / Tom Coleman • Season 1 • Episode 115

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

🌸 Welcome to The Cutflower Podcast!

Hello, and thank you for popping over to listen! It’s always lovely to have you here. Whether you’re a flower farmer, a small business owner, or just passionate about growing, we’re here to help you thrive.

Today, I’ve got a brilliant guest, Tom Coleman. Some of you might know that Tom and I work together on the Growth Club, a membership designed to help small businesses gain visibility, develop their marketing strategies, and ultimately grow.

In this episode, we’re diving deep into social media strategy, Instagram growth, and how to go viral the right way. If you’ve ever wondered how to increase engagement, turn followers into customers, and use Instagram as part of a wider business strategy, you’re in the right place.

🌟 Episode Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Tom Coleman, a marketing and social media specialist who helps horticulture businesses stand out online. We take you behind the scenes of our Instagram strategy, revealing how we took my account from 20,000 to 122,000 followers in just six months.

We break down two viral Reels—one that hit 1.6 million views and another that skyrocketed to 2.6 million—and share exactly what made them work. But more importantly, we discuss why social media is only the start of your business funnel and how to turn engagement into real sales.

If you’ve ever wondered how to create posts that truly resonate, how to use ManyChat to collect emails or why Instagram should be part of a wider marketing strategy, this episode is packed with valuable insights!

🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How we strategically grew an Instagram account from 20K to 122K followers
✔️ The two viral Reels—what made them work and how you can replicate success
✔️ Why engagement is key—the power of responding to comments and DMs
✔️ The role of Instagram in a wider marketing strategy—it’s just the start!
✔️ How to use ManyChat to automate lead collection and drive conversions
✔️ Why collecting emails from social media is crucial for long-term growth
✔️ The importance of staying true to your brand and not chasing trends

đź“Ś Resources & Links:

🔗 Join The Growth Club – Check it out here!
🔗 Follow me on Instagram – @fieldgateflowers
đź”— Find Tom on Instagram – @imtomcoleman 


[00:00:00] Roz Chandler: Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for popping over to listen to us. That's really lovely. And today I've got a really interesting guest, Tom Coleman. Some of you might know that Tom and I work together and we run something called the Growth Club, which is all about helping small businesses. So it's about visibility, getting more visibility.

[00:00:20] Roz Chandler: It's about your marketing strategy. It's about your content strategy and your overall business strategy and helping you grow your business. So if you want to pop over to the growth club, have a look in the show notes, and we'd love to welcome you. No further ado, let me introduce Tom. Tom, tell us a little 

[00:00:37] Tom Coleman: bit about you.

[00:00:38] Tom Coleman: Hello so I'm a marketing and social media specialist, I get to call myself that now having officially gone freelance last year working specifically with horticulture clients and people all about just getting more visible, driving those sales and helping small businesses to grow, 

[00:00:58] Roz Chandler: really.

[00:00:58] Roz Chandler: Yeah, that's exactly right. So what we've been doing in the growth club is we've had lots of specialist speakers on things like Facebook ads or contact marketing or how to use Canva. Tom's been running the social media channel and how we get more visibility in everything we do in social media. And perhaps we'll talk a little bit about more about social media because that's quite interesting because social media forms part of your marketing strategy but it's not the be all and end all of your marketing strategy.

[00:01:25] Roz Chandler: It's actually the beginning of a funnel and we'll talk about that. It's the beginning of somebody interacting with you and starting their journey with you. So we'll talk particularly about Instagram. And I don't know if lots of you follow me at fieldgateflowers on Instagram, but you've probably seen my numbers have increased massively over the last six months, and probably have gone from 20, 000 followers to 122, 000 followers.

[00:01:49] Roz Chandler: And with that, of course, with a marketing strategy, a concrete strategy that sits behind it. We're obviously growing the business and that's the whole point. So it isn't about numbers for numbers sake, it's all about getting the right customers to actually buy from you and start at the top of the funnel.

[00:02:05] Roz Chandler: So Tom, we're going to talk today about two particular posts which went particularly viral and how we did it. One went to 1. 6 million, which was the first one we did. Yep. And the second one we did went 2. 2 million, I think. and still rising and let's talk about them because they're quite interesting and yeah how that happened what strategy did we have?

