Using New Media to Create a Successful Online Business

The Brand

Taking the risk and quitting her job as a 4th grade teacher in Minnesota, Lindsay Ostrom followed her passion and turned her food blogging hobby into a full blown business.   Over time the Pinch of Yum brand has partnered with brands like Chobani, Google, and Almond Breeze and has been featured in BuzzFeed videos and in SELF magazine.  

The Pinch of Yum team creates and posts interactive videos of a wide variety of recipes on their social media platforms.  They are passionate about their content and audiences they reach.  

Use of New Media Platforms

You can find Pinch of Yum on almost any social media platform.  They are very active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  On each site, posts are in a slightly different order and format so that the viewer isn’t seeing repetitive information.  

 In addition to these platforms, the brand also sends out a monthly newsletter and/or blog post via email.  It usually contains new recipe information, links, and sometimes personal life updates from Lindsay.  

Strengths of New Media Use

This brand has a very strong online presence and has utilized almost every new media platform with a few exceptions.  Their number one strength would be their Instagram and Pinterest pages in my opinion.   With over 1 million followers on each, the brand has built and maintained a strong customer base.  The photos posted are professional and eye catching with captions that aren’t too long or too short.  It makes the viewer genuinely want to learn more about the brand.  

Their use of highlight reels and stories are strong as well.  Instagram stories help to keep their fans and followers up to date with fun and detailed recipe tutorials, and “day in the life” type of content.  Some of their most popular recipes are saved in highlight reels above the posts.  This makes it easy for the viewer to backtrack if they are looking for a specific recipe.  

Weaknesses of New Media Use (very few)

One thing I noticed while analyzing their use of New Media was that their website can be confusing to navigate.  The home page is very “busy” in terms of content, visuals, email sign up forms, and pop up ads.  When scrolling down the page, the viewer will see some blog posts, recipes, a search bar, recipe collection tabs, and other distractions.  There are so many different categories that it’s hard to figure out what tab to click on or where to find the tab you’re looking for.  

I would recommend that Pinch of Yum condense the homepage on their website a bit more to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.  They could create different tabs and categories that would be shown initially when visiting the website.  This would give viewers the options upfront rather than after they’ve scrolled down.  

Why I Chose Pinch of Yum

One of my favorite things to do is to cook!  I came across this brand when I was in high school and have been following them ever since.  Every recipe I’ve made from their website has been insanely flavorful and enjoyable to make which is one of the reasons I chose to write about them.