Back to School: Social Media 101 For Your Small Business
Chasing algorithm changes is an ineffective marketing strategy (not to mention SUPER annoying).
One week it feels like you’ve hit your stride.
You’re getting engagement!
You’re getting impressions!
You’re a master at this!
The next week, you’re struggling to get 10 impressions, nobody “likes” your content, and you’re throwing your phone across your office.
In honor of Back to School season, we’re sharing some of the foundational questions we hear a lot from small business owners. Especially when you - or your Operations person - are the ones handling social media, you really don’t have time to “figure out the basics” when you’re trying to, ya know, run a business.
Have another question? Email Cassandra!
1. How Often Should a Small Business Post on Social Media?
Start with consistency, not frequency - especially when the person doing your social media is you, the business owner, or a member of your team who has a regular day job.
For some platforms (hi, TikTok), posting multiple times a week is a rule rather than an exception - but in the likelihood that your team is already stretched kinda thin - aim for what you can do.
Because if you focus on “I’ve got to post every day,” chances are, you won’t.
But “I’ve got to post once this week,” is way more attainable.
The good news is that many platforms, like LinkedIn and Instagram, are comfortable pushing days-old content into their users’ feeds.
So even if you’re posting at a cadence of every 5-7 days - you’re posting something.
And that counts.
Key Takeaway: Commit to a posting schedule that works for you - not the other way around. When you can stick to it - you’re much more likely to connect with the audiences that matter to you.
2. What Type of Content Performs Best for Small Businesses?
The percentages have changed over the years, but we can safely say that the majority (at of your content shouldn’t be about you at all.
Your audiences are no different than most of us scrolling on social media: they’re looking to be entertained or to learn something.
Thus, build your content around a few repeatable categories:
Educational content
Answer FAQs
Explain something customers commonly misunderstand
Share useful tips and industry knowledge
Blogs on topics you are passionate about (hi there! 👋🏼)
Behind-the-scenes content
Introduce employees
Show projects in progress
Celebrate milestones like work anniversaries
Ask your teammates to share “a day in the life”
Storytelling
Customer stories (or case studies)
Company history
Employee perspectives or insights
Lessons learned
And when it seems right…
Office happenings (pumpkin-carving contest in October, perhaps?)
Relevant holidays or awareness days
Community involvement
The occasional trend that actually makes sense for your brand
Most people don’t care about your brand until it’s a service or product they need. So make them care about it before - with content that is helpful, educational or just plain fun.
Then you’ll be top of mind when they need the thing you’re actually selling.
Key takeaway: Creating content should focus on helping your audience solve their problems. Offering advice or interesting articles builds a relationship that - when they’re ready to buy - keeps you top of mind.
3. What Hashtags Should I Use — and How Many?
Yeah, we’re standing by this 2024 blog: For the Love of #Hashtags, Quit Overusing #Hashtags.
Hashtags have a place, as long as you are strategic in which ones you use and where.
Facebook: Generally, hashtags aren't necessary for discoverability. We recommend staying away from them unless the post is connected to a larger trend like #NationalDogDay.
Instagram: Use a small number (3-5) of highly relevant hashtags when they genuinely help categorize your post, and you’re looking for more discoverability, like #AuthorsofInstagram.
LinkedIn: Hashtags can help here if they are highly specific to your industry. Do some research on what your competitors are using and follow their lead.
Key takeaway: A handful of intentional hashtags beats a pile of vaguely related ones.
4. How Long Does It Take to See Results From Social Media?
First, define “results.”
Are you looking for brand awareness?
Are you looking for more visitors to your website?
Are you looking for more leads and sales calls?
With our clients, before we even begin posting, we ask: “What does success look like to you in 6 months? In 12 months?”
Once you’re clear on that answer, take a deep breath… and wait.
You need to push out consistent, quality content for at least six months before you should even look at your data. Here’s why:
Social media platforms play you just like they play everyone else. Once you start posting consistently, all of the platforms basically do the same thing: they get excited and push your content to more people. Then they make you work harder for it. So you might see a big swell of engagement or impressions in the first 60-90 days, but it’s often a false inflation. 📉
Social media has seasons just like the real world. Historically, engagement and impressions are low in the summer and around the holidays because families are busy traveling or making transitions (like back to school). If you start to see a drop-off in June-July - it’s not you. Wait until after school is back in session. Give it another month and see what changes.
Social media is meant to build familiarity and trust over time — particularly for B2B and service-based businesses with longer buying cycles.
If someone is going to give you a lot of their money, it’s going to take more than 30 days of consistent content - even if it’s good - to build that trust.
Key takeaway: One viral post isn't a strategy, and one quiet month isn't proof that your social media audiences aren’t engaged.
5. When do I know it’s time for me to outsource my small business’s social media to an agency?
When marketing is important to your presence and branding, but you don’t have the time, expertise, or consistency to do it well yourself - it may be time to think about working with an agency.
Consider any service you pay for, like housecleaning. Can you do it yourself? Sure.
Is there something else more lucrative you should be spending your time doing? Definitely.
(Also, if the throwing of the phone across your office seems to be happening a little more frequently… it’s probably best for everyone if you think about talking to a professional.)
We’re here to help. Even if you’re not sure you’re ready to work with a social media agency, we’re happy to have a conversation and answer your questions. Book a call by contacting us.