Social media plays a really important role in growing your small business, as it’s often the best way to get your name, brand, and products out there. However, it can be a bit of a juggle keeping on top of your social media accounts along with everything else you have to do.
In this article, we'll share some tips for laying out your social media plan and keeping your channels both active and effective once they're up and running. When done well, your social media activities should attract more attention to your business and hopefully lead to more sales.
A social media management platform can streamline processes and enhance analytics, making it easier to manage content and gain actionable insights for better engagement.
Understanding the importance of social media for small businesses
With over 5 billion active users in 2024, social media offers incredible reach and a wealth of opportunities to find new and existing customers. Over 71% of small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media – showing how essential these platforms have become.
The benefits of social media for business are quite wide-ranging. Social media posts are basically low-cost or free marketing, as you can reach huge audiences like never before. It also offers opportunities for direct customer connections through comments, messages, and engagement, as well as brand awareness building through a consistent social media presence.
Social media is actually one of the most cost-effective marketing tools for small businesses, especially since you can create social media accounts for free and start posting right away. Even social media ads can be relatively cheap. It also allows you to compete with larger companies and build trust and loyalty with your audience.
This guide is designed to help small businesses understand what social media management is all about in 2025.
Developing an effective social media strategy
Before you post anything on social media, you should consider your overall strategy. This basically involves thinking about what you want to get out of having your business on social media, and the demographics and interests of the people you're trying to reach.
Laying this groundwork will help you decide what channels to focus on, and what content to post.
Setting clear goals and objectivesFor a successful digital marketing strategy, start by defining your goals.
You could try using the SMART acronym as a framework here, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
For example, you could aim to increase website traffic by 50% in the next six months.
Whatever goals you choose should align with your overall business objectives, like growing brand awareness or increasing sales.
You also need to ensure they’re realistic and manageable. There’s no point setting insurmountable goals that will only cause stress and anxiety later down the line.
Having these goals in place will help guide your content and calls to action. Later on, you can track your progress with social media analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
Identifying and understanding your target audience
Before you decide which channels to focus on, think about who you're trying to reach.
Consider the demographics within your audience and the social media apps they're more likely to use.
Then, research your audience’s behaviors, preferences, and pain points. This information is really helpful when it comes to content planning, as you'll have an idea of who you're communicating with and the content that they find either relatable or helpful.
Once you have a few platforms up and running, you can use social media analytics tools like Brandwatch to gather insights into when your audience is most active. This will help you post content at optimal times for engagement.
The more research you do, the easier it is to manage your social media activity because you’re not scrambling to align your content with your target audience. Instead, you know exactly what to publish and who will see it.
Knowing your tone of voice (TOV)
Once you’ve identified your audience and know what they like, you can develop a tone of voice strategy that aligns with their preferences. For example, a low-cost airline like Ryanair chooses an informal, amusing TOV when interacting with audiences on social media. Ryanair’s content team does this because they know the style resonates with potential customers.
Create a TOV document that reflects your target audience and use it when creating content. It’s far easier to manage your social media output when the tone and style is already in place.
Choosing the right social media platform
As a small business owner, you probably don't have time to launch and manage lots of different social media profiles. Even one can take a lot of work.
Instead, it's best to focus your efforts on a maximum of two or three platforms where your target audience spends their time. This will be different depending on your brand and typical type of follower. Don’t worry if you only choose to focus on one platform. It’s better to provide quality content that appeals to your audience, rather than spreading yourself too thin.
For instance, if you have a millennial audience and lots of visual content, you might decide to focus on Instagram. If your audience is younger and more drawn to memes and challenges, you might put a bit more effort into TikTok.
On the flip side, if your audience is older or more business-minded, Facebook or LinkedIn might make more sense. X can also be a good addition if you don't mind providing customer service via social media.
Focusing on one or two platforms should keep any overwhelm at bay, and help you create quality content and connect with your audience without spreading resources too thinly.
Quick Tip: Brands often create social media profiles on platforms that they don’t usually use, in order to protect their intellectual property (IP). You could set up an X account to ensure no one else does, for example, and encourage people via your profile to follow your brand on other platforms that are regularly updated.
Content creation and scheduling
Content creation becomes much easier once you’ve worked through the research stage. However, it can still take time to perfect – even when you know what you’re doing.
The best way to tackle hurdles around content creation is to establish your key brand messages and decide on your brand voice. After that, you’ll have a solid template from which to create engaging content that accurately reflects your brand.