[00:02:28] Roz Chandler: I 

[00:02:28] Tom Coleman: think we could start exactly there with the strategy because we didn't just accidentally go viral we spent a lot of time since we started working together talking about the strategy of how we knew we wanted to grow your Instagram and your audience. And we know we wanted to do that as part of your business plan and strategy.

[00:02:46] Tom Coleman: And especially from a marketing perspective, we knew that we wanted to grow the audience, but it's not as easy as just Hey, let's do that then and grow your followers. We needed to work out what was working. already with your audience. Which were the reels that we were creating?

[00:03:01] Tom Coleman: And they were definitely going to be reels because reels is the way to grow and get more reach on Instagram. But what were the ones that were really resonating with people? So the first few months we did a bit of test and learn, didn't we? We tried lots of different things and we really saw that people loved value.

[00:03:18] Tom Coleman: And what do I mean by that is people love learning stuff or gaining something. If you think about why people are on social media and why they follow someone, it's for a reason. And one of the biggest ones is to learn something, gain something from people. So people love your how to videos, showing people what you were growing and how to grow them on and How to grow specific cut flowers and stuff like that.

[00:03:40] Tom Coleman: So they were working quite well, but they definitely weren't going 

[00:03:43] Roz Chandler: viral. No, they were doing okay. And we were getting lots of views and lots of reshares and lots, it was definitely working. We were getting some followers and we really jumped around when we hit about 20, 000. I remember we were doing the 20, 000.

[00:03:56] Roz Chandler: Thanks very much for 20, 000 followers. And we were really humbled by that. But it was part of the strategy and how do we get these reels to have more engagement and how do we get a global audience was quite interesting because my business is global in terms of teaching and mentoring and the growth club and a lot of things we do online is global.

[00:04:12] Roz Chandler: So how do we get a global audience? How do we infiltrate the US? Australia, New Zealand, the rest of Europe. So we had a strategy that said, okay, how are we going to do this? And Instagram was very much the forefront of that for 

[00:04:25] Tom Coleman: sure. Yeah. So we kept learning from what was working with those reels that were full of value.

[00:04:31] Tom Coleman: And we kept, we did what we call the works and tweaks model. We know that works and we get more views and more interaction and more engagement on those reels. So let's keep tweaking them. Let's change the visuals slightly. Let's change the audio that we use. Let's change the style on each one. And see if that picks it up a little bit more and a little bit more.

[00:04:49] Tom Coleman: And then we just hit the nail on the head with one. That first one, that Verbena reel, it was the perfect combination of value. We were teaching people something, had lovely visuals with that sea of Verbena. It had a great hook at the start of the reel, it had a trending audio that was just at the right point before it went really mad all over Instagram.

[00:05:11] Tom Coleman: That combination just came together, and that was the first one that's now on 1. 6 million views. And where a lot of those initial bursts of followers came from. But that set us off. on a track then 

[00:05:24] Roz Chandler: didn't it? It definitely did and then everything we do on Instagram in terms of reels and posting always has a reason so we always have a hook or a click through and we use a piece of software called ManyChat which we ask people when you have things like link in bio I don't know how many people go people A 

[00:05:42] Tom Coleman: really low percentage of people.

[00:05:43] Tom Coleman: People are essentially lazy on social media. And I count myself 

[00:05:48] Roz Chandler: in that. Seven seconds, I think you've got. You've 

[00:05:50] Tom Coleman: got seven seconds to get people's attention, and they're definitely not going to be going looking for the link in your bio. Very few people. You've really got to want something to go and search for the link yourself.

[00:06:01] Tom Coleman: So things like ManyChat, it's all about making it as convenient for people as possible. If you're already on the real Why would you not comment the word to get 

[00:06:09] Roz Chandler: the link? So we say, whatever we're selling, let's say we're selling daily YouTubers, then we'll get them to put daily YouTuber, or on the catalog we put daily YouTuber.

[00:06:16] Roz Chandler: If we want them to give us their email address, we want to learn more. Or whatever happens to be, we've got a series of words which we use and rotate in order that most of our posts have a reason for being there. And therefore we can collect data. which is absolutely fundamental to any growth of any business.

