According to the latest 2025 stats on social media content, 90% of small businesses are leveraging social media in their marketing strategies.
There’s great news for these small businesses (you?), in 2025, 78% of shoppers will turn to social media before making a purchase decision. As for all those people engaging with your content? They spend 40% more on brands products and services compared to those that don’t engage.
What’s my point? You’re living in great social media content times, and it’s about to get bigger and better. Let me explain how I’m managing social media for small businesses.
Let’s take a wild ride through the dos and don’ts of social media content creation. How do you create social media content that produces nothing but cricket sounds and radio silence? How do you actually engage your audience with your content to grow your business? Here are some tried-and-tested dos and don’ts of social media content creation for small businesses.
The DOs: Your Social Media Superhero Toolkit
Everyone wants to get their social media content right, but understanding how the basics work can be hyper-analyzed. It’s more important to deliver clear messages, connect with the audience, stay entertaining, and proactive.
Here’s how:
Know Your Audience
First things first, you gotta know who you’re talking to. Where do they come from, what’s their lifestyle and daily grind like, what’s their socioeconomic background and habits and likes and dislikes?
For that, you need to get cozy with your audience.
- Buyer personas — names, jobs, hobbies, fears, dreams.
- Tap into social platforms’ built-in analytics tools.
- Have real conversations with customers.
Be Consistent But Not Boring
The stakes are high. You want to master the art of staying consistent — without putting your audience to sleep.Consistent content posting can become boring, is never really exciting, but it’s still essential for long-term health. So create a content calendar, develop a brand voice, and use templates.
Engage With Your Audience
Your audience are actual, real, live people — not just numbers on an analytics page. And social media isn’t a megaphone, it’s a telephone. It’s a two-way street, a dialogue. Talk with your audience, not at them.
Respond to comments — all of them, even the weird ones, especially the weird ones. Ask questions because people love sharing their opinions. Give them a chance to sound off. Run contests and giveaways because I’ve yet to run into a customer who doesn’t love free stuff.
Use Visuals
One picture is worth a couple thousand ‘engaging’ words. In the world of social media, visuals rule the land.
They’re the attention-grabbing, scroll-stopping superstars of your feed. Use high-quality images, create infographics that are informative and shareable, experiment with short snappy videos, and try GIFs.
Provide Value With Solutions
Don’t fuss over the problem — highlight the amazing solution you have to offer. Give your audience something they can use, learn from, or at least chuckle at. Share tips and tricks your followers can use, create how-to content because people love learning stuff, and curate relevant news about what’s happening in your field.
The Don’ts: Avoid These Social Media Sinkholes
Don’t Spam
There’s a fine line between being active on social media and being that annoying person who won’t stop talking at a party. Don’t cross it. There is such a thing as over-posting. Focus on quality — not bombardment.
Don’t buy followers
Fake followers are like Monopoly money — they look good, but they’re worthless in the real world.
Don’t Ignore Negative Feedback
Negative comments aren’t a personal attack — they’re just business. Look at them as valuable feedback and a chance to show off your stellar customer service. So respond promptly — you don’t want to deal with a ticking time bomb of customer dissatisfaction. Be professional because it’s harder to be angry at someone who’s nice. Consider taking the discussion offline because some conversations are better had in private — like breakups, and complex customer service issues.
INSIGHT: I once dealt with a very angry customer on a fashion brand’s page. Instead of ignoring her, we addressed her concerns publicly, then took the conversation private. She ended up becoming one of our biggest advocates. The lesson? Sometimes, your biggest critics can become your biggest fans.
Don’t Be a Robot
Authenticity is key on social media. People want to interact with humans, not automated response machines. Show personality, share behind-the-scenes content, be humorous, and admit mistakes.
Real-life example: I once managed social media for a local bookstore. We started sharing “Shelf Selfies” — photos of staff with their favorite books. Engagement went through the roof. People loved seeing the real faces behind the business.
Don’t Jump on Every Trend
Second-hand embarrassment is real, and highly uncomfortable for everyone involved. Choose the trends that align with your brand, and leave the rest for the bubbly teens on TikTok. Trends are like fashion — not everything looks good on everyone. There’s a way to trend responsibly, and foremost is the ability to accurately evaluate relevance: does this trend make sense for your brand?
Consider whether the trend might already be fading. Don’t force it — if it doesn’t feel natural, don’t do it.
I once saw a funeral home try to jump on the “Ice Bucket Challenge” trend. Yeah, it was as bad as you’re imagining. Some trends are better left unfollowed.
Don’t Forget to Proofread
Typos on social media can become a big deal, and ick out your followers beyond repair. Nothing says unprofessional and incompetent like a typo. Maintain high standards, double check everything, use tools like grammarly or a real-life human proofreader, and be careful with correctness of hashtags. #SusanAlbumParty looks a lot different than #SusAnalbumParty. Just ask Susan Boyle’s marketing team.
Let’s Recap
Here’s a quick recap of the dos and don’ts of social media content creation for small businesses.
Do:
- Know your audience like you know your coffee order
- Be more consistent than your gym routine (but hopefully more fun)
- Engage with your audience like you’re at a cocktail party (minus the actual cocktails)
- Use visuals that are more eye-catching than a neon sign in Vegas
- Provide more value than a 2-for-1 coupon on pizza night
Don’t:
- Spam more than a Monty Python sketch
- Ignore negative feedback like it’s a parking ticket
- Be more robotic than a sci-fi movie extra
- Jump on trends faster than a cat on a cucumber
- Forget to proofread (seriously, just don’t)
When you get social media content right, it’s pure magic for your business. But creating great social media content requires practice, experimentation, and sometimes a willingness to get professional help when needed. Now go on — create social media content that’ll make your followers hit that like button faster than you can say “viral post!”