There is a growing trend on Instagram. Coffee shops, from small independents to well-known chains, are filming themselves doing whatever is trending that week. The same audio. The same pose. The same recycled joke. Just now with latte art and staff in aprons.
It’s cringe.
I do not use that word lightly. To be honest, given my age, I am not even sure if I am using it correctly. I say it because that type of content does not just look awkward. It feels empty. Forced. It turns baristas into performers and cafés into props.
It is the same feeling I get when I see coffee shop parties with DJs and light shows in places that are supposed to smell like espresso and sound like conversation. My problem with it is not just personal taste. It is strategic. It is not only uncomfortable to watch. It is bad brand building. And it does not work.
It comes from a misunderstanding of how social media platforms function. More specifically, how algorithms manipulate what we see, what we think, and how we behave.
Social media platforms are not neutral tools. They are engineered systems. Their algorithms are not logical. They are psychological. They work by tapping into four key behavioral triggers.
The first is Intermittent Reinforcement. This comes from gambling research. The brain is more engaged when rewards are unpredictable. You do not win every time, but you might win on the next pull. The same thing happens when scrolling. You skip five videos, then you land on one that hits. You laugh. You feel seen. You get a small reward. And then you keep scrolling, chasing another.
The second is Social Proof. This is the tendency to trust something more if other people appear to trust it. A post with ten thousand likes feels important, even if the content is meaningless. The likes themselves become the signal.
The third is Herd Mentality. Once something looks popular, everyone starts doing it. Not because they love it, but because they do not want to be left out. It is easier to follow than to question. This is how trends spread, and why so many cafés post the same video with the same audio week after week.
The fourth is Micro-behavior analysis. Algorithms do not just track what you like or share. They track what you hover over. How long you pause. Which thumbnails you expand. Which captions you finish. These subtle movements are monitored constantly. They feed into the system. The system feeds back.
These mechanisms are not bugs. They are features. They are what make the algorithm so effective. And so dangerous.
The business behind the algorithm
In 2023, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, generated more than $134 billion in revenue. Nearly all of it came from advertising. That kind of scale is not possible unless people are spending a lot of time on the platform. And the algorithm is what makes that happen.
Every reel, every pause, every comment, every click is being used to show you more of what you are likely to interact with. Your attention becomes data. That data becomes prediction. That prediction becomes profit.
If you run a café, you are not the customer. You are the content. The algorithm does not exist to help your brand. It exists to help the platform.
This is where many coffee shop owners get it wrong. They treat Instagram and TikTok like helpful distribution channels. They are not. They are systems built to keep people scrolling, not systems built to reward good coffee or thoughtful service. You are borrowing attention in someone else’s economy.
Yes, your café needs to be on social media
Let’s be honest. You cannot ignore social media either.
According to DataReportal’s 2024 report, the average person now spends 6 hours and 40 minutes online each day. Over 2 hours and 23 minutes of that time is spent on social media. Television, print, and blogs have all taken a backseat. The phone is where people live now.
Pew Research found that people under 35 use social media as their main source of news, product discovery, and brand recommendations. That includes coffee shops. If you are not visible online, you may as well not exist.
But being visible is not the same thing as being memorable. If your feed looks like everyone else’s, people might find you—but they will not remember you.
Why the algorithm keeps changing
A social media algorithm is a rule-based system that decides what content shows up in your feed. It runs on machine learning. It does not stay still. It constantly adjusts to reflect what people are watching, clicking, and sharing.
That means the rules that work today might not work tomorrow.
In the early days of social media, your feed showed posts in the order they were published. It was chronological. Then platforms realized they could keep you engaged longer by showing you content based on predicted interest, not time. A large-scale randomized trial published in Science between 2022 and 2024 tested this directly. When participants switched from the algorithmic feed back to a chronological one on Facebook and Instagram, time spent on the platforms dropped sharply. The algorithmic version increased time spent by around 70% and drove significantly more engagement. The system is not just curating content. It is actively shaping how long you stay.
That is the game you are trying to win by chasing trends. A system that evolves without telling you how or why. A system that cannot be mastered, only reacted to.
The illusion of value
In a large-scale study published by researchers Maria Glenski and Tim Weninger, early engagement signals were manipulated on Reddit posts. Some posts were given an artificial upvote at the start, while others were given a downvote or left untouched. Over time, the posts that received early upvotes accumulated significantly more positive responses than identical posts without that boost. A single artificial signal was enough to influence group behavior and inflate perceived value.
This is how social proof distorts judgment. What looks popular often feels better, even when it is not. In the context of social media, popularity becomes its own form of validation, regardless of content quality.
For coffee shops, this creates a dangerous temptation. You might see a dancing barista post getting thousands of views and feel pressure to do the same. Not because it reflects your café’s identity, but because it appears to work for someone else.
That is how brand clarity begins to erode. One post at a time.
What brand identity is really made of
A brand is not a logo. It is not a tagline. It is not your Instagram filter or your playlist. A brand is a consistent set of signals.
These include:
Visual cues. Your packaging. Your signage. The way your space is photographed.
Verbal cues. How you describe your drinks. How you write your menu. How your staff speaks to guests.
Behavioral cues. How fast you serve. How clean your tables are. How you make people feel when they order a coffee.
When you change those signals every week to match whatever is trending, your brand becomes unstable. It stops being recognizable. It starts to blend in. Eventually, there is nothing left for a customer to connect with.
Strong brands are not always loud. But they are always clear.
What to post instead
Social media can still be useful. But you have to treat it like a tool, not a stage. You are not performing. You are documenting.
Post with clarity. Share who you are, not who the algorithm wants you to be. Introduce your team. The people who shape the experience. Show your drinks. Not the over-styled ones. The real ones. The ones you care about. Let people see the space. The quiet mornings. The messy afternoon rush. Talk about your menu. Where the beans come from. Why you dropped that drink. Why you brought it back. Celebrate your regulars. Let their stories speak for your value.
This kind of content builds connection. And connection builds trust. You do not need millions of views. You need the right people to come back. To remember you. To recommend you. To care. That kind of loyalty is not given by the algorithm. It is earned by staying true to what makes your café matter.
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