It also makes it easier to use a content calendar effectively.
Crafting engaging and relevant content
Your content should resonate with your audience and reflect your brand's voice. For example, if you're speaking to a younger audience you might be more likely to use casual language or tap into some relevant memes or challenges.
After doing your research, you should know what your intended audience likes. Look back at your TOV document and create content that aligns with that plan.
Make sure your posts are presented in several different ways to keep things fresh – such as videos, photo carousels, blog links, and customer stories. If you’re using social media to respond to customers, be sure to maintain a consistent TOV in all messages.
Developing a content calendar
A content calendar helps you stay organized and ensures your message remains consistent across the social media landscape.
This can be helpful if you're likely to be distracted by other important tasks, and just need something to refer back to every now and again to keep your social media marketing efforts on track.
In this sense, social media calendars are vital for small business owners who are juggling many other things. Most content calendars let you plan content for daily, weekly, and monthly posts, leaving room for real-time updates and trending topics.
You could choose an in-house platform like Facebook and Instagram’s Meta Business Suite, or try a social media management tool like Brandwatch.
If you're using social media management tools for audience research and analytics, you'll often find that these have built-in content calendars too. These platforms can streamline the process of planning and scheduling content, making it easier to manage your social media strategy effectively.
Utilizing social media management tools
Talking of social media management tools, let’s look at these in a little more detail. A social media management platform, such as Brandwatch, provides various tools for planning, analytics, and content management, making it an integrated solution for small businesses juggling multiple tasks.
These tools will not only schedule posts and analyze social media performance but they'll also provide content creation assistance with the help of AI. If you’re good at managing sales, liaising with suppliers, and handling customers but aren’t great at caption writing, then this is where AI tools really help.
While these tools do come with a cost, it's worth comparing this with the money you might spend if you were to hire someone to cover your social media output. In some cases, a smart tool will allow you to do the task yourself without the time and investment needed to fund a new position in your company.
Engaging with your audience
Social media management doesn't end when you hit publish. Engagement – meaning the interactions that happen after your post has gone live – is just as important as the post itself. After all, that’s what you’re striving to achieve when you post on social media!
Engagement is important because it can make or break whether your post is picked up by the algorithm and shown to as many people as possible. More engagement should mean more reach, which means your brand awareness grows. Engagement data can also give you clues as to the sentiment around your brand – and it's always worth acting quickly if this sentiment is negative.
When it comes to engagement, there are a couple of golden rules worth keeping in mind.
Responding to comments and messages promptly
Engaging with your audience builds trust and encourages loyalty but followers can lose patience if they start to feel ignored.
For this reason, it's best to respond to comments and messages within 24 hours. If you're likely to be busy on another task, turn on notifications or diarize comment catch-ups so you don't miss anything important.
Encouraging user-generated content and reviews
Unfortunately, engagement doesn't always happen organically. Often, you need to encourage it through calls-to-action or conversation-starting content.
For example, you might pose a conversation starter in a post and ask your followers to share their experiences.
You could also use this tactic to gather testimonials, by asking your followers to share stories about using your products or services (obviously gaining permission first if you want to publish it elsewhere).
User-generated content can be a big part of engagement, too. To get started, create and share some branded hashtags or run contests to build community engagement and social proof.
If everything goes smoothly, followers should post pictures or videos of themselves using your products or talking about your services. This kind of user-generated content not only boosts engagement, it also expands your reach by tapping into your followers’ audiences.
Analyzing performance and refining strategies
Once your social media marketing strategy is up and running, it's important to check the data regularly and see how it's going. Remember, this is about managing your social media presence, which you might not have a lot of time to do. So, make sure you use all the data available to you.
Regularly tracking analytics will allow you to make adjustments if you find that you're not on track to meet your goals. It will also help you do more of the things that are working well, and abandon the tactics that are proving to be a waste of time.
Monitoring key metrics
To get started, track engagement rates, reach, and click-through rates to see how well your content is doing.
If you've been working hard and tracking these metrics over time, you should see an upward trend. If not, it might be worth going back to the drawing board and making some changes to your social media strategy.
While most of this basic data is available through built-in analytics, you can dig a little deeper with the help of in-depth analytics from a social media management platform like Brandwatch.
Adjusting strategies based on analytics
Social media listening tools can help you track how your content performs by telling you a bit more about the sentiment around those posts.
If certain types of content, like Reels on Instagram, get more engagement than others, you can then adjust your content strategy accordingly. That’s why some small businesses will only post on one platform and no others. They’ve found what works and stick to it.
