It’s hard to imagine a time before social media, however it’s been just two decades since Facebook burst onto the scene and helped pave a new way to reach consumers. Since then social media has grown to become a part of daily life – and a formidable marketing tool.

It was in 2006 that Facebook was first released to the public – and revolutionised online networking as we know it.

Although it was far from the first social media channel – that honour goes to sixdegrees.com and classmates.com in the mid-to-late 1990s – it’s rapid rise in popularity saw Facebook be the one credited with bringing social media to the masses and paving the way for other social media channels to become a part of daily life.

By 2010 Instagram had also hit the scene, and in the past decade it too has grown from a site filled with happy snaps into a formidable marketing tool – particularly for highly visual industries like baking, patisserie and chocolate.

And it’s little wonder why many creators have turned to social media as a way to showcase their creations to a global audience. As of early 2025 Instagram had an estimated 2.35 billion monthly users worldwide, while Facebook hit 3 billion, YouTube 2.74 billion and TikTok sat at 1.6 billion.

The positives of being social

Pastry chef, chocolatier and director of Savour School Kirstan Tibballs was early to join Instagram and has had a presence on the platform since 2011. By 2013 she was posting regularly to the platform and said although many people around her were skeptical about social media, she personally loved having a place to share was she was creating.

“It was actually one of my staff members who originally signed me up and put up the first few posts,” Kirsten said.

“In the early days people hadn’t really figured out how to monetise the platforms yet, and the algorithm was far less complex. It was much easier to reach people and build a following with less polished content.”

Kirsten Tibballs

In those early days Kirsten said she was doing a lot of the filming and photography herself, however, as both her own business and social media following itself has grown, Kirsten eventually had to make the decision to bring on a content team to help bring everything to life.

These days she works alongside two full-time content creators who handle all the filming, photography and editing.  A big part of their role is also filming for Savour Online Classes, and they manage accounts for both Kirstan Tibballs and the Savour brand across multiple social platforms.

This also helps with the challenges that come with social media’s fast pace and constantly evolving algorithm. Trends can pop up and disappear within a matter of days, and having the capacity to jump on these can boost your exposure – while also maintaining your authentic message – can have untold benefits.

“It definitely pushes you to be creative,” Kirsten said.

“One of the biggest challenges is pace. Social media moves fast! Creating consistent content takes time and it’s important to make sure everything feels on-brand and speaks to your audience. It can be tricky to forward plan content while also keeping up with trends that pop up and disappear in a matter of days, especially on TikTok.”

This focus on quality and authenticity over chasing views is something Señor Kane, aka The Tasteless Baker agrees with.

The Sydney-based food content creator has built up a strong social media following across multiple platforms since he first turned the camera on himself in 2022, thanks in large part to his hilarious-yet-frank turn of phrase and great bakes.

In those early days Kane said it was never a drawing board situation where he sat down and decided what he was going to do. Rather, he said, he was just himself.

“I just turned on the camera one day in 2022 and started being myself. Maybe with a little sprinkle and spice, but at the end of the day, it was me,” he said.

“Most people would agree the version of Kane that pops up on their phone screen has changed and evolved since 2022. Lives change, perspectives shift, people grow and that’s just part of the process.

“I’d love to say there’s a formula, but there isn’t.”

Senor Kane in action

That being said, Kane reiterated that when it comes to social media algorithm is king and a large following doesn’t always equate virality and success. He, himself, is regularly caught up between creating what he wants to and what people want to see.

“I say this all the time but I truly have no clue what people want. I’ve been making content for nearly fours years and I’m still surprised by what people dislike or absolutely love,” he said.

“Baking adds another layer of challenge. We’re not like other food creators. Some recipes can take one to two weeks to finalise – hello sourdough starter – so, when you spend time creating something and the algorithm buries it, it stings.

“To manage that, I run polls in my broadcast channels or on stories to see what people are really interested in. But even then it all comes down to execution. I could make the most in-demand recipe but if the videos flops… well the truth hurts.”

Like Kirsten, Kane said ultiamtely if you keep an eye on your brand and your values the rest will follow.

“At the end of the day I’m just a guy in a kitchen trying to make people laugh while teaching them how not to burn their brownies,” he said.

The dark side of virality

Although a social media presence goes hand-in-hand with business marketing these days, what do you do when you go viral but had no part in the process?

This is a situation that Sydney-based patisserie Du Plessy Pralin & Otello experienced in early 2025 after a video uploaded to Chinese social media platform Red Book went viral.

As the story goes, a Chinese vlogger called Max recorded an interaction he had with a woman on the train from Bowral to Sydney. He had just visited Gumnut Patisserie but was told if he wanted to try another truly special cake then he needed to put Du Plessy Pralin & Otello on his list.

Patisserie owner Paul Adam said his first inkling that something was going on was when one day in March the demand for their mousse cake skyrocketed and a large line began to appear outside each morning before the doors opened.

“It was March 8 and my wife and I were working along and kept being told ‘more cakes, more cakes’. One-and-a-half hours into trading I walked out into the shop and asked one woman what was going on,” he said.

“The woman said to me ‘don’t you know?’ and I said ‘I’ve got no idea what’s going on’. She showed me the video and I remembered the guy. I just said ‘you’re joking!’.

“The woman said ‘you’re famous now Paul’. And then the next Saturday it was non-stop and the Saturday after that anyone I knew could work was at work. We were just smashing these cakes out and working through the night.”

Sales of the cake at Du Plessy Pralin & Otello increased tenfold, and Paul and his team were quickly faced with the decision of either outsourcing its production – a move Paul refused to do – or capping the number made.

Paul said they went with the second option, and for months on end sold out within an hour or two of opening their doors.

“We tried every formula we had. We couldn’t take orders. I had so many people coming in and saying you’ve got to outsource it, but I wasn’t going to. There’s only two of us [here] that make this cake, and once we outsource it to somebody else it’ll ruin the cake,” Paul said.

“We couldn’t take time off. We just had to work in a smart way. We had to eliminate all the other cakes we did because we had no time to do them.”

The cake that went viral on social media

This also meant buying more refrigeration and freezers for the patisserie as the amount of ingredients used each day also skyrocketed. From using up to 80 litres of cream each week, Paul said at the peak they were going through up to 250 litres per day, while an egg shortage also had to be navigated.

Paul himself was also having to head out into the store a number of times each day to speak with the customers and smile for photos with the people who had travelled on two buses and two trains to get to the store from the airport.

“I’m in a location that’s not on a train line. I kept saying ‘it’s just a cake. Chill out!’,” Paul said.

Eventually the hype surrounding the video began to slow down, and although there are still queues out the front of Du Plessy Pralin & Otello, Paul said they were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s been six months now and it’s just started to slow down now to a manageable level,” he said.

“It was insane. I’ve never seen anything like it.”