Social Media for Small Business

Pick one platform first
Choose three content pillars

Social media marketing for a small business comes down to four choices: one platform where your buyers already look, three topics you can post about for a year, a weekly time limit you'll keep, and one number that shows whether it brings in work. Start small, post on a schedule you can sustain, and judge it by inquiries, not likes. If you pay or give free products to people who post about you, or your staff share your posts, follow the FTC's disclosure guidance quoted below.

This page is about running your own accounts. For the longer pieces your posts can point to, see content marketing for small business. For being found in local search, see local SEO for small business and how to create a Google Business Profile.

Pick one platform first

Ask three or four recent clients where they look for businesses like yours and where they'd ask for a recommendation. Start where the answers point, even if it isn't the platform you use yourself. Add a second only once the first has a posting routine that's stuck for a few months.

Choose three content pillars

A pillar is a topic you can return to every week. For a bookkeeper, the three can be these:

Questions clients ask: a short answer to one question each week
Behind the work: what a month-end close looks like, without client details
Results: a client story, shared with the client's permission

Every post fits one pillar. If an idea doesn't fit, skip it.

Batch your posts

Set one block of time each week or fortnight to write and schedule posts. Writing them together means you face a blank screen once a week instead of every day, and your posts keep going out in a busy week. Keep a running list of post ideas from client questions so the batching session starts with material.

Reply, then step away

Set two short windows a day to answer comments and messages, and keep the app closed in between. A question in a comment can be a sales conversation, so answer it fully, and move it to email or a call when it turns into a project.

Disclose paid and staff posts

If someone posts about your business because you paid them, gave them something or employ them, the post needs to say so. In the US, the FTC's Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers (November 2019) says: "If you endorse a product through social media, your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship (“material connection”) with the brand." It also says: "Don’t mix your disclosure into a group of hashtags or links."

The same applies to your staff. The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (June 2023), answering a company whose employees shared its post, says: "If so, employees endorsing the post should disclose their relationship to the company." If you're not sure a post needs one, ask a lawyer.

Worked example: a weekly time budget

Sample figures for a one-person business:

Posts: 3 a week, written in one batching session at 30 minutes each = 90 minutes
Replies: 2 windows a day of 10 minutes, 5 days a week = 100 minutes
Weekly total: 90 + 100 = 190 minutes, or 3 hours 10 minutes
Over four weeks: 190 × 4 = 760 minutes, or 12 hours 40 minutes

At the end of the month, count the inquiries that came from social media. If 12 hours 40 minutes brought 4 inquiries, that's 190 minutes per inquiry (760 ÷ 4). Compare that with your other ways of finding work, and decide whether to keep the same time budget.

Measure inquiries, not likes

Ask every new client how they found you and note the answer next to their name. Count social media inquiries and the work they turn into each month. Likes and follower numbers show reach, but inquiries show whether the time is paying off.

Where Billed fits

When an inquiry from social media turns into a job, send a quote the client can approve. Billed's features page says "your clients can approve or reject your estimates online."

When this guide isn't for you

If you're running paid ad campaigns, follow the ad platform's own policies and help pages; this page covers posting from your own accounts. It doesn't give legal advice about endorsements or advertising; ask a lawyer if a campaign raises questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which social media platform should a small business use?

The one your buyers already use to look for businesses like yours. Ask a few recent clients where they'd look or ask for a recommendation, and start there.

How many posts a week should I plan for?

As often as you can keep up for a year. Pick a number of posts you can still publish in your busiest month, and hold to it.

Should staff say they work here when they share our posts?

The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (US, June 2023) answers it this way: "Whether there should be any disclosure depends upon whether the “shares” could be viewed as promoting one of your company’s products or services. If so, employees endorsing the post should disclose their relationship to the company."

How do I know if social media is working?

Ask every new client how they found you, and count the inquiries and the work that came from social media each month. Compare the hours you spent with the work it brought in.

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Social Media Marketing for Small Business