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Planable is the best client-facing social media tool we've ever used and we've used a lot.
Influencer marketing has a reputation problem, and it earned it. I believe it came right after marketing teams started treating influencer partnerships as a completely separate orbit from their actual strategy. Hand a creator a brief, wire the payment, and hope the...
Dec 30, 2025
If you’re running a small business, you don’t need another reminder that social media matters, but a system that actually drives growth without eating up your time.
After years of working on digital growth strategies for SaaS companies and small businesses, with a strong focus on social media, SEO, and online visibility, I’ve developed a practical, results-driven approach to social media marketing.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to build a social media marketing strategy designed specifically to help small businesses scale. I’ll break down the tactics that consistently deliver results, show how to apply them with limited resources, and share real-world examples of brands using these approaches to grow faster.
Most importantly, I’ll walk you through the social media management tools I’ve personally tested. Software that help automate posting, improve engagement, track performance, and make social media manageable as your business grows. By the end, you’ll know exactly which tools are worth paying for, which ones to skip, and which options make sense at each stage of growth.
Social media marketing strategies can help small businesses build loyal customer bases and even reach viral status. Here’s how:
Small businesses have different needs when it comes to social media tools. The right platform should meet three non-negotiable criteria:
I’ve spent years working in content and digital marketing, which has given me hands-on experience with a wide range of social media management tools.
The list below includes the platforms that consistently stood out as the best options for small businesses, based on usability, features, and real-examples results.
Best for: Unified social media management workflows
Rating: 5/5 (strikes a perfect balance between functionality and ease of use)
I picked Planable because it packs a fully-loaded social media management suite under a user-friendly platform at a fair price.
Planable’s content planning and collaboration tools are some of its top hallmarks. You can plan posts across multiple social media platforms via a unified calendar, complete with color-coded labels and campaign tagging.
Planable calendar showing scheduled weekly posts.
As for collaboration, Planable works a lot like Google Docs, but better. You can work on and collaborate on posts through regular comments, direct annotations, and clear-text suggestions. Plus, its custom approval workflows prevent you from accidentally publishing unpolished posts.
Post approval and feedback interface showing real-time team collaboration and comment threads on a Facebook post.
There are four approval workflow types: none, optional, required, and multi-level. Multi-level approvals establish step-by-step review processes involving multiple team members.
Content must pass through each layer before publishing and that’s why is ideal if your social media strategy is primarily based on quality content.
Custom multi-level approval workflows, letting teams define reviewers by role and stage.
Planable’s collaboration and approval tools alone will save you hours worth of hiccups and searching for feedback on long-lost email threads.
Key features:
Integrations: Instagram (Reels and Stories included), Threads, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $33/month/workspace (billed annually) with no user cap whatsoever. There’s also a free plan that lets you schedule up to 50 posts.
Best for: Solo users, freelancers, and micro-businesses
Rating: 4.5/5 (great entry-level platform, but you might outgrow it)
Buffer is a social media management tool specifically designed to make solo social media work easy.
The platform’s AI tracks your social content performance and uses the gathered details to provide ideal posting time, frequency, and content type suggestions.
You can also respond to social media comments, while Buffer tracks and scores your response rate, speed, and consistency to nudge you to stay engaged with your community.
But the platform’s feature set may not be enough to cover your needs once your business grows.
” Only stopped using it when we needed more out of a social scheduler.” – Verified User in Consulting
Key features:
Integrations: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile.
Pricing: There’s a free forever plan. Paid plans start at $5/channel/month (billed annually).
Best for: small businesses or marketing agencies that manage many social accounts
Rating: 4/5 (diverse, but rather shallow feature set)
With 24 social media profiles and 4 users at $89/month (billed annually), Social Pilot packs a lot of value for small-sized businesses and agencies with audiences spread across multiple platforms. Its feature set is also really diversified.
It includes scheduling, content collaboration, and inbox management tools in unified dashboards.
But Social Pilot’s feature set is not as in-depth. For example, its social media inbox is only available for Facebook and Instagram. The platform also places otherwise basic features behind a paywall.
“One thing that stands out as a downside is the need to constantly upgrade your subscription to access platform-specific features—like tagging or using the collab tool on Instagram.” Rhea R., Owner/Founder of Yachting International Radio.