[00:06:34] Roz Chandler: And, it's all great having 122, 000 Instagram followers, but if you don't know anything more about them, that's a problem. And the problem is because you don't own that social media at any point, you don't know what's going to happen to it in the future. And the only way you can start your customer relationship and bring them into your world is by collecting their email address or getting them into your groups or your community.

[00:06:55] Roz Chandler: So the, why we say that Instagram is a great, at the top of the funnel, to bring them in top, you need to actually be doing something with that data. And so we put another post up, didn't we, that went viral, which both of us found quite startling, actually, about why this one went. We didn't expect this. No, this one was a bit unexpected.

[00:07:13] Roz Chandler: And the reason it was is, the visuals are lovely, but what we were doing is said, if you like to sign up to our emails, that would be really lovely. And this is what they contain. full of a lot of value. We tell people how to do things, and monthly jobs, and where we are on the farm, and top 10 books this month, or tips this month, they're full of value.

[00:07:32] Roz Chandler: So we knew the, we know the emails are good, when you ask someone to give your email address on your website, I would defy anybody to actually be collecting any data where someone pops up and says, would you like to give your email address? I just don't think it happens. This one went viral, completely viral, and all they had to put was the word email, and we were completely inundated.

[00:07:52] Roz Chandler: What's it have now? 

[00:07:53] Tom Coleman: 2. 

[00:07:53] Roz Chandler: 6 million views? Something like that. It's going up still now. So if one. It was, I think it was early in the year. Yes. Around Christmas maybe? It was over Christmas time. Go and have a look and search out and it just, all it does is collect your email address which is fundamentally what we were doing.

[00:08:12] Roz Chandler: So we were measuring how many people had asked for the email, the email link and how many people were signing up and better than that, when they got to the page where they signed up to the email, obviously they signed in through GDPR and all of those reasons, we asked them some questions. So we needed to know which pot of data to put them in.

[00:08:28] Roz Chandler: So we asked, are you are you a flower farmer, a start up flower farmer? Because that's important to me. Second question, are you just growing for pleasure? Second question, doesn't have to be a business. Third question was something about are you local to me and what to buy from the farm?

[00:08:44] Roz Chandler: So that, that would be our flowers, our weddings and funerals and so on. So it's not enough to collect their data, you need them to tick a box because otherwise you don't know anything about them. Now obviously through the life you've got their email data, you're going to be finding out more about them because they'll be clicking on links and they'll be telling you about themselves and you'll start to be your ideal customer.

[00:09:02] Roz Chandler: So you've got this pot of people that you can actually market But, it's fundamentally really important to realise that social media is part of your overall marketing strategy. And you need to get them off social media and into your database. It's one of 

[00:09:16] Tom Coleman: the most common things actually when I, work with a client or work dual one to one days.

[00:09:21] Tom Coleman: I talk to people not just about their social media, which people are often surprised about when they ask me for help on their social media. Because actually social media is great at getting people in the front door and showing them what you do and getting them interested in following you. But, it's actually quite hard to convert that into a sale.

[00:09:38] Tom Coleman: Not many people buy directly from Instagram. As we've just said, you give them the link that goes off through your website to process the sale. Or they might sign up to your email and then you email them and they buy it from there. Actually, that is more valuable. The social media is the start of the funnel, as Roz says, and it's getting them, then what do you do with it?

[00:09:57] Tom Coleman: It's great having good social media, but then what are you going to do with it? After that, where are they going to go to find out more information? Where are they going to go to buy your product on your website? And is that as easy as it can possibly be to make sure that you don't lose people along the 

[00:10:13] Roz Chandler: way?

[00:10:13] Roz Chandler: Yeah, and I think lots of testing about what people do on Instagram is quite interesting. And they're not, if they don't know you and they don't love and trust you and they don't know your brand, they are not going to come along and buy a 500 whatever you're selling. They're just not going to do that. So it's about starting a relationship and going, okay, we have this.

[00:10:30] Roz Chandler: ebook or you can have a planner. We've done a couple hour planner that produces a lot of results. So it's low level sales getting people, getting to know people and love and trust you and that takes time. So it isn't the nirvana that you will just get lots and lots of followers and the money will start coming in.

[00:10:50] Roz Chandler: But it is certainly a tool of visibility. Both, both Instagram and Facebook depending on what your ideal customers are will start that journey for you and then you need to have a marketing strategy right behind it. And 

[00:11:03] Tom Coleman: talking about that where you mentioned there your ideal customer, and that's the most important thing to keep in mind, is that all the time, When you're creating your content, you need to be thinking about who that ideal customer is and talking to them.

