Well, obviously I’m going to say that but the Cambridge Foodies is doing great! We have hit two massive milestones this past week with the Cambridge Foodies Facebook group hitting 6000 members and the blog now has 40,000 individual views!
Considering the group and blog have only been running for about a year now, that’s pretty good going! Not only has it caught up and overtaken many comparable (not rival) groups but is now catching up with some of the generalist juggernaut groups in Cambridgeshire sitting at 13-15k members, which have been going for many years.
Scrolling through a lot of these communities, I have come to the realisation that there are some very good reasons why we are flying high and growing at such a fast pace. Here are some of my thoughts.
Reason 1: We are a community, not a group.
Scrolling through many other Facebook groups based around Cambridgeshire, the places are dead. Lots of posts (mostly ads) which are left ignored with the occasional like and rare comment. It’s a ghost town. Scroll through the Cambridge Foodies sometime and see how lively it is!
A big thank you to everyone who makes the group what it is! This wouldn’t be the case without you!
Reason 2: We create our own content!
As you are likely already aware by reading this, we have our own blog. Now, whatever you think of my crude attempt to write a blog post, this is a blog which is updated frequently, with posts not only being created by myself and the admins but by members of the Cambridge Foodies community. This gives exclusive content which can only be found here and gives its members a reason to be here, and the best part is, anyone is welcome to contribute! We aren’t a pretentious Telegraph food critic telling you what to like, we are real people sharing our experiences. That’s all.
Reason 3: We have very few ads!
Being a member of any other Cambridgeshire based groups, you will notice that many of them have gradually turned into advert dumps for businesses. These ads mostly get ignored, receiving next to no likes or engagements, and finding content on them has become a baffling ordeal. This doesn’t work for the business, the members, or the usability of the group.
This was nearly the case for the Cambridge Foodies, at its peak getting 12 ad requests a day. We tried to accommodate all these ads the best we could without turning the group into an unusable waste land through different ways but it ultimately became impossible. Since starting our subscription service, we have been able to limit the ads to 3 a week and help fund the running of the blog at the same time. This has helped the business really keen to engage with us and get noticed, reduced the amount of ads to wade through for our users, and makes the blog possible.
Reason 4: We are a family of communities.
It’s not just the Cambridge Foodies, yaknow! We have four different groups in total, which helps members dive into specific interests without getting lost in the largest group.
The Cambridge Curry Community has been going for a staggering 12 years and has been running for so long that it even has Indian and Bangladeshi restaurant owners in the group who you can engage with directly.
The Craft Beer In Cambridgeshire group is a mere 550 members but is incredibly active and full of beer chugging craft beer fantastics with an extensive knowledge of the hobby and local knowledge.
The often overlooked Cambridge Pubs group is also a place people can go to discuss pub culture without feeling out of place in a foodie group.
Reason 5: Our own voice in the media!
Yup, that’s right! We have our own place in Velvet Magazine. A local magazine which has a circulation of 40,000 people. When writing each article I will ask the group to contribute towards the article, often in the form of a top 5 post. We bring our community along with us at the Cambridge Foodies!
Thank you!
I hope you have enjoyed my little celebration of our success. With 2023 now up and running, let’s see what amazing things we can achieve together! Watch this space and don’t forget to get in touch if you want to contribute towards the blog!
Thanks for reading!
The Cambridge Foodies 