Social Media Do’s and Don’ts for Small Businesses

Are you responsible for managing the social media for your business? Worried about making mistakes or not sure where to start? To help you out, I’ve pulled together some of the main do’s and don’t’s for managing social media channels. Use the below as a quick and easy checklist to make sure you’re making the most out of the channels and hopefully increase online engagement of your business along the way!

Do – Know who you’re speaking to
Who is your target audience? Who are you trying to speak to? Knowing this will make a huge difference in the type of content you post and how it is engaged with. If you try and speak to everyone at the same time, you end up speaking to no-one. Even your main target audience won’t be as interested if it’s not aimed directly at them.

Don’t – Underestimate the work
The biggest mistake people make is thinking that running social media channels for a business isn’t much different from having personal accounts. It’s a lot more work and getting it right isn’t as simple as you might think. Underestimating the work often leads to basic digital marketing mistakes.

Do – Get creative
Play around and try things out. Social media is a great place to experiment and be creative. Look to see what others are doing and find ways to put your own unique spin on things. Being creative is a great way to stand out from the crowd.

Don’t – Post without a plan
Consistency and planning are the foundation of any good social media plan. By planning ahead and posting regularly, you will find it easier to build a more committed following and could save you time in the long run.

Don’t – Take on more than you can manage
Managing social media channels for a business takes more time than you think and multiple channels increase the time commitment even more. Only manage what you have the time for. It’s better to have one high-quality account than three or more low-quality accounts.

Do – Use images wherever possible
Posts with images will be engaged with more than posts without. Can you put an image on every single post? Use as many photos specific to your business as you can and only use stock photography if you absolutely have to.

Don’t – Be inconsistent with your branding 
Make sure any profile pictures and header images you use match your business’ branding. The graphics and images you post should also match your branding as this will help people to easily recognise you in their feeds.

Do – Keep an eye on your analytics
Your analytics will tell you so much about the type of people engaging with your posts, the time of day to post things and what posts people have liked the most. Use this to plan your future content and your engagement levels should increase.

Don’t – Get negative
People using social media to complain about your business? Don’t get defensive or angry in response, this will send a bad message about your business. Ask the complainers to direct message you or email you so you can fix their problems privately.

Do – Talk back
The key word in social media is ‘social’. When people are talking about you on social media (especially if it’s positive) make sure you’re responding to those posts. You could also search for posts where people are looking for a business like yours and suggest yourself!

Don’t  – Give up so easily. 
Increasing the number of followers and engagement on your channels takes time. Don’t expect to have thousands of followers overnight. It’s easy to give up when you’re not getting much engagement with your posts at the beginning, but it’s absolutely worth sticking with it.


Got any questions? Add a comment below or get in touch direct.

For more digital help for small businesses and charities, check out my digital marketing advice tag.

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