[00:11:15] Tom Coleman: Because that means that if by some chance you do go viral, or you have a reel that's more successful than usual, it's going to be being pushed to the right audience. And luckily You know not luckily because we have a strategy in place. It's literally what we're talking about. But when Ros's Reels went viral, they were about what her business was about.

[00:11:34] Tom Coleman: She was adding value. She was talking about her emails. And so then when it did go and lots of people saw it, they saw the value of Ros's business and they wanted to follow her. Because they liked seeing what she does on the flower farm and everything like that. The worst thing is when people try and follow trends, or use hooks, or use an audio, or whatever, because it's trending, and it's going to make you go viral.

[00:11:58] Tom Coleman: But then when you go viral, people don't know what you actually do, or want to follow you for that reason, and then you end up with a load of followers that don't actually like. Flowers. No. They'll buy from you. And they're never going to buy from you, so actually, it, and then that's ruined your engagement.

[00:12:14] Tom Coleman: So you want to go viral for the right reasons. And that's what I'd always say to anyone, is stick true to your own content and your marketing strategy and your business plan. And it's not about going viral, but you want to, you want to be ready that if you do, it's for the right 

[00:12:31] Roz Chandler: reasons.

[00:12:32] Roz Chandler: Definitely. And I think then you need to do lots and lots of tracking and analytics. And if that's not your thing, get someone to help you, because then you need to track that was an Instagram follower. And that Instagram family then bought X and that was a value, the value of that was Y. And then they didn't buy anything for a little while and then they bought this.

[00:12:48] Roz Chandler: So the value of that Instagram person is, you've really got to do the lifetime value of a customer and not think short term and think they didn't buy anything this week. It's more about. Creating a relationship. They like your content. I have people who follow me for years and then pop up and say, oh, I've been listening to your podcast, Ros, for years, because I think we're on 110 episodes now, so it would be two years.

[00:13:12] Roz Chandler: I've been listening to your podcast for years. I think they were amazing. And now what I've done is I've joined this. And I've done that. And you think, wow, okay. So everything you do has to be trackable and traceable. And that's the same in social media. You need to know who those followers are, what they're buying.

[00:13:26] Roz Chandler: When they come in and say they want to know about Medelia tubers and they have a catalogue, I want to know how they bought. If they haven't, why not? And all of that research is massive amounts of data. But by analysing it, you'll have a much better marketing 

[00:13:40] Tom Coleman: strategy. And you mentioned there, engagement, it's definitely, if you're even following any of the big creators on Instagram, they're all talking about the fact that engagement is really where it's at, but we've really seen that, haven't we?

[00:13:52] Tom Coleman: That actually, where the sales are coming from, is when we're having real Meaningful conversations, connections with people, as Ros said, making them love you, trust you, showing them a bit about your life, showing them the funny stuff, showing them the outtakes, giving them, all the reasons to really love you and your business and what you're all about.

[00:14:12] Tom Coleman: And then engaging with them in comments and messages and those are the people that will buy because they really love and trust you and believe in you and we've seen that a lot. And it's one of the most common things when I do an Instagram audit, I audit people's accounts and I look at their profile and is it, what can they do to improve?

[00:14:32] Tom Coleman: One of the biggest things I'm always saying to people is you might make amazing content but actually you get lots of comments on your reels. Reply to those people, engage with them, start a conversation, because each of those is a potential conversation to start to learn more about a potential customer.

[00:14:49] Tom Coleman: And even just the fact that you've replied to them, we try and reply to as many of the comments on Roz's Reels and especially your DMs as possible. Because you never know what conversation you're starting with someone and people come back from that and they're more likely to comment on your next reel and your next video which is all helping it and they might be the person that buys your next course or whatever it is that you're going to be offering.

[00:15:13] Roz Chandler: Definitely. I think really important is to be true to yourself and have some integrity in there. It, in social media it doesn't mean you have to show your whole life. But I think it's fair to say there were good times and bad times and that's in all of our lives. We don't have rosy, lovely lives and we don't skip through the fields cutting flowers every single day in the sunshine in our gingham dresses.

