It’s undeniable that social media is not only an important aspect of socialising these days, but also key in helping businesses expand their reach and gain new clients. 

Small businesses in particular have seen a significant rise in business through digitally marketing their companies on social media. Women’s fitness instructor Natalie (@natalierosefitness) started her business 18 months ago and has found that using the likes of Instagram has helped her promote her business in a way that was not previously possible. 

“My business took off a lot quicker than I ever expected and I believe that was down to social media helping to get the word out.” Natalie explains.

“I use Facebook and Instagram to promote my business. I find Instagram to be more effective than Facebook. Having said that Instagram has a big fault in its algorithm when it comes to small businesses, sometimes my posts reach very few people and I do find I’m missing out on views.”

The obstacles facing small businesses that rely on social media must be considered before starting up a business. Fran (@fitnesswithfran_) is a personal trainer that has been running her company through instagram for the last four years and agrees although social media can help your business grow, it is not without its faults. 

“It took a good few months to start getting consistent clients through social media & that was only because I started being re-posted. Posting on its own doesn’t necessarily mean more clients!” 

If some platforms do limit the reach of a small business perhaps using multiple social media platforms, although time consuming, may be the way forward. Becky (@theowletblog) has been running her business since April 2020 and believes that all social media platforms have their different uses. “I work in content creation and marketing and use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Youtube. They all have varying strengths so it’s hard to say which is most and least effective. For getting more work in, Facebook is the most effective. For raising awareness of what I do, Instagram, or TikTok are the most effective.” 

An article in Forbes magazine states that social media influencer and the content creator market have “opened new doors of opportunities” by finding a way to reach their target audience in a way that generates an income and brand identity. 

“Have a company voice!” explains Becky, who has been using social media for a number of years and uses it to expand her contacts and gain freelance work.  

 “Know what you stand for and what you’re great at and shout about it. Support your competitors but also learn from them. See what they’re doing well, interact with their customers in a genuine way because they will likely support you in return and next time they might come to you.” 

It’s clear that having a solid idea of the type of business you want to manage is key. Having a knowledge of the market and learning from others around you can be made easier through the use of the small business community on sites like Instagram and Twitter. Making contacts in your field is key according to content creator Becky. 

“I think having a basic knowledge of social media and SEO (search engine optimisation) practices before I started my business would’ve been really helpful. Instead I made loads of mistakes and learnt as I went along. This in itself isn’t a bad thing in terms of finding what works on social media because it is a lot of trial and error to find your own voice, but for SEO I now need to hire someone to fix my past errors that are hurting my website’s reach in search results.”

Thanks to social media the future looks bright for small businesses, promoting your company has never been easier and the tools you need are right at your fingertips. If you are considering starting a small business, here are some hot tips from those who have already done it. 

“Ask your friends and family to support your posts, shares/likes/comments go a long way to getting your posts seen by more people.” Says Natalie, “even if your posts aren’t getting much attention, keep posting regularly, it will take time but more people will start to see you.” 

“Just post everything!” Explains Fran. “People are nosy so post literally every thing you do, whether you think it’s interesting or not. There’s a fine line between acting self obsessed & just documenting vaguely interesting content but I think you can figure out that line if you watch other businesses social media and figure out what type of content you enjoy seeing and what you don’t.” 

Whether you are a small business owner or a consumer, it is clear that the advancement of social media has improved the business/customer relationship through ease of access. The future of small businesses is looking bright and accessible. 

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