Why Small Businesses Should Be More Authentic on Social Media
Are you running out of content ideas for your small business to post on social media? Try letting your personality shine through on your small business’ social media accounts. Not only is this a great way to easily create more content for your social media profiles – it will also bring you a lot of value. Being more authentic and personable on your business’ social media will help build trust among your customers.
Read on to learn about the benefits of being more authentic on social media – plus, discover six content ideas to help build your small business’ authenticity.
3 Benefits of Being More Authentic on Social Media
You might think that you should keep things strictly professional when it comes to your small business’ social media accounts, but when you start to get more personable, you’ll see there are tons of benefits. Three of the top benefits include:
1. Build Trust – Share content beyond your products and services! Show up on your small business’ social accounts. By hopping onto your social media profiles more often and showing your customers the person behind the account, your customers will find you and your business even more trustworthy.
2. Open Dialogue – Once customers know who’s behind the account and who exactly they are talking to when they engage with your business on social media, it can open the dialogue more. People are more likely to want to connect with someone they feel like they know vs. an anonymously-run account. If you want to get more DMs from customers, being more authentic is a great strategy to open up the dialogue.
3. Create Empathy – Running a small business can be really hard! Be open and authentic about the things you are struggling with sometimes. This will help customers understand a bit more about what it takes to run your business and will help them be more empathetic if something goes wrong like delayed shipments, etc. Here’s some inspiration from @the.workaround:
6 Content Ideas to Inspire More Authenticity on Social Media
1. Intro post – If you’ve noticed an influx of new followers recently, then it’s a great time to re-introduce yourself. Already did an intro post? Great, do another! Not only is it a good way for your new followers to get to know you, but it helps your long-time followers feel connected and learn new things about you. Another fun version of an intro post is to play the ‘two truths and a lie’ game. Simply share 3 facts about yourself and ask your followers to guess which is the lie.
@Costello.beauty recently shared a great introduction post:
2. Behind the scenes – Instagram Stories and Reels are the perfect platforms to show the behind the scenes of your business in a fun, easy to absorb way. Share a few clips of things you are working on – whether it’s packing orders, doing a photoshoot or planning out new products.
3. Share your family – Of course only share what you and your family are comfortable sharing, but as a small, family-run business it might make sense for you to share a bit about your family. Not only does this help you feel like a relatable family, but it’s a great way to show a little bit of the behind the scenes, build trust and allow your customers to feel like they are ‘part of the fam.’ Pizzeria @farinella.ottawa recently shared a sweet BTS family post:
4. Offer Advice – Don’t be afraid to offer advice to your followers. You can share advice on any topics you’re able to speak to, whether it’s tips and tricks you’ve learned as an entrepreneur, hobbies, cooking or self-care tips. Sharing advice is an important tactic to establish you as a trusted friend and is also a great content for videos to share on Instagram Reels or TikTok!
Here’s some inspiration from mindset coach @marinapintout:
5. Share your day – A very easy way to be more authentic without having to show your face is sharing snippets of your day. This is another opportunity for your followers to get to know you and to provide more things for you to chat about with your customers. A great example of this is sharing your shipments, new products or workspace in general. Showing the sometimes ‘messy’ behind the scenes of running a small business is interesting to your customers and will definitely help them trust you even more.
6. Ask me anything – Host an ‘ask me anything’ series! If you have some time in the day to be extra active on social media, let your customers know they can ask you anything and be ready to respond to all of their questions! This is usually done best in Instagram Stories, but you can do this on Facebook and respond in the comments. This helps your customers get to know you, builds trust and is a really fun and interactive way for your customers to learn more about your small business.
