15 Social Media Ideas for Small Businesses in 2022

What is one way a Small Business can effectively connect with consumers through social media?

To help your Small and Medium Business (Small Business) brand connect effectively with customers on social media, we asked social media managers, content marketing professionals, and small business owners this question for their best insights. There are several ways to post user-generated content to go live on Instagram weekly. Small businesses can meaningfully engage with users and customers on social media to form new connections and deepen existing ones.

User-Generated Content

Social media friends are constantly buying things and telling us about them. A user-generated content (UGC) is anything a person creates, whether a photo or a lengthy review. Depending on your business, the person may be a customer or a random individual who has encountered you only once or twice. Social media posts, video reviews, and podcasts are examples of user-generated content.

Marco Genaro Palma, Genaro Palma

Determine Your Target Audience

Before jumping on the social media bandwagon, small businesses should determine their target audience. Identifying your target audience will help them come up with catchy content that can spark the interest of potential customers. Small companies with interactive content which customers can answer or share usually get more positive feedback and build excellent relationships.

Michelle Siy, Oliver Wicks

Announce Contest Winners on Your Social Media

One of our favorite methods to engage with customers is to announce they are winners of our monthly contest on social media. Customers always get excited when they win our competition, and displaying that joy and excitement on an open social media platform helps advertise our services. Additionally, this is a great way to demonstrate our services in a public setting, where visitors can see how happy the winners are and attempt to join them by entering our monthly contest.

Jeff Neal, CritterFam

Use Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are great for brands to connect with customers on social media. You can use an Instagram poll. It only takes a moment for Instagram users to click a poll answer. Then, they get to see how others answered the poll. Instagram polls and other stories are great ways to boost customer engagement.

Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging

Add a Human Touch by Posting Video Content on Instagram

Some studies have revealed how Instagram users feel more connected to brands they follow on Instagram and that they prefer to buy from those brands rather than from competitors. This data reflects the importance of implementing a social media strategy to connect with customers and why Small businesses should put effort into this. One idea could be to create behind-the-scenes videos. This theme adds a human touch to your marketing strategy, showing your brand is made of people. This will undoubtedly create a deeper connection since people want to connect with people and not just brands.

Natalia Brzezinska, PhotoAiD

Host Educational Webinars

Educational webinars are an excellent way for Small Business brands to connect with customers on social media. By hosting webinars on topics related to your industry, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and build trust with potential and current customers. Additionally, webinars offer a great opportunity to showcase your products or services in a real-world setting and answer any questions attendees may have.

Michal Jonca, PhotoAiD

Leverage the Founder’s Personal Brand

Small businesses are beginning to understand the power of leveraging their founder’s brand. People are much more likely to trust, let alone buy something out of good faith, from another person than a faceless brand. Small businesses must have intentional owners that are not afraid of using their platform to spread the message to their network and, by extension, increase the likelihood of building a stronger brand for their small business.

Isaac Mashman, Mashman Ventures

Show Behind-the-Scenes Videos

I find that one of the best ways that a small business can get noticed online is to show behind-the-scenes videos of the work that they do. This helps consumers to understand the value of buying the product/service but also can help to demystify what you do or what your company does. We also know that most social media algorithms respond positively to video, so using this and other types of video will help the business gain more general exposure than static posts.

Jennifer Drago, Peak to Profit, LLC

Create Interactive Posts

You connect with your customers better when you don’t focus only on posting product-related information but also on giving out interactive posts such as quizzes, a quick feedback form, or even a giveaway. Ensure you find out ways to make your customers interact with your brand’s social media. You can ask for their opinion, create a challenge or giveaway, and be fast in responding to complaints. The more you do this, the more your customer realizes that you care about their opinions and feedback.

Simon Bacher, Simya Solutions

Conduct Online Polls and Surveys on Social Media

I would advise Small businesses to conduct surveys & polls to connect with their customers on social media. These two tools can help small businesses understand their target audience’s needs and want. My team has experimented with polls & surveys on Twitter and LinkedIn, and the response that they receive is phenomenal. Polls and surveys are good conversation starters for connecting with the target audience. With polls, Small businesses should avoid bringing up a critical issue. Keep it light to get an idea about the customer’s preference and opinion regarding the brand. 

Surveys can also help them understand if there are necessary changes to their existing or new products. They also help in knowing what products to add following in the line and features to include. Customer surveys & polls can improve a business’s product and service quality. It helps Small businesses cater to what the customer wants. Moreover, a customer who feels like contributing to product development is likely to stay loyal to the brand.

Sandeep Kashyap, ProofHub

Follow a Social Media Calendar for Consistency

When interacting with customers on social media channels, consistency is crucial. Therefore, by adhering to a social media calendar, small businesses can communicate with an increasing number of clients. Regardless of your platform, the post needs to be well thought out and updated frequently. For instance, content can be categorized as educational, entertaining, or marketing and posted at the appropriate time.

Karen Cate Agustin, Investors Club

Resolve Your Business and Brand Issues Through Social Media

One of the best ways Small Business brands can use social media to connect with their customers is by shining a silver lining on bad news. For instance, if some of your services are down, tweet or send a message across your social media platforms with a cute or funny GIF to brighten things up. Many customers know that things won’t always work perfectly and appreciate it when you are proactively transparent when something goes wrong.

Jon Torres, Jon Torres

Make Use of Meta-Ads

As a social space with billions of users, social media platforms are beautiful places to capture the interests of potential customers and keep connected with them. Recently the company that owns social platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp rebranded to meta. With the rebranding came excellent additions such as the Meta Ad tools. Small and Medium businesses can capitalize on these tools to advertise on social media.

yongming Song, Imgkits- Photo Editor

Use Brand Ambassadors to Promote on Social Media

A Small Business brand can effectively connect with customers on social media through brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are passionate about your brand and willing to share their excitement with others to recruit new customers. They will be able to provide a personal connection that is difficult to find in other marketing types, making them an essential part of any social media strategy. In addition to directly connecting with customers, brand ambassadors can help you create content they can share on their social media platforms. This will allow you to reach new audiences without having to devote as much time or money to developing the content yourself or even paying for advertising space on these platforms.

Amer Hasovic, Love & Lavender

Go Live on Instagram Weekly

One creative way you can connect with your audience as a small business is to go live on Instagram. Whether partnering up with another brand or doing a solo appearance, a “live” can get your followers’ attention. This can get more traction if you make it weekly and just show up for a casual chat, a Q&A, or a short tutorial. The goal is to show up and be available live so people can send you messages in real time. There’s no better way to connect than that. 

Yanna Berman, Urban Mamaz