FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Should you hire a social media manager? What they do and what it costs in the UK
What a social media manager actually does, what the different routes cost in the UK, and the signs that you are ready to hand it over.
A workable content mix for small business social media, how often to post on Instagram and Facebook, and how to keep going when you are busy.
A small business should post a mix of behind-the-scenes moments, the people who run it, helpful tips, customer stories and clear offers. Keeping going counts for more than how often you post. For most owners on Instagram and Facebook, a few good feed posts a week plus stories on most days is a rhythm they can realistically keep up.
Working out what to post on social media for your business is where most small business accounts grind to a halt. You start full of good intentions, run dry after a fortnight, and the account goes quiet until the next burst of enthusiasm.
A cleverer idea every morning won’t fix that. What fixes it is a simple set of post types you can rotate and a posting rhythm you can actually keep, backed by a bank of good photos to draw on. This guide covers each of those. It’s written with Instagram and Facebook in mind.
Think in categories, not individual posts. Once you know the five or six types of post that suit your business, filling a week gets a lot easier.
Show how the work gets done. The workshop. The kitchen. The van loaded up at 7am, or the before-and-after. People are nosy about process, and seeing it shows your care and skill in a way no sales message can.
In an owner-led business, customers are buying you as much as the product. Introduce yourself and your team, tell people why you started, and let them see a face. A post with a person in it often feels warmer than a product shot on its own.
Answer the questions customers ask you every single week. A florist can explain how to make flowers last longer. A decorator can show how to pick a paint finish. Useful posts get saved and shared, and they mark you out as the person who knows their stuff.
Share finished jobs and happy customers, along with reviews, as long as you have permission. The ASA’s advice on testimonials and endorsements says you need permission to use a testimonial and should keep evidence that it’s genuine. Hang on to the original message or email.
Tell people what you sell and how to buy it. Plenty of small businesses are so scared of sounding salesy that they never actually say “book now” or “here’s what’s new”. Make these posts clear and specific, and check that the link or contact details work.
Events you’re part of, suppliers you rate, what you make of a trend in your trade. Posts like these show your personality. They give people a reason to follow you as well as buy from you once.
Here’s a sample week for a small business posting to its feed three times. Adapt it freely. It’s a starting point and nothing more.
| Day | Feed post | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Behind the scenes: a job or product in progress | A quick look at the week ahead |
| Tuesday | No feed post | A customer question answered |
| Wednesday | Helpful tip or answer, ideally as a short video | A poll or question sticker |
| Thursday | No feed post | Something from the day, unpolished |
| Friday | Customer story, finished job or clear offer | A reminder of how to book or buy |
Rotate the categories from week to week so the feed doesn’t turn into wall-to-wall offers or nothing but tips. As a rough guide, most of your posts should give people something (interest, help, a story), and a smaller share should ask for something back.
Nobody has an official magic number. Instagram has explained that it doesn’t have a single algorithm. Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels each rank content in their own way, based largely on what people engage with and how they’ve interacted with you before. So quality and consistency count for more than hitting a precise daily total.
For most small businesses, a sensible place to start is:
Sounds like too much? Then post less and stick at it. Two good posts every week for a year will do far more than a month of daily posts followed by silence. Only step up the frequency when you’ve got the content and the time to back it up.
Usually, yes. Instagram has said it aims to show fewer reels that are low-resolution, watermarked or already posted on Instagram. Original content made for your own account is therefore worth more than reposting things you found somewhere else. One strong photo with a useful caption beats three rushed posts every time.
You can share a lot of the same content on both, and Meta’s tools make cross-posting easy. Small tweaks still pay off. Facebook often suits longer captions and links, and it’s where events and local community groups live. Instagram leans on strong visuals, with reels and stories doing a lot of the work.
The bigger question for owner-led businesses is whether to post from the business account, your personal account or both. The guide to posting as yourself or as your business goes into that in detail.
Most owners don’t run out of ideas. They run out of decent pictures. If every post means snapping a new photo on your phone in poor light, posting turns into a chore and the account starts to look patchy.
A bank of professional images sorts most of this out. One well-planned shoot can give you portraits and team shots, plus work in progress and product or location images, to use for months alongside quick phone content for everyday posts. Brand photography planned with social media in mind is one of the most useful things a small business can spend money on. The guide to planning a brand photoshoot explains how to get the right mix of shots.
Batch it. Block out an hour or two every fortnight to plan and write captions. Schedule the posts in Meta Business Suite or a scheduling tool. Keep a running note on your phone of the questions customers ask and the moments worth sharing. Grab short clips while you work, even if they don’t go up straight away.
If social media keeps sinking to the bottom of the list, it might be time to pass some or all of it to someone else. A common split is for owners to keep the personal, in-the-moment posts while someone else takes care of the planning and design, and the scheduling too.
Our social media management service covers strategy and content creation through to publishing and reporting on Instagram and Facebook, so your accounts keep moving when you’re flat out. The same team shoots your photography and film, which means the content looks consistent and still feels like you.
There’s no official number. For most small businesses, two to four feed posts or reels a week, with stories on most working days, is a realistic place to start. Keeping it up for months counts for more than the exact figure, so pick a rhythm you can sustain.
That depends on your audience. Once you have at least 100 followers, Instagram insights for business and creator accounts show the times your followers are most active. Start there, then compare results over a few weeks.
Reels are worth a try, particularly for how-to content and anything behind the scenes. They don’t have to be polished. A clear, well-lit clip of 15 to 30 seconds showing something interesting often does well. Mix them in with photos and carousels instead of posting video alone.
Yes. Lots of small businesses share the same content on both and adjust captions and formats where it helps. Facebook tends to suit links, events and longer text. Instagram favours strong visuals.
You can still post your work and your process, your hands at work and your team. In an owner-led business, though, a face usually builds trust faster. Think about showing yourself now and then, even if it’s in photos instead of talking to camera.
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