Did you know that 62.3% of the global population uses social media? On average, a social media user spends 2 hours and 23 minutes across various platforms every day.
These staggering statistics make a strong case for the use of social media for business marketing. If your customers are there, it only makes sense for you to be there too.
The statement holds even truer for small businesses since they need all the publicity they can get.
Compare Dominos to a local family-owned pizza joint in your city. If Domino's comes out with a new pizza flavor, you'll likely hear about it one way or another.
But if the local pizza joint does, chances are you won't know unless you follow them on social media. With this in mind, let's look at how small businesses can use social media to market themselves.
Why Are Social Media Strategies Important for Small Businesses?
Social media use is important for every business, but more so for a small one. Why?
To Engage Your Target Audience
First, social media is the medium through which small businesses can interact with their customers. In her book ''Renegades Write The Rules,'' Amy Jo Martin says,
"It's a dialogue, not a monologue, and some people don't understand that. Social media is more like a telephone than a television."
Social media allows two-way communication. It's not like TV ads or billboards where you put out information and gauge your audience's response based on several metrics and analytics.
With social media, you can hear from your customers. They can leave comments, ask questions, be a part of your live streams, and even send you direct messages (DMs) if they want to get a message across.
It's much quicker and personal.
To Save Costs
Every marketing channel will cost something. But if you're a small business, social media allows you to cut back on the costs.
Let's take an example. You own a small bakery and want to promote your new cupcake flavors. You can either:
- Pay for an ad in the local newspaper
- Send out flyers to nearby homes
- Run Google Ads
- Post about it on social media
The first two options will cost you money, but social media is free (except if you're using paid advertising).
Guy Kawasaki, the Chief Evangelist at Canva, explains,
''A large social-media presence is important because it's one of the last ways to conduct cost-effective marketing. Everything else involves buying eyeballs and ears. Social media enables a small business to earn eyeballs and ears."
Simply put, social media helps you collect brand advocates without breaking the bank.
To Extend Your Brand
Social media lets you take your brand to places that won't be accessible with traditional marketing.
You're not limited to the geographical area that an advertisement will cover or the audience that a billboard on the highway might reach. Today, it's possible for many businesses to offer worldwide or at least international shipping.
But how would you get the attention of your international audience? Social media!
Brooki Bakehouse is a good example. The small bakery is located in Brisbane, Australia, where it started.
@brookibakehouse
Brooki's owner regularly makes ''Day in my life as a bakery owner'' videos to show people behind-the-scenes of her bakery. It's when one of her videos went viral that Brooki Bakehouse got regional fame.
Thanks to its TikTok popularity, the bakery saw huge lines outside it. Since then, the bakery has started shipping cookies to the USA, New Zealand, Australia, and the whole of Asia.
Social media can help any small business replicate Brooki's success.
13 Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses to Implement
We've established that social media is paramount to the success of a small business. Now, let's look at the strategies small businesses can use to leverage social media with their resources and monetary constraints.
1. Outline Your Business Goals Beforehand
As a small business, you don't have the same luxury of failing on social media as a big corporation does. You need a clear plan to make sure you don't waste time and resources on fruitless efforts.
For example, your goal could be to get 30,000 followers on your business Instagram within the next six months.
Notice how this goal is attainable. We’re not aiming to get 3 million followers by the end of the year. While that may be possible with a stroke of luck and TikTok virality, you shouldn’t count on it.
Set attainable goals.
When you have this goal in mind, you can focus all your social media efforts on it. You may host giveaways to get more followers, collaborate with influencers, run paid social media ads, or post pop culture references to make your page shareable.
Whatever you do, it should be in line with this goal.
If you're a B2B company, your goals and metrics might include:
- Brand awareness (links, mentions, web traffic, clicks, and shares)
- Lead generation (form fills, whitepaper downloads)
- Audience engagement (likes, comments, retweets)
- Competitor analysis
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer sentiment online
- Reputation management
- Positive reviews
A B2C company might have the following objectives:
- Finding new sales leads (through social media ads and promotions)
- Launching new products
- Creating customer loyalty
- Conducting competitive analysis
- Managing your reputation
- Improving customer satisfaction
Keeping budget constraints in mind, you might not be able to take up multiple goals at once. That’s fine. Take it one goal at a time.
