4 Ways To Support Small Businesses Through Social Media

Small Business Saturday is coming up again, and we’re reminded that one day a year is not nearly enough to show the businesses in our communities how much they mean to us.

From restaurants that serve your favorite burritos to comic book shops that set aside your monthly picks, these shops are a part of the local fabric.

Last year, we shared some ideas about how you could support restaurants in your community besides just ordering takeout, including leaving reviews and buying gift cards.

Another way to show your local businesses some love is with social media. This can be as simple as following them on their social media accounts and engaging from time to time, or you can take a step further to really help them with their marketing.

Below we’re highlighting four ways to play your part using just your social media accounts.

More Than A Shout-Out: Supporting Local Businesses Through Social Media

1. Make Something For Them To Share - Did you know that for businesses, user-generated content (that stuff you and I make for free when we share photos of delicious-looking food, for example), is 42% more effective than what the brand themselves makes?
   
   If there is a store you like or a restaurant you’re a fan of, consider using your favorite medium (are dancing TikToks still cool?) to highlight them in a way that they can also share and repurpose.
   
   
2. Leave A Second Review - While we mentioned leaving a review last time, consider this: if you see a director’s second movie, do you talk about the second movie, or just the director? A business may have one storefront, but they may have different offers. Maybe a games store gets a new themed game night or a restaurant adds a brunch.
   
   Offering an updated review shows other potential customers your own relationship with the business while making sure their content is fresh and new.
   
   
3. Take Photos (Of Everything!) - Think back to the last time you looked for a restaurant to eat at. If you looked it up online, did you scroll through their pictures? If you were hungry, you might have stopped at the food ones. What about for a date night? Did you scroll to see the ambiance? Or if you’ve got a big family, did you look to see how much space there is around the tables?
   
   Use your own experience and add a wider range of pictures to their online spaces. Less technically savvy business owners will benefit from customers knowing more about their business ahead of time.
   
   
4. One Bad Experience? Give Them A Call - If you happen to have a bad experience with a clerk or employee, or if someone on the team makes a mistake that you don’t find out about until later, take a pause before you head to the internet. This isn’t a faceless billion-dollar brand, this is a small business that will likely respond and take your feedback to heart.
   
   Air your grievance with the owner or manager first and see if you can’t rectify the situation before airing your issues out for everyone to read them.