Our Detroit audience reached more than 245,000 followers because we made the same five choices for a long time: we picked one subject, Detroit, and stayed in it; we published consistently instead of perfectly; we covered the city seriously; we built a community rather than just an audience; and we used every platform without depending on any of them. None of that requires a media budget. Any local business can make the same choices at its own scale.
What follows is how those choices played out for us, and what they look like for a Detroit business.
Where it started
We did not start as a media company. In 2015, Shawn Mangenje, a photographer who had just moved to Detroit from the UK, started hosting photo walks and workshops for local creatives. The first thing we built was a group of people who showed up in person to look closely at the city.
Paige Pope, a Michigan native, joined in 2019. Over time it grew into a media platform: social accounts covering Detroit’s food, events, culture, business and neighborhoods, plus a website with reported articles and city guides.
Today that adds up to more than 245,000 people across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and the site, about 46 million views a year across social platforms, and an audience that is about 60% Metro Detroit. RAW Digital Group grew out of the same work.
Lesson 1: We picked a lane and stayed in it
Our lane is Detroit. Not Michigan lifestyle in general, not national trends with a Detroit caption, not whatever is going viral this week. When someone follows us, they know what they are getting.
A narrow lane does two things. It makes every post easier to decide on, because the question is simply whether it is about Detroit and worth a Detroiter’s time. And it makes the audience more valuable, because the people who stay are the people who care about the subject.
For your business: the lane is usually narrower than you think. A Corktown coffee shop’s lane is not “coffee.” It is that neighborhood, that bar, those regulars and the craft behind the cup. Businesses that try to speak to everyone tend to reach no one in particular.
Lesson 2: Consistency over perfection
In the early years, the photos were decent and the captions were solid. What mattered was that something went up regularly. Audiences come back to accounts they can count on, and platforms tend to reward accounts that post reliably.
Our working rule: publishing consistently at 80% quality beats waiting for a 100% post that never goes out. That is not permission to be sloppy. It means building a system that makes good work routine: recurring formats, a content calendar, and batching production so a busy week does not mean a silent week.
For your business: pick a rhythm you can hold for a full year, even if it is three posts a week, and protect it. A steady schedule you keep will outperform an ambitious one you abandon in March.
Lesson 3: We cover Detroit like it matters
Detroit has been covered badly for a long time, as a ruin, a comeback story or a punchline. Detroiters notice. We decided early that we would treat the city with the seriousness it deserves: showing up to events, talking to the people involved, getting facts right, and crediting other outlets when we build on their reporting.
That standard is why our website publishes reported articles and city guides, not just reposted headlines. Trust is slow to build and quick to lose, and in local media it is the whole asset.
For your business: the equivalent is accuracy and care in your own channels. Correct hours on Google. Real photos of what customers will actually get. Honest answers in comments. Crediting the photographer or creator whose work you share. People can tell when a business is paying attention.
Lesson 4: We built community, not just an audience
Our first product was a community: people walking the city with cameras. That shaped how we have run the platform since. We reply to comments, feature Detroit creators and businesses, collaborate with people doing good work, and give more attention than we ask for.
An audience watches. A community participates: it shares, sends tips, shows up to events and defends you when something goes wrong. The difference is how much you give back.
For your business: community-building is a set of habits. Answer every comment and message. Feature your customers, with permission. Partner with the business next door. Host something, even small, that gives people a reason to show up in person.
Lesson 5: Platform-aware, not platform-dependent
We have watched platforms change what they reward many times, from Instagram’s shift toward Reels to TikTok’s rise as a place people look for things to do. We adapt our formats to each platform, but we do not let any single one hold the whole audience.
That is why our website matters to us. A website we own, with reported articles and guides, keeps working when a feed changes.
For your business: post where your customers are, and keep adapting formats to what each platform favors. But build things you own alongside your social accounts: a website with accurate information, an email or text list, and a well-maintained Google Business Profile. Our Detroit small business marketing guide covers how to prioritize those on a limited budget.
Why the lessons only work together
Each of these choices makes the others easier. A clear lane makes consistency possible, because deciding what to post takes minutes instead of hours. Consistency builds the familiarity that turns an audience into a community. A community sends tips, shares posts and shows up, which gives you more to cover and more reasons to cover it seriously. And trust earned across several platforms is what makes an owned channel, like a website or an email list, worth visiting.
Pull one out and the rest weaken. A business that posts every day without a lane becomes noise. A business with a sharp focus that posts once a month gets forgotten between posts. A business that builds a following on one platform and nowhere else is renting its audience.
What we see businesses get wrong
Working with Detroit businesses through RAW Digital Group, we see the same patterns stall growth:
- Chasing a viral moment instead of a rhythm. A single big post brings a spike. A steady schedule brings customers. In our experience, local accounts grow through repetition, not luck.
- Buying followers or engagement. Beyond being useless, the FTC’s consumer review rule prohibits buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, such as bot followers or views.
- Posting the same thing everywhere unchanged. Each platform has its own formats and habits. Adapting a clip for each takes little extra time and usually performs better.
- Treating comments as optional. Every unanswered question is a customer who looked elsewhere.
- Hiding the people. What we see on our own channels is that people respond to owners, cooks, stylists and staff, not just product shots. Faces make a business feel local.
None of these require a bigger budget to fix. They require deciding what the account is for and holding to it.
What the numbers mean, and what they don’t
Big numbers are easy to misread, including our own. About 46 million views a year measures reach: how often our content is seen. The 245,000 figure measures people across our social accounts and site. For a local business advertising with us, the more important number is that about 60% of the audience is in Metro Detroit, because that is the share who can actually walk into a Detroit business.
For your business: judge your own channels by the same logic. A thousand local followers who visit, call and book are worth more than ten thousand followers scattered around the country. Track what matters: calls, direction requests, bookings, sales, email sign-ups.
Applying the lessons: a quick reference
| Lesson | What we did | What it looks like for a Detroit business |
|---|---|---|
| Pick a lane | Covered Detroit and only Detroit | Define your neighborhood, your customers and your craft, and post about those |
| Consistency | Built recurring formats and a steady schedule | Choose a sustainable cadence and batch content so it survives busy weeks |
| Take it seriously | Reported, verified and credited | Keep information accurate, show real work, credit collaborators |
| Community | Started with in-person photo walks and kept giving back | Reply to everyone, feature customers, partner locally, host events |
| Platform-aware | Adapted formats, built our own website | Use social, but own your website, your list and your Google profile |
Where RAW Digital Group comes in
RAW Digital Group is where we apply these lessons for clients. Our in-house crew and a roster of freelance Detroit creatives run strategy, social, paid ads, influencer campaigns, video, photo and drone for businesses. Read more about us, see our work, or look at how our monthly content retainers apply these lessons to a single business.