The 5 Biggest Struggles for a Small Business Trying to Use Social Media

How Can You Handle Each One

Social media is a valuable asset, yet many small businesses are having trouble getting discovered. It’s not impossible, though!

In this article, we’re going to review the top five biggest struggles companies have on social media and how you can overcome them.

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One: Consistent Content

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule across social media, blogs, and email newsletters is not for the faint of heart. Especially when running a small business!

There is a solution, though. Partnering with a marketing agency gives you the ability to release content regularly across platforms.

While working with Big Wipes, an international utility cleaning wipe company, we knew that growing their United States-based presence needed consistent, quality content. Our team created social media content highlighting how well the wipes work so that users could see that this wasn’t a gimmick.

Once the content engaged users, we brought them to the website so they could learn more, find distributors, or place an order.

Learn more about our social media work for Big Wipes here.

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Two: Maintaining Best Practices

Social media, SEO, video, blogging, email…. they aren’t what they used to be last year. Staying up to date with these changes in best practices takes time, and time is your most valuable resource. Instead of becoming overwhelmed at the thought of this, a marketing agency can focus on best practices while you focus on the company tasks at hand.

When Stacey, founder of New York-based wellness consultancy Kitchen Of Youth, reached out to us, we knew that our best practices would connect her with users. We used Facebook Polls to discover what her audience wanted, then used best practices to make the content easy to engage with.

Learn more about our social media work for Kitchen Of Youth here.

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Three: Limited Skill Set

Small businesses have small teams, and this isn’t a bad thing! We love the tenacity that comes from a small, dedicated team. It does bring some limitations, though. Namely, the skills needed to create a strong online presence filled with video, blog posts, an optimized website, and consistent posting.

You should be focusing on developing products or services, not stressing about writing a blog with very little SEO knowledge.

When The Well Groomed Guy, a Georgia-based lifestyle brand producing quality grooming products, came to us, we knew we needed to infuse their attitude into every blog and social media post without sounding gimmicky. Through our marketing expertise, we supported The Well Groomed Guy so that they could focus on their growth.

Learn more about our social media work for The Well Groomed Guy here.

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Four: Financial Constraints

A growing small business has an important decision. Hire an employee to fill a marketing role or hire an agency? As incredible as those who could fill that role is, they will very likely not have all the skills needed and you will still need to hire external support.

While a marketing agency is “outside” your business, it includes a team of specialists that are ready to help you reach your goals with no benefits or payroll taxes to pay.

Our goal is to help clients, even if their content creation budget isn’t very large. When Delta Carpet & Décor reached out to us about managing their social media profiles, we created a way to use photos the team took at jobs paired with stock imagery to grow their presence, even without extensive shoots of each project.

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Five: Limited Tools

Marketing agencies have access to a toolkit filled with tools that help them schedule posts, monitor performance, maximize ad spend, and more. While small business owners can access these tools, they’re often cost prohibitive and require significant on-boarding time.

Instead, working with an agency can mitigate those concerns while gaining all the benefits of these tools. The more efficient your agency can work, the more time they’ll have to continue innovating for your brand.

Hoffer & Webb is a Chamblee, Georgia-based law firm focused on employment and personal injury law. We use a scheduling tool to post at the right time for their audience, keeping our team as efficient as possible so we can develop the content that keeps their followers engaged.

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Start a Conversation with a Local Social Media Specialist

Whether your small business started 5 years or 15 years ago, social media can help you grow. These challenges don’t have to stop you! We’re a team that specializes in solving these struggles for our clients, and we would love to partner with you. Give us a call at (415) 640-8009 or (404) 600-3884.

Marc Apple

Marc Apple

Digital Strategist

I like inbound marketing strategy, creative design, website development, analytics, and organic and paid search. That's what I write about.