[00:15:32] Roz Chandler: I'm afraid it isn't like that, but I think it's really important for people to see me as I am. I'm not 25. I'm older. I'm a change of career, if you like. And I am full of integrity around that and want to encourage lots of other people to do it. And then, there have been some downsides.

[00:15:49] Roz Chandler: I was in hospital twice last year. And I was very honest about that, and I did do a reel, a couple of reels on it, and they were, wait for it, the most engaged reels I've ever had. In terms of people, I think it was something like 100, 000 people saw me leaving hospital. Now that was a bit sort of humbling and quite lovely, and even when I was in hospital, the messages I got was like, oh, it was wonderful and very encouraging.

[00:16:15] Roz Chandler: And as I hobbled with my knee surgery into the car, It was lovely. I have to say it's really lovely. So there's some integrity, there's a point you can go too far and I really think it's quite a fine line and getting it right, but you've really got to be quite humbled by the people who are following you, be very grateful, treat them with respect and some integrity and it will all be rewarded.

[00:16:37] Tom Coleman: If you think about why you follow anybody else, even if it's a celebrity or anything like that, it's because you connect with the person most of the time. You like them, you resonate with them, they're a bit like you, there's something that you quite like, maybe you want to be like them, but there's a reason, then that's the bit that you need to show people on your account so that they can feel that way 

[00:16:57] Roz Chandler: about you.

[00:16:58] Roz Chandler: Yeah, it's about inspiration, isn't it? I follow people because they inspire me years gone past I might have been a bit jealous of them, they've got something I want, but I've managed to turn that into inspiration, I hope, and that I can be inspired by them, and I like to reach out to them and say, God, you're really inspired for what you're doing, it's amazing.

[00:17:15] Roz Chandler: And turn that conversation in your head from Oh my God, they've got loads of followers, and they look amazing, and everything they do is amazing. It's not. It's not. I think it's about being completely honest. 

[00:17:26] Tom Coleman: And now you know how much hard work 

[00:17:27] Roz Chandler: it is. And it's loads of hard work, yeah. I'll tell you what, this isn't easy.

[00:17:31] Roz Chandler: Once you dive into the world of social media your screen time will go up enormously and you will be addicted. And it's a bit like betting on the horses because some will go and some will not. And as long as you've got a solid strategy behind it which says, okay, that didn't work, 

[00:17:45] Tom Coleman: now what? And I think that's the biggest takeaway probably from this, isn't it?

[00:17:49] Tom Coleman: It's no matter what, all the things that we've talked about, it's about having that strategy in the first place for your business, a marketing strategy, and a social media strategy underneath that. So it's all laddering back to your goals and which direction you're going in, so you're not getting swayed by The trends of social media, or what someone's said to you, or whatever.

[00:18:11] Tom Coleman: You're going in the direction that you need to go in, and everything you do is focused on that. And again, all those tools are there around it, your website, your email marketing and everything. It all comes together as one, and that's when social media 

[00:18:24] Roz Chandler: really works. Yeah. Get in touch. Go and have a look at the Growth Club in the show notes.

[00:18:28] Roz Chandler: That would be really great just to see what we're up to. We'd love for you to pop over and have a look. And we'd love to work with you. Yeah, 

[00:18:35] Tom Coleman: definitely. Give us a look on the Growth Club. It's a fantastic membership. I absolutely love being part of it. There are nearly 100 members in there now. And we've got live sessions most weeks, haven't we?

[00:18:48] Tom Coleman: Yeah. Every minute we've got guest speakers coming in. I've got that one that we did the other day, it was fantastic on Profit First. Profit First, yeah. I think we both took more notes than a lot of them, yes. We're always still learning as well, every time. All my Reels masterclasses, social media is in there, loads and loads of learning.

[00:19:07] Tom Coleman: It's just a great community. We're all small businesses and we all learn and grow together. So it's a really nice. Nice 

[00:19:14] Roz Chandler: place to be. It's a lovely place to hang out and we've been running it for quite a while now and we're not losing any members. So there must be something right and we do love it. So have a quick look and we'd love you to join us.

[00:19:25] Roz Chandler: So thanks for listening to the vodcast. I hope you're inspired to think about your marketing strategy and how that relates to your social media strategy. My number one is please don't get overwhelmed and we'd love to see you soon.