Key features:
Integrations: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, X, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile
Pricing: Social Pilot starts at $25.50 per month (billed annually) with one user included.
Best for: AI-assisted campaign management
Rating: 4/5 (many advanced features, but has a steeper learning curve)
SocialBee stood out to me through its AI features. The platform can speed up ideation by developing full-on social media campaign drafts, complete with target platforms, content pillars, and posting plans.
You can also use the AI to repurpose content across networks or generate content from scratch.
But SocialBee is quite complex, and it has a rather steep initial learning curve.
“Initial setup can feel a bit overwhelming. There are lots of features and options to configure, and bulk settings sometimes need a careful approach to avoid posting errors.” – Mark D., Business Consultant.
Key features:
Integrations: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile
Pricing: Plans start at $25 per month (billed annually) for one user. There’s also a free trial available.
Best for: cross-departmental expansion possibilities
Rating: 4/5 (packs loads of social media features, but it’s slow)
Zoho Social stands out because it’s part of the Zoho ecosystem. That means you can link the social media management solution with Zoho’s CRM, helpdesk, and marketing platforms.
This tool is perfect if you want to unify sales, service, and marketing workflows, and set up omnichannel marketing campaigns once your business grows.
Plus, Zoho Social is quite in-depth. It includes inbox management, social listening, and solid analytics. But the platform is prone to occasional performance issues.
“The analytics dashboard, though comprehensive, sometimes takes time to load when handling multiple brand accounts. Bulk scheduling can occasionally lag, and integrations with certain third-party platforms are limited compared to competitors.” – Vatstech Business Solutions, Founder and Managing Director.
Key features:
Integrations: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile
Pricing: There’s a free forever plan. Paid packages start at $10 per month (billed annually).
Social media virality is rarely an overnight success. It requires a carefully crafted social media strategy and a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
You don’t need to be on every social platform. Spreading yourself across too many networks drains time and budget, two resources small businesses can’t afford to waste.
Instead, concentrate on the platforms where your target audience is already active and engaged. For most businesses, one or two channels are enough to drive meaningful traffic and results.
For example, if your customers spend their time on TikTok or Instagram, there’s little reason to invest resources into building a Facebook presence just for the sake of “being everywhere.”
Dominic Edmundson, Marketing Manager at AMRIT Restaurants Berlin, highlights:
You need to know where your audience is, so your initial research is vital. Who’s your target audience, and which platform do they typically use? It’s not necessary to be on every platform, and that’s OK. Better to do two platforms well than four to an average standard.
This focused approach saves time and effort, allowing you to create more compelling content and tailored marketing campaigns.
Case in point, Timberland is mostly active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Their approach makes sense. Most of the company’s site traffic consists of late millennials and early Gen Zers. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are popular platforms for audiences within this age group.
Plus, Timberland’s social media strategy mainly relies on high-quality photos that put its products in the spotlight. Social networks that primarily focus on visuals, like those mentioned above, are perfect for this particular content format.
Social media trends are fun, but you need substance for your content strategy to be effective.
And that’s what content pillars and brand pillars are for:
Aligning your SM strategy with content and brand pillars helps you ensure every post tells part of your brand’s story and works toward your business goals.
Millie McKenzie, Founder of Ugly Chicken Social, puts it this way:
“You can’t solely rely on trends to build a brand. It’s great if you manage to have fun and go viral once or twice, but without a foundation of brand storytelling content, you’re just seeing numbers on a screen and no conversion into loyal brand advocates or customers”.
For example, the Manchester-based Onda Pasta Bar banks on authenticity.
They post a consistent mix of behind-the-scenes content that highlights their team and quick recipe how-tos. This content mix humanizes Onda’s brand and wins its audience’s trust through authentic, value-packed posts.
Once again, Millie McKenzie explains the team’s success:
“Onda Pasta Bar connects with the general public of Manchester by moving away from overly polished restaurant content and into storytelling content that feels authentic and natural.”
Content pillars also help you fill your social media calendar with content ideas.
Researching and brainstorming future posts is much easier when you have specific topics. You can even ask your colleagues to come up with ideas and work those into your strategy.
Consistency in posting content is the key to stable growth on social media.
