Many small businesses try social media, spend some money, and end up with nothing in return. They conclude social media isn't for them or is too expensive to pursue. 

But social media for small businesses can deliver excellent results, and on a small budget. With some planning, budgeting, and flexibility, you can turn social media into a strong yet very affordable marketing muscle for your business. 

Here are eight tips for creating social media wins on a budget: 

Choose the right platforms for your audience 

Don't try to be on all social media platforms. It will be much harder to post content consistently and reduces your ability to focus on the right audiences. For example, a business selling designer cakes should post photos on Instagram, not LinkedIn, and an accounting business should post finance articles on LinkedIn, not Instagram. Focus on one or two social media accounts where your desired audience is and provide content that interests them. 

Consistency, then frequency 

Frequently posting content is essential, but no set rule says you must post something every day or week. It's far more important to post consistently because it shows your audience your business is reliable and helps them build a habit of checking your posts. If you can only afford to produce content once a week, don't try to do it daily because you'll run out of money, and your consistency will suffer. Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Know your content needs 

Let's say you sell cars and want to post a photo of a new car daily. Your content needs are a photo every day. What will that require? You'll need a camera—can you do it yourself with your phone, or should you hire a pro? You want to post daily—do you have time, or should you assign the task to someone? Look at your frequency, the type of content you want to post, and what it will take to produce that content. Then, find the most cost-effective ways to get those results. 

Use cost-effective tools 

Getting great results doesn't need to be expensive. A smartphone's camera can take good pictures. Adding a simple microphone can vastly improve the audio for your videos. A stock art subscription offers many design elements, such as logos and images. Using services such as Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud provides professional design tools at a small monthly cost. Generating and tweaking articles with ChatGPT or Copilot can create professional-sounding articles. There are many great tools that help you make high-quality content with little to no cost.  

Use advertising and customer marketing 

Social media algorithms only matter to people whose business is social media, like influencers. But for you, social media is a means to an end—to reach more potential customers. Don't waste time trying to 'game' algorithms. Instead, focus on promoting your social media presence. Do your customers know that you are on specific social media platforms? Are they aware of what kind of content you post? Communicate with your customers about your social media content. Also, use social media advertising. It's very affordable and targeted.  

Know your capacity 

Every beautiful garden shares a secret: someone looks after it. Social media accounts are the same. They need consistent attention. But do you have the time? Can you commit to posting consistently or making the right content? You must be aware and involved, but you can delegate the day-to-day responsibilities to someone with the time and know-how. It's not worth trying to save money by doing everything yourself, only to fall behind, become inconsistent, and produce uninteresting content. Either scale back to what you can handle or delegate the operational tasks. 

Create a social media budget 

Once you know your desired consistency, platform, content, tools, marketing, and capacity, you can plan a budget. Creating an initial figure can be difficult, so focus on definite costs, such as subscriptions to design software or money for advertising. Over time, you'll find the balance of what you need. Remember: you can start small and scale up. 

Revisit and update your social media plans 

You are ready to run your social media accounts on a budget! But these plans are not cast in stone. You may realise your photos are not that good, or that you can occasionally post content from free sources and save some money. You may want to boost marketing during specific holidays. You might discover some social platforms aren't that suited to your goals or that a specific platform can do a lot for you if it had more content. Frequently check and update your social media goals—that way, you will spend and save money where it gets you the best results. 

Following this advice is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your social media marketing. Another important thing your business needs is reliable internet. Explore some of the internet options from Vodacom Business. You can also find more content tailor-made for your SME on V-Hub.