Gene Marks, a small business owner and Forbes writer, suggests,
‘’Know exactly what you are trying to accomplish: sales, leads, or both? Avoid “dopey” metrics like likes, follows, or impressions.’’
He further says that being a small business owner himself, he measures ad spend vs. leads or sales generated to see if his campaign was worth it. For a small business, these are usually the most important metrics.
2. Know What Your Competitors Are Doing
Conduct thorough research on your competitors. Look at their presence on different platforms and analyze what they're doing, and what's working for them.
For starters, you can use a competitor social media analysis tool like Social Tracker by Semrush. The tool gives you a snapshot of which platforms your competitors are using and how their audience, engagement, and activity levels compare across them.
Suppose you discover that most of your competitors are heavily present on Instagram and have a high engagement rate there, too. That's a sign for you to kickstart your social media strategy with Instagram.
One of the most valuable things you can learn from your competitors is their content strategy and brand tone.
For example, what kind of content are they posting? Is it mostly promotional or informational? How do they interact with their audience?
Which hashtags do they use? How often do they use influencer marketing? All these answers will help guide your strategy.
We'll use Odele Beauty's Instagram page as an example. Currently, the brand has 35.9k followers.
A competitor in the same space is Youth Foria, with 105k followers.
So, what can Odele Beauty learn from Youth Foria's Instagram strategy? A quick comparison of both shows that Youth Foria posts more frequently than Odele Beauty.
Also, Youth Foria posts a lot of user-generated content. They use a the following hashtag for all of their UGC: #YouthforiaAmbassador. Also, the brand has a link in its Instagram bio where people can apply to become a Youth Foria Ambassador.
Although Odele Beauty also has a similar hashtag, #shareodele, the brand does not use it in its posts. The take-home here is that using a branded hashtag and encouraging user-generated content can help increase engagement on social media platforms.
3. Focus On One or Few Platforms
Small businesses usually don't have the human resources or finances to be present on every social media platform, and that too with high-quality content.
Pick one or two platforms that align with your target audience and create a strong presence there.
For instance, if your business targets young adults, use TikTok and Instagram. As a corporate consulting business, you're better off using LinkedIn.
Melinda Emerson, the author of How to Become a Social Media Ninja, advises,
''Find out where your target customer spends time online. Then, pick one social platform and dominate on that one. Claim your profiles on the other networks, but focus most of your time on that one.''
We find The Peony Collective to be a good example in this case. Although we did find a Facebook and Pinterest page for the business, both of them had under 500 followers and were inactive for years.
The only active social media account for the business is Instagram, where they currently have 175k followers.
It makes sense for the brand to use Instagram as its sole platform because that's where the brand’s audience is. The Peony Collective targets US-based women, particularly millennials and GenZ.
Statista data shows that 55.4% of Instagram users in the US are women, unlike Facebook, where men make up slightly higher numbers.
Also, 55% of Instagram users are between 18 and 34 years old, which is The Peony Collective's primary target audience.
So, the brand can yield better results by focusing its efforts on Instagram rather than spreading itself thin across multiple platforms.
4. Create Platform-Specific Content
What if you post a TikTok-famous POV video on LinkedIn? Or shared a Pinterest-esque post on X?
How well would these posts do? Not very.
Every social media platform has its own conventions that you must adhere to. While LinkedIn is for professional content, Instagram is more visual and eccentric.
TikTok is where all the meme and pop culture stuff happens. Pinterest takes visual aesthetics to another level.
As a small business, your content should be tailored for each platform. Otherwise, you're just throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks.
You can learn a lot from how Hostelworld, which is sort of like Airbnb but for hostels, posts on its social media accounts. The company's Facebook account has over 2 million followers and is constantly engaging with its audience through travel-related content.
Meanwhile, on TikTok, you'll see the brand posting UGC and point-of-view (POV) videos — a popular video format on TikTok.
@hostelworld
Hostelworld's Instagram account is a mix of aesthetic posts, UGC, giveaways, and fun memes.
As you can see, the brand focuses on the strengths and conventions of each platform, and uses them to its advantage.
