Social Media — Getting Started Guide

SME · Getting Started Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA
FOR SMALL BUSINESS

A practical guide to building a social media presence that builds your brand, engages your audience, and generates real business results.

How to Get Started — 5 Key Steps

CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS

Pick 1-2 platforms where your customers actually spend time. Do them well before expanding. Instagram for visual B2C. LinkedIn for B2B. Google Business for all local businesses.

OPTIMISE YOUR PROFILES

Before posting a single thing, complete your profile fully — professional photo, clear bio, website link, contact details. An incomplete profile undermines your credibility.

DEFINE CONTENT PILLARS

Choose 3-5 themes you'll consistently post about. Aim for 60% educational or entertaining, 30% brand and community, 10% promotional. Stick to this ratio.

POST CONSISTENTLY

3 times per week every week outperforms daily posting for 2 weeks then nothing. Batch content creation weekly — spend 2-3 hours scheduling the following week.

ENGAGE DAILY

Spend 15 minutes per day replying to comments, responding to DMs, and engaging with your followers' content. The algorithm rewards engagement with greater reach.

CLAIM GOOGLE BUSINESS

For local businesses, Google Business Profile is the highest-priority platform. It directly affects how you appear in Google Maps and local search — completely free.

Platform at a Glance

Instagram

3–5x per week

Best for visual B2C. Reels get the most reach.

2–3x per week

Best for B2B. Text posts and articles perform well.

Facebook

3–4x per week

Local services, community businesses, 35+ audience.

Google Business

1–2x per week

Critical for local visibility. Most underused platform.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

✗

Being on every platform — spreading thinly across 5 platforms produces worse results than doing 2 platforms really well.

✗

Only posting promotions — audiences switch off from accounts that only talk about themselves. Lead with value.

✗

Inconsistent posting — the algorithm deprioritises accounts that go dark for weeks. Consistency beats frequency.

✗

Ignoring Google Business Profile — this is the highest-ROI social platform for local businesses and most don't post on it at all.

✗

Not replying to comments — ignoring your audience signals to both followers and the algorithm that your content isn't worth engaging with.

Profile Setup Checklist

Professional profile photo or logo — high resolution and consistent across platforms
Clear bio: who you help, what you do, and where you are based
Website link added to all profiles
Contact information completed (phone, email, location)
Google Business Profile claimed and fully completed
20+ photos uploaded to Google Business Profile
Content pillars defined (3-5 themes)
First 4 weeks of content planned and scheduled

Keep in Mind

This guide covers the foundations. The full PDF below goes deeper — including a platform selection framework, content calendar template, content creation tools, engagement scripts, Google Business Profile optimisation, and how to measure social ROI properly.

Free Download

Getting Started Guide · PDF

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS — Complete Guide

Step-by-step framework, benchmarks, checklists and tips. Free to download.

Download PDF

It takes 0.05 seconds for a user to form an opinion of your website. What's yours saying?

Bring Ideas To Life —

YOUR GROWTH.

OUR OBSESSION.

Get in Touch