Owner Jenna Saunders attributes social media fame to the rising success of the Sunshine Coast’s Kenilworth Country Bakery. The 1kg Killer doughnut Challenge also helps to bring in the crowds.

“Everyone gets their bread from Woolworths, not from bakeries anymore, so we’ve had to change the way people look at the baking industry,” says Kenilworth Country Bakery owner Jenna Saunders, who attributes social media and product development as sustaining the bakery’s hype.

A population of only 200 people, Kenilworth country is a quaint farming town that has change on its horizon. The heritage-listed county bakery building has survived for 97 years and is the oldest building in Kenilworth, complete with the original, unusable ovens still installed. All of this history led Jenna to purchase the antique bakery three years ago.

“The old owners really played on the history of the bakery and made it look very antique-y, and they did a café and breakfast … It was really cool when you walked in, it was very touristy,” Jenna says.

Jenna’s career in baking started at a young age with her father a professional baker. Although, surrounded by bakeries growing up, her interest didn’t bloom until she met with the prospect of owning one.

“Growing up around baking in Toowoomba, my father was a major pie manufacturer in Queensland,” Jenna says.

“He had a lot of Brumbies stores, didn’t start Brumbies but was one of the main people in there and obviously supplied all the pies to Brumbies in Australia and New Zealand.

“I’ve always been around baking. I have had a passion for it but I haven’t at the same time; I’ve got more of a passion for business.”

After redesigning the interior and returning it into its former glory, Jenna began to branch out into the world of social media, starting their official Facebook and Instagram pages as a way of connecting to their customers.

Jenna swears by the power of free marketing through social media and insists small business owners shouldn’t underestimate what social media can do for their business.

“If I could put anything out there to other bakeries and business owners, it’s to get yourself online,” Jenna says.

“We started from nothing, now our Instagram’s got 5,000 followers and Facebook’s got around 25,000.

“In the scheme of things, that’s not a lot of followers if you compare it to other social media, but for a bakery, it’s quite good.

“Obviously, back then it was just me posting all the time and replying … we have a full-time social media employee now.

The 1kg Killer Donut Challenge, which began as a joke, became an instant sensation, with people flocking to the small bakery to take on the pastry monstrosity.

“A local boy loved the jam and cream doughnuts, so his mum came in for his birthday and was like ‘Can you please do a giant one?’ and we weren’t even sure if we could make it,” Jenna says.

“By the time you fry it, it’s burnt on the outside and raw on the inside! But I said, ‘Give us a couple days to play around with it and we’ll get back to you.’ And it worked, just.“We also had a local dairy farmer, and he’s around six foot six, he literally has to bend his head to get in the shop. So, we put the doughnut in front of him, as a joke, for breakfast one morning and took a photo.”

This photo saw their business change overnight, and forevermore with the post of their enormous doughnut going viral and receiving 4.5 million views within 24 hours.

“Everyone just started tagging and that’s when it went viral,” Jenna says.

“That’s when we started getting all of our followers, all the news reporters picked us up, Urban List and Thrillist and UniLad … The first weekend of that we had a tiny little fryer that would only fit two of the kilo doughnuts in it at once and we had 400 kilo-doughnuts on order.”

With only a handful of staff when the bakery took off, Kenilworth Country Bakery is now well equipped with a custom fryer that can fry up to 40 kilo-sized donuts at once.

“Initially it was just absolutely insane, now we’ve got around 30 staff, but it’s still just me and my dad baking,” Jenna says.

Inside the bakery you’ll find hundreds of plates adorning the walls displaying the champions that have completed the challenge. With only about five per cent of contenders finishing the massive donut it’s no easy feat.

Not one to falter, Jenna took their overnight sensation in stride. The County Bakery is a thriving hub for Kenilworth country, bringing in tourists and calling back regulars from all over. Jenna’s understanding of social media platforms and customer experience keeps the dough flying out the door.

“[I start] at 8 or 9 o’clock at night til 1pm the next day. My dad obviously starts earlier than me … It’s almost like the bakery is a cabaret, if that makes sense. It’s like an experience when you come in,” she says.

“When you walk through the doors, I’ve got a big bench with glass so you can see what’s being made, everyone’s talking to you and every time the line comes around, I’m telling them what’s inside the doughnuts.

“I’ve got a very extroverted personality, so I’ve always got music pumping and staff dancing and I’ve got a megaphone talking to the crowd.

“If there’s someone dancing in the crowd … I’ll call them out and I’ll be like ‘here’s a voucher, thanks for having so much fun here!’ I hate working in retail, so I’m like, ‘How do I make coming to work fun and how do I make people enjoy themselves?’

“Maybe that’s what makes us stand out from the rest. Because you come here and you have fun, you’re not just walking in, buying a doughnut and leaving. It’s all about the experience you have when you’re here.”

Relying solely on social media in terms of web presence, although a website is on the cards, Jenna insists on keeping it fun and casual.

“Everyone is like, ‘Do you have a menu?’ and I say ‘It’s a bakery! You don’t need a menu. Just see what I’m making and come out.”

Jenna’s top tips for social media success:

Get a good smart phone. “You can get really good quality pictures, there is so many good apps on your phone.”

Put the work into your social media pages. “I was sitting up late at night; I’d already done 12 hours at the bakery and going through and replying to people.”

Listen to your social media ‘followers’, what images and videos are they liking, tagging and sharing? “It was the public that chose doughnuts for us and we had to go with it … I can’t really go anywhere now without recognition. If I mention what I do and people go, ‘Ah, the Killer Doughnut Challenge!’”

Interact with your audience. “If a business replies to you directly it … stands you out from the crowd. If you go into a big, major Instagram site and you comment on it, people don’t reply to you. So, we try our best now to reply to everyone.”