5. Use Free Tools to Research Content Ideas
You buy a $100 a month subscription for one tool. Then, there are a couple other tools you need to purchase, and that ends up becoming a considerable expense at the end of the month.
Free research tools can be just as helpful if you use them right.
Let’s say you want to make videos. But what should you make videos about?
You can start with a quick competitor analysis. What kind of posts are your competitors publishing around a certain topic or during a particular time of the year? Competitor analysis will give you some inspiration, but it's up to you to use your creativity to come up with unique and interesting content ideas.
Apart from that, you can also use a few tools to help you generate content ideas. Google Trends is a good place to start.
It shows you what’s trending at the moment or in the past few weeks, months, or years. You can also use it to see related topics or keywords people are searching for.
For example, if you're in the travel industry, you could search for ''Europe travel'' on Google Trends.
As you can see below, there have been quite a lot of searches for this query in the past 7 days.
You can also filter the results on Google Trends by time period, location, and category. Google Trends also shows you related topics that you can explore further.
Let’s say the Related Topics section in Google Trends shows you that people are searching for Europe trip itineraries. You can create an Instagram carousel guide or a Facebook video that covers the topic.
Suppose you have a website or app where travelers can find vegan-food-serving restaurants in any area. Or you create travel journals. Or sell travel planning templates. Mention your product in the post, too.
Such posts have a two-tier impact. They provide value to your social media followers and help you market your brand — all without making your followers feel like you’re too salesy.
6. Create a Content Calendar
Consistency is key to social media success. While a large enterprise won't be forgotten if it doesn't post anything for a week, your small business could.
People on social media have very short attention spans. You need to keep them engaged and entertained with fresh content.
A content calendar helps you plan your posts ahead so you always have something to publish on your social media accounts. It will also save you the stress and time of thinking about what to post every day.
Considering small business resource limitations, spending a set amount of time every day planning social media posts is just not feasible. Instead, dedicate a day in the month to create a calendar for the next four weeks.
Anita Campbell, the CEO of Small Business Trends, says,
"Planning your social media activities will allow you to post consistently—and get more consistent results. You can determine which activities to automate and which to assign, whether that's to an employee or contractor."
Create a social media calendar and fill it with all these post ideas and the dates when you want to post them. If you're in the mood for DIY, you can always use Excel or Google Sheets.
But that can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you need to update the calendar frequently.
However, if you still want to go this route, here's what to do:
- Create four columns in your sheet.
- Label them Date, Content, Platform, and Link.
- Fill in the dates and content ideas accordingly.
- For the Platform column, mention which platform you'll be posting on (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
- In the Link column, paste any necessary links for your post (e.g. link to a Canva graphic or a blog post).
You can also make additional columns. For example, you can have a column for hashtags or metrics to track the performance of each post.
Alternatively, you can use Later's free social media content calendar template. It's a simple and easy-to-use template that helps you keep your posting schedule consistent.
Hootsuite also has a social media content calendar and planner, but it's a paid option. You can schedule your social media posts within and even publish them, too.
Since there's a single dashboard for all your social media accounts, you don't have to juggle between different platforms.
7. Create Content Your Audience Wants to See
Large enterprises can expect to get engagement on their posts irrespective of their content, mainly because they have a huge following. For example, Converse has over 47k likes on a carousel post of just its shoes.
Why? The brand has 10 million followers on Instagram. But as a small business, if you're posting content that isn't relevant to your audience, it's crickets more often than not.
For example, when Toms, a small shoe business, posted a picture of its Diana sandals, the post only got 333 likes.
You can avoid such a fate by creating content that resonates with your target audience. Use market research to understand what your audience wants to see.
For example, HubSpot research shows that millennials and GenZ have different preferences on how they want to learn about a brand's new product on social media. While 57% of GenZ would prefer it to be a short-form video, only 42% of millennials agree.
Millennials are also more likely to respond well to ads since 38% of them like to learn about new products through social media advertisements. However, only 23% of GenZ feel the same way.
You can also use your own social media analytics to determine what works best for your audience. Notice which posts get the most engagement and shares. Try to make more content in the same format.
8. Post Diverse Content Formats
Social media strategy isn't all about text and image posts. You should also add the following elements to your content strategy:
- Video content
- User-generated content
- Influencer collaborations
- Interactive content
- Hashtag campaigns
- Infographics
- Testimonials
Take Pipette Baby as an example. The brand creates clean science-based baby products, and has a decent following on Instagram.
