I have been using social media for a specialty retail store for the last 10 years and have learned a lot about the hows and whys. First off, every small business should have some media presence help establish legitimacy. Yes, I said that. These days most people will “google” your business before contacting you and it doesn’t matter what the age is of your target market.

Let’s start with a website – you must have a website. It does not need to be complicated but it needs to have useful information and your contact information. How sophisticated your website is depends on what you want to accomplish. I will address that at another time.

Yes, your small business should have a Facebook page of its own. How many times a week should you post? Only when you have something to say! And don’t say too much. Facebook loves photos and videos – you will get a better reach. Don’t try to figure out the algorithms because they are constantly changing.

Other social media outlets – Instagram, SnapChat & Pinterest are great if you have good visuals. Yelp & Google Places – make sure you have a profile filled out and check the reviews regularly.

There has been a lot written about when is the best time to post on social media. You need to experiment with that. I did not find that the recommended times to post worked for the business I was promoting. So I posted at different times and found that Sunday evenings at 8 pm was when we received the best response on Facebook.

I haven’t mentioned Twitter yet on purpose. Twitter has become the spot where many people go for the news these days. There is so much clutter on Twitter that as a small business owner I would not spend any time or money on it.

Finally, a small business needs a social media presence but must carefully examine what results it is looking for before jumping into a large scale social media campaign.