Social media marketing

I plan and run organic social media for UK small businesses: the strategy behind what you post, the posts themselves, the day-to-day running of your pages and the replies to the people who comment and message. The aim is a feed that gives customers a reason to trust you and a clear route to enquire or buy, kept up on a schedule your business can actually sustain.

What changes when social media is run with a plan

• Every post has a job. Each one either answers a question customers ask, shows the work, builds trust or points to an offer, so the feed stops being a string of “happy Friday” posts.
• Posting becomes routine. A month of content is agreed in advance, which ends the scramble for something to post on a Tuesday afternoon.
• Nobody waits days for a reply. Comments and messages are answered within an agreed window, and awkward ones follow a written process.
• You can see what social media brings in. Links are tagged and enquiries are traced back, so the monthly report talks about visits and leads rather than likes alone.

Who this suits, and who it does not

It suits local and consumer-facing businesses whose customers already look them up on Facebook or Instagram before buying: salons and clinics, restaurants and cafes, gyms, independent shops, tradespeople and venues. It also suits service firms that want a credible, active presence so a referral who checks them out finds something current.

It is the wrong fit if you expect organic posts alone to produce a steady flow of new customers within weeks. Organic reach on most platforms is a small share of your followers, so growth from a cold start is slow. If you need volume quickly, paid social does that job, and my Facebook and Instagram ads service covers it. It is also not a good fit if no one in the business can supply photos, answer product questions or approve posts within a few days, because the content depends on that.

It starts with an audit of what you already have

Before planning anything new, I go through your existing accounts: who holds the logins and admin rights, whether the profiles, bios and links are accurate, what you have posted over the last few months and which of those posts drew comments, saves or clicks. I also look at two or three competitors your customers are likely to compare you with, and at the messages and comments that went unanswered.

The audit often finds quick fixes worth doing on day one: a page owned by a former employee’s personal account, a link in bio pointing at a dead page, opening hours that disagree with your Google Business Profile, or an inbox nobody checks. Fixing access and accuracy comes before any content plan.

What the work covers

Choosing platforms for a UK audience

Most small businesses do better on two platforms run properly than on five run thinly. Facebook still matters for local services, community groups and older customers. Instagram suits anything visual, from food to interiors to treatments. TikTok can work for consumer brands willing to film short, unpolished video every week. LinkedIn suits B2B and professional services. For current figures on which platforms UK adults use, my UK digital marketing statistics page collects sourced, dated numbers.

The choice depends on where your customers already are and on what your business can produce. A firm that cannot film video will struggle on TikTok, however attractive the audience looks.

UK rules that apply to business social accounts

• Advertising rules cover your own posts. The CAP Code, enforced by the ASA, applies to marketing claims on your own social media profiles as well as to paid ads. Health, beauty and financial claims need particular care.
• Competitions have rules too. A giveaway is a prize promotion under the CAP Code, so it needs clear terms, a closing date and a fair way of picking the winner. A draw that requires payment to enter can stray into lottery law.
• Reposting is not free. Sharing a customer’s photo or video on your page needs their permission, and agreeing the usage rights matters even more if you might later use it in an ad.
• Music is restricted on business accounts. A track that is fine on a personal account may not be cleared for commercial use, so I work from each platform’s commercial music library.
• Personal data still counts. Competition entries and details shared in messages are personal data under UK GDPR, so they are kept only as long as they are needed.

How I run it

1. Discovery call. We talk through your business, your customers and what you want social media to do.
2. Audit and access. I review the accounts and get the right admin access set up under your ownership, not mine.
3. Strategy. You receive the platform choice, pillars, tone notes and the measures we will report on.
4. First month’s calendar. I draft it, you approve or change it, and I schedule it.
5. Monthly cycle. Posting, replies, a short report and the next month’s calendar, adjusted from what worked.
6. Quarterly review. We decide together whether to keep, change or drop a platform or a pillar.

Problems I see most often on UK small business accounts

• Posting in bursts: five posts in a week, then nothing for two months.
• Accounts owned by a former agency or staff member, with no way back in.
• Every post is a sales pitch, so people scroll past.
• Messages and comments left unanswered for days, including straightforward booking enquiries.
• Boosting random posts with no audience or goal, instead of running a planned campaign.
• No tagged links, so nobody can say whether social media has produced a single enquiry.

What you receive

• A written audit of your current accounts with the access and accuracy fixes listed.
• A strategy document: platforms, pillars, tone of voice notes and measures.
• A monthly content calendar with captions and visuals, approved before scheduling.
• Daily or agreed-frequency comment and message handling, with an escalation list.
• A monthly report in plain English, with what I would change next month.

What it costs

The fee depends on the number of platforms, how often you post and how much reply handling you need. Each quote is written in pounds sterling after a free audit or first call, and the fee and any minimum term are agreed in writing before work starts. If you are still deciding which channels deserve your budget at all, a digital marketing strategy is the better first step.