Renowned pastry chef Cédric Grolet has come a long way since his first Instagram post featuring his Rubik’s cake got a little more than 1,000 likes. The chef heartily embraces that Instagram is now part of his job – part of his life. Today Cédric's creative use of Reels – one Reel alone garnered 170M plays – has been key to growing his audience by 4.5M new followers in one year to 7M. His recipe for success? Tell stories that are grounded in the values of his craft. Keep it simple. Be true to yourself.

Results

• Follower growth on Instagram: 180% to 7M starting from 2.5m between May 2022 and April 2023.
• Cédric posted a Reel in September that really broke through and accelerated his growth. Watch it below and see how his Reel generated 170m plays.
• Follower growth on Facebook: 63% to 528k FB Followers starting from 323k ¹
• Plays from unconnected (non-follower) sources on IG: 81% ²
• Cross platform Reels recommending impact on FB: daily views grew 350% from 160k to 720k ³

¹ _{Timeframe: May 2022 - April 2023 | ² Timeframe: 18 August 2022 - 18 November 2022 | ³ Timeframe: 15 August 2022 - 13 November 2022}

Strategy

Cédric Grolet is the executive pastry chef at Le Meurice in Paris (Palace Hotels) and also has two shops in Paris and one in London. A superb craftsman and artist, much of his creations focus on fruit and also the reinterpretation of traditional French desserts.

The award winning chef joined Le Meurice in 2012 having spent years refining his skills in pastry, chocolate and ice creams in kitchens across France. It is these skills and his passion for his craft, coupled with warm and inspirational presentation that anchors his Reels storytelling. It also underscores his Instagram strategy and success.

Authenticity is a key best practice that’s why Cédric focuses on the values that are at the heart of his pastries… his ingredients, his technique, his everyday creativity.

One Reel that readily demonstrates this (with 170M plays) features him dipping one of his amazing croissants in a cappuccino. But the Reel was also about sharing a moment of his childhood, his upbringing, his grandmother and the real simple pleasures they represented.

Tactically, Cédric keeps tabs on his engagement rate, on how many additional followers he gets per day to gauge his influence. He also uses the Instagram insights tab to look at which country viewers are based in to identify ways and markets in which to grow his business.

Another tactic Cédric has leveraged to good use is recommending his Instagram Reels to Facebook. This is one way to leverage success on one platform to support another. This cross-platform recommending tool shares your instagram Reel as recommended content on Facebook, potentially reaching people who don’t follow you on Instagram. Facebook viewers could see Cedric’s Instagram handle and follow him on IG. Any creator can do this without even having a Facebook Page!

Cédric tends to focus on views rather than likes. He feels it better fuels his motivation. And while he lives for pastry, Instagram Reels provides him a work tool that allows him to showcase his creativity and love of simplicity to grow his business. He sums it up this way, “For those who wish to use [Instagram], they should remain creative, that’s important, and simple. Creativity, simplicity, that’s what I think.”

Cédric’s strategy cheat sheet:

1. Post Authentically: Be 100% yourself
2. Focus on everyday creativity
3. Lean into Reels
4. Recommend your IG reels to FB!
5. Prioritize engagement
6. Dive into the data: use your insights