Social Media Tips for Small Businesses

By Lauren Hamilton, Guest Blogger
​Founder and Digital Marketer / Digital Narrative

When it comes to social media tips for small businesses, there’s a world of misinformation out there, encouraging business owners to waste time and money focusing on the wrong aspects of their social game.  Then, there are the kind of actionable and evidence-based tips which can genuinely make a difference: the kind that allow you - in just a few hours each week - to grow your business, without requiring a degree in Digital Marketing!  
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I hope these tips allow you to develop a more effective social media strategy which pays you back for the time and effort you put into it.  I’ve divided it into the main different platforms and content types, but please know this doesn't mean you need to be active on all channels.  Find what works for you, what reaches your target audience, and what is manageable within the time you have spare.

Facebook
Visibility – how many followers are shown your posts in their feed, and how often they see them – has been gradually declining in the past few years across Facebook and Instagram. The latest updates do not reverse this trend, with an average of only 2-10% of your followers seeing your organic (free) posts.  
However, Facebook has recently clarified the ways in which you can ‘earn’ more visibility with your free posts.  Here’s a brief rundown;

• Encourage Engagement. Think about what your followers want and what ‘floats their boats’, and go from there.  Content that is interesting, laugh-out-loud funny, newsy, share-worthy, inspiring or helpful will get more engagement and FB will reward you.
• Produce Quality Content. NO blurry photos, no 20 second videos (unless on Stories). Keep links to other sites to a minimum – Facebook wants you to keep people there, not send them away!
• Time Your Posts. Wholesale brands should post between 9am-2pm on Tues, Wed and Thurs, retail brands stick to around noon on Mon, Tues and Wed.
• Be Timely in Responding. Reply rapidly to people who message you via your page and always respond to comments people make on your posts asap.
• Use Ads. Facebook prefers accounts which gain new followers, comments and likes constantly.  Ads allow you to keep doing this, without a lot of effort.
• Use Hashtags. It’s never been much of a ‘thing’ on Facebook, but they continue to push it, so add a few to each post.

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Instagram
The key thing to know about Instagram in 2021 is that best practise doesn’t mean a perfectly curated grid, all colour-coded and clever.  These look pretty, sure, but they’re only seen by a tiny percentage of people who interact with you on Instagram.  It's more important to spend time mastering ALL of the options available to us (Reels, Stories, IGTV, Shopping) and using them diligently, than agonising over a visually perfect grid.

Instagram is very keen for accounts to use Reels frequently, to combat the Tik Tok effect. There are many accounts doing this badly, so make time to create a plan for quality Reel content before you begin.  Some great ideas to try include;

• Demonstrate how a product works or create a ‘How To’ video
• Give your top 3 tips or suggestions for a typical problem customers come to you with
• Answer some FAQs on your business
• Show behind the scenes at your business

The main thing with video content is to try to rid yourself of your nerves and reluctance to be seen on screen. Get really familiar with the in-built Reels editing software and tools, and keep it light and fun. And remember if it ends in disaster, you can always hit delete!

Another quick note on Instagram - as with Facebook, engagement is key. Always reply to comments on posts, respond to DM’s quickly and spend time daily commenting, liking, following and reacting to other people’s posts and accounts.

What About Ads?
Listen up, because this is one of the most important social media tips for small businesses.  Boosting posts is an option presented to us frequently via our Facebook pages, but it is NOT the way to spend your money, if you’d like to effectively reach more people on FB and IG.
Within the Facebook Ads Manager software system where Digital Advertising technicians build high quality, effective Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, there are 11 different objectives you can choose between.. Selecting the Boost Post objective tells Facebook you just want as many people as possible to see your post, regardless of how likely they are to take action after seeing it. This method of advertising was invented to take dollars from page owners lacking sophisticated knowledge of how the platform ‘works’. Simply showing your post to as many people as possible – even within the parameters you set to refine your target audience – is the equivalent of using a blunt axe in a world of shiny scalpels.

If you have a budget to spend on social media ads - and really, any business with a page should be doing this - hire an expert or do a course to equip yourself with the skills to tackle the full suite of advertising options with confidence and strategy.  This will not only consistently expose your brand to new potential shoppers, but it will show FB and IG that you’re an exciting, growing account worthy of having your content shared!

Written by Guest Blogger, Lauren Hamilton of Digital Narrative.  Lauren has worked with small businesses on their social media, websites, SEO and all other digital marketing requirements for almost a decade, and prides herself on demystifying jargon and myths to take the stress out of having a great online presence