Imagine you're a new business in a small town, and the city's social media manager walks into your store and asks to feature your business on Instagram. Once it's posted, you're shocked to see it has received nearly 60,000 views.

Well, that's exactly what happened to one downtown business in the California city of Lodi.

Growing plants is a labor of love. Starting a new business also requires a lot of attention and planning. Lodi's newest business owner, Taz Ali, knows that all too well.

"It just kind of snowballed almost out of my control," she said. "I would drive by this little shop here, and it was just a dark hole on this side of School Street, and I just visualized and felt like I needed to be here inside this building, and it just worked out in the most wonderful way."

Ali's plant store, Rooted In Lodi, has been in business for only three months, and she already has a loyal following, in part thanks to Visit Lodi's social media.

"A lot of people have come in and they said, 'Oh, we saw your Instagram reel on Visit Lodi,' " she said. "They have a lot of exposure, which is very meaningful for a new business here in town because they're giving us local exposure."

The reel featuring her store was posted in July and has garnered nearly 60,000 views. Since then, more people have come to her store.

"The best part of it, which means a lot to me, is I've had people come from Elk Grove, Sacramento, even Fresno," Ali said.

This is the whole purpose of Visit Lodi's social media, focusing on small businesses that are new, unique or a staple in the community.

"People have seen increases in business, increases in foot traffic, growth in their own social media channels because that's part of our goal too, right?" said Wes Rhea, CEO of Visit Lodi. "And we're not just going to hog up all the social media love. We want to elevate everybody's social media presence in Lodi."

Compared to big cities like Sacramento with bigger marketing dollars, Lodi is garnering more attention.

"Everybody becomes a little mini ambassador, because those posts to get 3,000 likes, they also get thousands of shares, and so that means it's reaching," Rhea said. "That's how you hit 300,000 people, of course, because you're getting a lot of shares, and that's a good thing because we need not just the official voice of a Lodi to spread the word, but we need the residents to get excited and spread the word too."

Rhea said the goal is to get people to visit these businesses, spend money and go home.

"And so if it does a little bit of that, we're happy," he said.

Just recently, the Lodi City Council approved an increase in parking limits from half an hour to four hours just for that purpose.

They did that for the first time last year and Visit Lodi said that helped bring in more money since small businesses rely on the holidays to get a big boost in revenue, which sets them up for success for the following year.