Case Study · Jul 2025 – Jul 2026 · No Paid Ads

A first year with a new dispensary: 15× the monthly views.

Organic Alternatives is a single-location dispensary in Fort Collins, Colorado. We took over their social media in July 2025. This is the whole year — the big months, the slow months, and what each one taught us.

1,231 → 18,675
Instagram views per month: the month before takeover vs. the year-one average
224,105
Total Instagram views in twelve months
1,940 → 2,586
Instagram followers (+646, +33%)
23,636
Views on a Facebook page that didn't exist before
Instagram Views Per Month · Before = the month prior to takeover
avg 18,675 1,231 26,890 27,293 Before Sep–Oct Jun–Jul

All figures are from native Instagram and Facebook insights, in 30-day reporting periods, compiled for the client's July 2026 annual review. No paid promotion was used at any point.

The starting point

In June 2025, the month before we took over, the store's Instagram reached 299 accounts and drew 1,231 views. Posting was irregular, there was no Facebook page, and no reels. A typical small-dispensary account: a good store, invisible online.

The year, month by month

Months 1–2 · Summer 2025

Consistency first

We set a cadence of three to five posts a week and held it. Nothing clever yet — product, staff, the shop. Views went from 1,231 to 13,778 in the first month and 12,002 in the second. The lesson: for a starved account, simply showing up is worth a more-than-tenfold jump on its own.

Month 3 · Sep–Oct 2025

The first event month

Our first local event partnerships — a box-office activation and a video of a mural that alone drew 4,368 views. That reporting period hit 26,890 views and reached 8,061 accounts — with 77–81% of that reach coming from people who didn't follow the account. That's new audience, not the same people seeing more posts.

Months 4–6 · Late autumn into winter

The plateau, and the dip

Views settled in the 16,000s, then dropped to 10,808 in the slowest month of the year. Two posts accounted for about 45% of that month's views — which told us what the audience wanted (short video, local faces) and what it didn't. Winter is slow for everyone; the fix was in the content mix, not in posting more.

Months 7–9 · Winter into spring

Reels change the math

We shifted the mix toward short-form video and ran wristband giveaways around Fort Collins' FoCoMX music festival in the spring. Views climbed back to 22,334, 24,201, and 21,197 — three of the year's five best months.

Months 10–12 · Spring into summer

Best month last

After two quieter spring months, the final period — Jun–Jul 2026, with an event partnership and a reel-heavy calendar — delivered the year's best month: 27,293 views and 102 new followers. Reels, which drew almost nothing at the start of the year, brought in about 9,300 views in this final month. The Facebook page, built from nothing, had its second-best month too: 2,207 views and 207 engagements.

What we'd tell another dispensary

  • Events drove every top month. A local partnership — festival, music venue, art — beats any amount of product photography. Find two or three a year and build the calendar around them.
  • Reels are the year-two lever. They went from almost nothing to about 9,300 views in the final month and were behind the strongest months. Short, local, human.
  • Don't scorecard "accounts reached." It swings independently of views and engagement month to month. We report it, but we don't optimize for it.
  • Facebook engagement is thin outside event peaks. It's worth having for local reach and older customers; it isn't where the growth is.
  • Zero ad spend is a constraint, not a choice. Meta doesn't allow paid cannabis ads. Everything here is organic, which is why consistency and events matter so much.

Year two

Targets for the second year: 250,000–300,000 views, 3,500–4,000 followers, and a 21,000–25,000 monthly average — built on reels and a fuller event calendar. We'll publish the results the same way: every month, including the slow ones.

About this page: social results are the store's own Instagram and Facebook numbers. We report those because we generated them. The store's loyalty and texting program is a separate engagement that started in August 2026 — we'll publish those results against the documented baseline about 90 days in, on the Alpine IQ management page.

Want a year like this
for your store?

It starts with the free audit — a written look at your social accounts, your Google Business Profile, your menu visibility, and your sign-up capture. In 3 business days, no call required.

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Prefer to just talk? Book a call · or email matt@greensparkmedia.com