As a small business owner, you might regularly ask yourself how to use social media for small businesses but not really get the answers or guidance you need. We’ve put together the basics for what you need to know about social media for a business owner.

1. Start small – You might think that you need to launch on every social platform going but in reality, your target audience won’t be on all of them. Take a look at the habits of your ideal customer and if they are only active on LinkedIn, don’t put all your energy into Pinterest. If your audience is spread over multiple platforms, look to create content that can be repurposed over all of them and remember, this doesn’t have to be done all at once. Start small with one or two platforms and grow from there.

2. Define your content pillars – Take the time to create a strategy for your content and make sure when you’re scheduling posts that your content pillars are all covered. Regularly assess whether your messaging has changed – this might be due to new products, courses, or a change in direction with services offered. 

3. Be authentic – People want to buy from people and being authentic is a great way to connect with your audience, gain trust, and put you front of mind when it comes to making a sale. 

4. Engage with your community – If you aren’t talking to your audience about things they are interested in, then they aren’t likely to stick around. Engage with the wider conversation on social media about your area of expertise and become a voice of authority. 

5. Time-rich – As a business owner you’ll have to wear many hats and social media is a new skill to learn on top of everything else. There are many ways to be time-rich, it could be using tools like later to schedule posts, training your assistant to help create content, or hiring a social media agency to help with strategy and launch your business on different channels. 

6. Consistency matters – One of the most important things about social media as a business owner is creating consistent content that your audience can connect with. On Instagram, if you have less than 1k followers then to get the best reach and engagement you need to be posting 14 times a week. Whilst you don’t have to do this many posts, you do need to schedule regularly so your audience has something to come back to and engage in.