Setting up a content calendar helps you organize and schedule your post ideas in advance to avoid content gaps. Regular posting brings more engagement and visibility. Batch planning ensures you always have something to post.
Planning your posts ahead of time also streamlines content creation. With more time to prepare content, you get to explore and test various formats instead of sticking to whatever’s faster to create.
Justin Clark, Founder of SocialNorth, suggests trying out different types of content to see what works best:
“How do you know which content types to use? Try everything. Test, test, and test again. Trial and error is your friend. Learn what works and repeat. It’s that simple.”
SURREAL, a London-based cereal company, uses humor and sarcasm-heavy content to engage with its audience on LinkedIn.
Still, this approach does require a lot of careful testing and a thorough understanding of your target audience to make it work. Otherwise, you may risk rubbing your followers the wrong way.
The best-performing formats depend on many factors. Different industries, audiences, and products have different preferences. So you’ll want to test formats and monitor social media metrics before batch-scheduling a month’s worth of video content only.
There’s always something more important than posting another social media update. And that’s how you break the consistency.
To stay consistent and save time for more urgent things, schedule your social posts as soon as you mark them ready.
Femke Brüll, Comms and Social Media Manager at Cinetree, recommends investing in an idea calendar:
“In a small business, social media has a tendency to become a sideshow. By planning ahead of time and scheduling your content, you will prevent this from happening. Make a calendar with post ideas and all the important dates for your business, add any relevant content days you can think of.”
Use scheduling tools to plan your content batches up to one or two weeks ahead. This way, you won’t need to log in to every social platform and post at a specific time, because the tool will do everything for you.
You can also accomplish your hashtag strategy by including hashtags in the post or scheduling the first comment.
A community means people connect with your brand and each other, not just follow your posts. This connection creates more meaningful interactions, increases social media engagement, and builds brand loyalty.
Communities can advocate for your brand, defend it, and provide valuable feedback. However, if you don’t actively engage with your community through comments, content, and DMs, people might feel ignored and be less likely to support you.
You can support your community both online and offline. Lauren Grubb, Social Media Specialist at StrategiQ, highlights the importance of investing in both:
“In the online space, community management and engagement are key to growing your brand and being seen. You can build relationships with your customers, get to know them better, and give them a reason to return. Physically, ensure you are being seen in your community. Whether you are volunteering, working, or collaborating with other businesses, this gives you a great opportunity to post about these moments, tag the business, and see the engagement off the back of their community.”
POPFLEX Active does this perfectly. The inclusive sportswear fashion shop created by fitness influencer Cassey Ho. Cassey uses Instagram to:
POPFLEX is an excellent example of the ‘You asked, we delivered’ approach.
For example, in this video, the audience asks if the brand has less revealing swimsuit options. Not only did the brand create a more modest model, but it also demonstrated how the new swimsuit looks on girls of multiple sizes and heights.
Pricing varies based on the platform, its plans, and features. In general, a small business-specific social media management platform can cost anywhere from just a few dollars per month up to $100 or $200 per month for fully-featured packages.
As a small business, you first have to pick the social media channels where your audience is most active. You also have to regularly engage with your audience and find the content type that works best for them. Social media management tools like Planable also help handle all these tasks quicker through built-in audience engagement and analytics features.
The 70/20/10 rule acts as a guideline for your social media efforts. It’s a formula that indicates the type of content you should post on socials and how often for maximized engagement.
More specifically: 70% of posts should cover brand-building posts (tips and tricks, behind-the-scenes); 20% of posts should be curated from others (industry insights and news, posts from authoritative figures), while 10% should be self-promotional.
A small business can and should leverage social media presence and the opportunities social media marketing offers. If cooked right, the recipe above can make your small business relevant on any social media platform and help you with brand awareness, lead generation, and ROI.
Planable might be just what you need. Its to-notch content collaboration, approval, and planning features help roll out high-quality posts on the right platform, to the right people, at the right time.
Put your business on the social media map with Planable and use 50 free posts to start your journey!
Digital marketing enthusiast, language nerd, and content writer. Horea loves writing about SaaS and anything that involves boosting online presence – from SEO to social media, web design, and more. His content is allergic to fluff and eats research for breakfast.
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