Case Study: How Uncle Leroy’s Coffee Keeps Their Social Media Rolling With BeFunky
It all started with a 1968 bus, repurposed into a mobile coffee bar with a two-burner camp stove for pan-roasting coffee. Uncle Leroy’s Coffee, established in 2015, is the brainchild of a group of coffee enthusiasts that wanted to bring quality, micro-brewed coffee all around the state of Alaska. Roasting beans on the road in small batches, they set out to deliver quality coffee with a bit of culture that couldn’t be found in a traditional coffee shop.
“We mainly traveled to Anchorage area farmer’s markets and local food truck gatherings. However, that first summer, we made the epic road trip down the Seward Highway to sling pour-over coffee to youngsters camping at Salmon Stock – a multi-day music festival in Ninilchik, Alaska that was initially formed as an ‘ask’ to protect our local salmon populations”
Named after Uncle Leroy, a Miner in Hope, Alaska, Uncle Leroy’s Coffee captures the spirit of frontierism and adventure, while utilizing craft ingredients to ensure every cup is worth waiting for.
After three years on the road sharing their craft coffee (with the harsh Alaskan winter months limiting their mobility), Uncle Leroy’s established their first brick and mortar store, providing Anchorage with quality coffee year round. This was followed by a second brick and mortar store, while also sticking to their mobile roots by bringing the bus to various farmer’s markets. When they knew that they needed to amplify their social media presence for the expanding business, co-owner Austin Schwartz turned to BeFunky to get the tools they needed.
“I consider myself a graphic design enthusiast, but am no means a professional in this domain, as my major in college was nothing close to marketing. BeFunky is very easy to use.”
Austin Schwartz uses BeFunky’s Graphic Designer as an anchoring tool for generating graphics and editing photographs to show what is happening within the new shop. He often begins with a blank social media template, then uses the Isolate Subject tool to cut out an object or person from a photo to add as a layer on top. Finally, he adds text to photos in their on-brand typewriter font as a backdrop for the graphic. Schwartz has been able to create a look for Uncle Leroy’s Coffee that’s all their own, helping give a dynamic appearance to their overall social media feed. Even with the plethora of options within BeFunky, Schwartz has no problem picking his favorite feature:
“I absolutely love using the Isolate Subject feature. At this moment, I’m using it to remove backgrounds from subjects that are generally people or items from stock imagery. As a small business with limited resources for lets say, professional photo shoots, the library of stock images in BeFunky’s Image Manager tab provides us with the ability to use high-quality photos and content that we can customize to our shop.”
Despite the challenges of being a small business, Uncle Leroy’s Coffee sticks by the principle that it’s important for a business to find consistency in their social media graphics, especially if they are undertaking it on their own. Using BeFunky, Uncle Leroy’s has found a perfect workflow to curate on-brand social media graphics every time, while sticking to their culture of craftsmanship and quality.
“A mission and company’s values should be messaged throughout marketing and advertising efforts. Staying on brand is key to upholding the integrity of your small business. We are grateful for the folks that visit our shops as those are the people that sustain our business. We also hope that more people will learn about our efforts and mission, “More Than Coffee” so we can one day thrive.”
Inspired to use BeFunky to create your own social media marketing materials for success? Check out all the tools you need for your own custom creations at the link below:
