8 Social Media Tips for Small Businesses in 2025

Social media tips for small businesses change every year. Last year, shortform video was king — and remains to be so. The rise of TikTok continued, and alternative social channels are driving more users away from the biggest names in the biz. With social media management being one of the most labor-intensive yet crucial buckets for organizations to invest in, you must stay on top of trends to make the most of your time online. Is 2025 really going to be that different for small businesses trying to make use of social media?

1. Be Selective

You could argue there are too many social platforms to pick from nowadays. In addition to the legends, like Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, there is Threads, TikTok, Mastodon, BlueSky, and so many others. 

Small businesses typically only have the resources to invest in one or two, and this will be enough. Spreading resources too thin means you can’t cultivate a dedicated audience on a single platform. If you put all your time and advertising dollars into up to two, then these become the most curated representations of your brand voice on the social internet.

Many think it isn’t as time-consuming to have tons of profiles if they use a program to auto-post to the others. However, this is a slight oversight. There are tons of edits businesses should make when posting to different platforms, including:

• Changing image sizes
• Editing hashtags
• Optimizing post length
• Altering how links appear

2. Be Open to Diversifying

This may seem contradictory to the first tip, but this advice adds nuance. Small businesses may start on a platform they think is best but realize it isn’t ideal. You should feel open to moving efforts to another place and deactivating the other platform. Give the attempt a reasonable amount of time to gain traction, but don’t be afraid to exit a site to go somewhere more lucrative. 

Gain some perspective by looking at your favorite brands. Even Fortune 500 organizations don’t have the same audience across their many social channels. 

Additionally, the recent events in the U.S. regarding TikTok’s legality demonstrate how chaotic and unstable the social media landscape is at times. Even though its ban was quickly reversed, the countless small businesses relying exclusively on TikTok for revenue could have lost everything. Staying open-minded to events like this is crucial because anything could happen.

3. Divorce the Idea of Followers and Engagement

The number of followers does not equate to high clickthrough rates or lead conversions. In general, this advice should be guidance on how to develop a different relationship with key performance indicators in 2025. Having 100 followers who comment on every post is better than 10,000 who never even hit the “like” button.

4. Have a Sense of Humor

Your brand voice could be more serious, but that doesn’t mean you need to avoid humor altogether. Meme marketing and deploying a quick joke as part of a social post are more likely to gain engagement and positive reception from audiences than most other types of content.

You can learn about the demographics of your audience and see what kind of humor appeals to them. Then, compare this joke style with the small business’s existing brand voice. How can they align? Are there discrepancies? Is a change necessary? 

People want a lighthearted approach to engaging with companies online. If you feel like any form of humor is impossible, then you might want to rethink how your brand voice aligns with your target audience.

5. Look Outside Social Media for Inspiration

If you’re doing competitive research, you might discover marketers in your niche are using minimalist colors or short videos as some of their gimmicks. This is just what their feeds look like, but you should think about the bigger picture and how your customer spends time online — not just how they spend time on social media. 

Consider how every platform decided to add a Spotify Wrapped-style roundup at the end of the year. This is because many demographics of customers enjoy this data-driven, personalized content. 

6. Look Real

Social media users want behind-the-scenes looks into businesses — not necessarily a curated, bright, edited feed of professional photography. You can create a color story with even the most visual feeds, like YouTube or Instagram. However, sometimes it’s best to leave the heavy edits out of it and show a more authentic side to the business.

Lo-fi ad campaigns are taking over many social medias. This is good news because, oftentimes, this content requires less finessing and editing. You want to look less like a billboard and more like your customer’s friend. There is a happy medium to crafting high-quality approachable content without compromising professionalism.

7. Stay Informed

Algorithms have always been known as some of the most unpredictable beasts on the internet. It’s becoming even more difficult to stay on trend, as artificial intelligence enters the scene. It’s more important than ever to know the industry jargon and stay ahead of what modern technologies are doing to the social media sector. 

You don’t have to be an expert computer programmer to read an article or two a week on the latest and greatest. Take a moment to subscribe to a reliable newsletter about social trends so you can keep an eye out for changes you can implement within your control.

8. Remove the Pressure to Outsource

This is one of the most powerful social media tips for small businesses. While hiring social media marketing experts and outsourcing search engine optimization professionals may be what the big companies do, most small businesses do not have these resources to expend. You shouldn’t feel like you have to. Everyone can learn how to work a social media account and market it in this day and age. There are more free online resources than ever before to educate yourself.

Small businesses can empower themselves by becoming their own experts. They can do market research within their walls to learn more about their customers and social media tendencies than a third party. Learning how to engage in social listening is vital, and it keeps you aware of how to talk to customers online.

Social Media Tips for Small Businesses 

The coming year is the time to boost any social media initiatives, but you have to be careful not to take on too much or rely on outdated practices. The landscape is becoming more diverse and politically engaged, making typical SEO strategies and algorithm engagement more complicated. So long as your small business dedicates authentic efforts to at least one platform, and learns it intimately, this is a wonderful foundation for success in 2025.