How Athens businesses seek success on social media

Photo via Lily Franks/The New Political

This article was published as part of The New Political’s 2025 Fall Print.

When Republic of Athens Records got its start in 2021, Instagram was everything.

“We’re pretty unique in that because we started as a pop-up, we basically did everything because of Instagram,” owner Michael Wood said. “Like, that was literally the difference maker for us.” 

In the early days, Republic of Athens Records sold vinyls at weekly events at Little Professor Book Center, Wood said. The shop’s Instagram account, @roarrecs, documented its milestones. “Hyped to introduce our official new logo,” a caption on a photo uploaded in August of 2021 reads. “First order on the new website!” another announces. Others advertise the hours for the shop’s Little Professor pop-up hours or recommend records. On Nov. 1, 2021, it teased its first brick-and-mortar location with a video taken outside the vacant space.  

Wood noted that Republic of Athens Records has also had success with platforms like Reddit and TikTok. “Reddit has been reasonably good,” Wood said, explaining that interest-based communities on Reddit, in this case, vinyl collector groups, provided helpful resources. “TikTok is kind of like the wild west sometimes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” 

Wood’s business is just one of an overwhelming majority of businesses located in the City of Athens’ uptown business zone with an Instagram presence. Fluff Bakery shared its first post on Aug. 31, 2012, two years after Instagram’s launch. Then, in December of that same year, Jackie O’s joined the app, uploading a photo captioned, “Athens’ only brewpub, Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery!” Then, in March of 2013, the Pigskin Bar & Grille followed suit. 

Today, just 13 of the over 80 businesses located in the zone operate without an Instagram account. Among these outliers are primarily the offices of lawyers, realtors and other professionals. Shops and restaurants, including Saucy’s Sandwiches and Wraps, Carsey’s Barber Shops and Artifacts Gallery, are among the exceptional, too, making up an even slimmer minority of uptown businesses.

Emma Young, an employee at Pigskin, said she recently started doing social media for Pigskin. “I use Canva,” Young said. “Just to do like a fun, informational post to get it into people’s heads that we have a deal that night, or trivia.” 

 In the early days of its social media presence, Pigskin used Facebook. Created in 2009, Pigskin’s first Facebook account shared photos of patrons. A new account created in 2010 picked up where it left off, continuing to upload pictures of its patrons and bartenders, and eventually advertisements and announcements. “Now open for lunch on Fridays,” a banner posted in September of 2012 read. A graphic posted that same week advertised the restaurant’s bloody marys and mimosas.

Today, Pigskin’s Facebook account still advertises the restaurant’s events. But Young said that while the Facebook account promotes the restaurant, Instagram puts a heavier emphasis on nightlife. “Instagram is more for the college crowd,” Young said. 

“All the managers have access,” Young said. “A lot of us are logged in, so a lot of us can post. A lot of times we take pictures of the staff, or post to the story, whoever’s bartending.” But, she explained, the role will gradually start to fall more on her specifically.

At the uptown gift shop Ohio Is Home, employee Sophia Dicuirci said she and all of her coworkers have access to the social media accounts. “We’re on TikTok, Instagram and whatever we post on Instagram carries over to Facebook,” Dicuirci said. “We have an ongoing contest each month to see who can get the most likes.” 

Last month, the winning post was a picture of a person wearing one of the store’s crew necks at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, where Ohio U played against Ohio State University in football for the first time in 15 years. “I think that’s just because it was a big day for people to be online,” Dicuirci said. “Especially on TikTok, if you can follow a trend, it usually gets the most likes,” she added. 

The extent to which these social media accounts help businesses attract customers relative to other factors, like word of mouth or in-person exposure, is difficult to measure. Events like live shows and theme nights at uptown bars, for example, are often advertised via paper flyers hung in uptown windows and distributed to businesses in addition to being promoted on Instagram. 

Either way, it’s evident that the pages themselves attract audiences — The Union, for instance, has over 8,000 followers on Instagram, and a recent post promoting Lost Flamingo Theatre Co.’s production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show received over 500 likes. In the experience of new business owners like Michael Wood, it can be crucial for growth.