Using data will help you refine your tactics regularly, based on analytics reports, to continuously improve your social media efforts.
Exploring social media management services
As a small business owner, you might not have the time to manage social media yourself or have the spare funds to hire an employee for the task.
In that case, there are a couple of in-between options. A social media marketing agency could help, or you could enlist the services of a freelance social media specialist.
In this section, we'll break down the benefits of both.
Benefits of hiring a social media marketing agency
A social media marketing agency can provide skilled social media managers who specialize in managing social media channels.
They keep track of trends so you don't have to, and they know all about posting at optimal times or using specific hashtags to make your content more visible. You’ll have to deliver some marketing assets like imagery and product details to help them do their job more effectively.
Once you've enlisted a social media marketing agency, they'll handle everything from content creation to social media analytics, ensuring consistent posting and active engagement.
This strategy means that you can be quite hands-off when it comes to social media – perhaps focusing on product development instead. Just make sure you check in with them on a regular basis to get progress updates and discuss any issues that arise.
Considering freelance social media managers
If you’re looking for a more affordable option, freelance social media managers can offer flexibility while still providing expertise.
Many freelancers work remotely and can help you create a tailored social media strategy that fits your business needs.
If you choose to go down this route, you could hire a freelancer who provides regular help or even just the odd day here and there.
For example, you could use a freelancer to nail down that foolproof social media strategy or content calendar, then manage the day-to-day posting by yourself. Sometimes it’s good to have someone else you’re accountable to so that you do the social media posting that you promised yourself you’d do!
Staying updated with social media trends
A big part of working with social media and managing your brand’s accounts is simply staying updated on all the latest trends and platform changes.
While this can feel quite overwhelming, there are a few things in particular to have on your radar. Once you get into the habit of tracking these changes, things get a bit easier.
Adapting to platform algorithm changes
Social media platforms often change their algorithms, which can affect the reach and engagement of your posts.
It's not unusual to find your posts suddenly going from being highly visible to barely appearing in follower feeds. Unfortunately, this will cause your engagement and reach to plummet.
Thankfully, you can monitor any dips in visibility using analytics. If you see your reach or likes starting to flag, you can take corrective action – for example, throwing in some more conversation starters or taking part in viral challenges.
Experimenting with new features and tools
Early adoption of new features can give your content a temporary boost.
For example, the brands that were quick to embrace Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts had a captive audience simply because there weren't that many people publishing this kind of content yet – but the platform was keen to promote it.
businesses that are proactive about experimenting with new formats can reap rewards in the form of increased visibility.
You could sign up for a few social media newsletters to keep up with these feature and platform updates.
Tapping into trends and challenges
To stay on top of the algorithm, it's worth knowing what's currently going viral, and thinking about how that content relates to your brand.
While you don't want to force something just for the sake of getting a spike in engagement, there might be certain trends that fit perfectly with your niche – or lend themselves to a spin that fits your company.
To keep tabs on viral content, it's worth following journalists and outlets who cover social media trends, checking out trending topics, and looking at high-performing posts across a variety of platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
As we reach the end of this guide, we hope you're feeling ready to put your social media strategy into action. In case there's anything we've missed, let's cover a few final questions.
How can a small business develop an effective social media strategy?
Start with SMART goals, choose the right social platforms, and engage with your audience regularly. Then, make sure to track your success using social media management software.
What are the best free tools for managing social media for a small business?
If your budget doesn't stretch to a subscription, tools like Buffer and Later offer free plans to schedule posts across multiple platforms. Canva also offers free templates for creating professional-looking graphics for your social media accounts, while you can take a trial with Brandwatch to see if the tool is right for you.
How can small businesses measure the success of their social media activities?
Use social media analytics tools like Brandwatch to track engagement rates, lead generation, audience sentiment, and website traffic. These metrics will show whether your content resonates with your audience. You can also use in-built tools like X Analytics and Instagram Insights, although they don’t offer as much data.
Can a small business manage all their social media platforms in one place?
Yes, with social media management platforms like Brandwatch or CisionOne, you can manage multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard. This allows you to schedule posts, monitor engagement, and analyze performance without juggling multiple tools.
What are common social media marketing mistakes small businesses should avoid?
Avoid posting too much promotional content, being inconsistent with your posting schedule, and failing to engage with followers. Instead, your content should feel relatable and you should aim to keep up regular interactions in the comments to boost social engagement.