Pipette Baby’s Instagram is a blend of promotional content, Reels, image-based posts, infographics, informational carousels, giveaways, myth-busting information posts, and user-generated content.
9. Use Social Commerce to Your Advantage
Social commerce has become a lucrative reality for a lot of businesses these days. HubSpot data shows that 27% of millennials and 22% of GenZ have purchased something through a social media app.
For a small business, it's often not financially possible to run large-scale ads. Instead, you can focus on creating shoppable posts and stories on your social media accounts.
For example, Wyze, a tech company that sells smart home and security devices, uses TikTok shop to sell to its 140.9k followers.
@wyze
The shop's sales range in value anywhere from $200k to $300k. Wyze rakes these figures by showing its products in action through TikTok videos.
The brand also hosts live events on the platform where viewers can interact with it in a more direct manner.
Some small businesses may not have the kind of sales model that allows for in-app selling. However, they can still use social media to direct traffic to their e-commerce site or store.
Source Books, a small publishing house, is a good example. The company offers discounts on pre-orders of its new releases that customers can then purchase from Barnes & Noble.
So, there's always a way to tap into social commerce. You just have to find the right approach for your business model and audience demographic.
10. Post User-Generated Content
Most businesses post something to their social media pages every day. In fact, TikTok recommends posting 1 to 4 times a day.
However, posting so frequently requires resources and time — something you might not have too much of as a small business.
A workaround is to repost content created by others. You can also post user-generated content on your feed or stories.
Melinda Emerson, the “Small Biz Lady,” says,
‘’When you share your own content, do it on a four to one ratio—share four pieces of someone else’s content for every piece of your own that you share. On Twitter, where I have over 324,000 followers, my advice is, ‘Be sweet, retweet.’’
UGC keeps your social media pages updated and makes your followers feel special. It’s a win-win.
Sugar Doh, an at-home sugaring kit company, does it quite well on Instagram.
11. Work With Micro-Influencers
Influencer collaborations help bring in more audience to your platform and generate sales. But as a small business, you might not have the budget to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a single post.
The best alternative is to work with mid-tier or micro-influencers. While they may have small followings, their followers are highly engaged. So, you get the best value for your money.
For example, if you compare Kim Kardashian to a small creator, the latter has a higher engagement rate. So, even though you’re spending a fraction of the cost you’d have to pay Kim K, you’re generating more leads without draining all your resources.
For a quick comparison, a mid-tier influencer takes about $500 to $5,000 per post, while a mega-influencer will charge you $10,000+ for a post.
Just make sure you’re choosing an influencer in your niche. If you want to check how much a specific Instagram influencer would charge, use our Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator.
Review the content your influencer partners create for brand authenticity and relevance before posting it.
12. Hire Freelancers
As a solo business owner or a small team, it can be hard to stay on top of your social media activities but you have other business operations to take on. But hiring a social media management agency can be pretty costly.
Instead, you can hire freelance social media managers from Upwork, where they charge $14 to $35 per hour.
You can choose to work with freelancers full-time or simply get one on board when you need to run an extensive campaign.
13. Measure Your Social Media Outcomes Regularly
The built-in analytics tools on each platform can provide valuable insights into how well your posts are doing. However, you can also use additional tools like Sprout Social and Zoho Social.
Similarly, Zoho Social also shows you the big picture, such as follower growth and engagement rate.
After analysis, determine where you can improve your social media strategy. Again, you could go back to your competitors and take notes.
Let's say you're in the fashion space and the Met Gala is around the corner. While your posts don't seem to be doing so well, your competitors are raking thousands of post views and shares.
See what they're doing differently. Is it a particular hashtag, type of content, or influencer collaboration?
Adapt to those successful strategies and see if they make a difference in your posts.
Conclusion
Building a social media strategy for small businesses can be a bit tricky since you're limited in terms of resources and reach. But if you follow the steps outlined in this guide and stay consistent in your posting schedule, you can expect to be decently visible in your space.
Just keep improving your content as you go, and experiment with different content formats. You never know what might hit the mark with your audience.
