Social media for an SME: how often should you post and what?

Many business owners know their business belongs on social media. What is less clear is how often, on which channel and with what content. The result is a familiar pattern: a few weeks of enthusiastic posting, then months of silence. In this article we set out an approach that an SME with limited time can sustain.

Choose your channels first

You do not have to be everywhere. Choose the channels where your customers are and where you can keep up the rhythm. The imec.digimeter 2025, an annual survey of Flemish people aged 18 and over, gives a good picture of the reach of each platform. The share of Flemish people who use a platform at least monthly:

• WhatsApp: 91 percent
• Facebook: 67 percent
• Instagram: 51 percent
• LinkedIn: 19 percent
• TikTok: 17 percent

Those figures vary greatly by age. According to the same report, 90 percent of 18 to 24 year olds use Instagram at least monthly and 65 percent use TikTok. Facebook is actually growing among older groups: 68 percent of 55 to 64 year olds are active on it. Among 25 to 34 year olds, 31 percent use LinkedIn at least monthly.

B2C: Facebook and Instagram as the basis

If you sell to consumers, Facebook and Instagram are the logical basis for most Flemish SMEs. Together they reach a large part of the adult population and you manage them from the same environment. Facebook remains strong with an older audience, Instagram with a younger one.

TikTok is interesting when your audience is young or when your work lends itself well to short video, such as renovations, food businesses or crafts. Only start on it once you know you can make video regularly.

B2B: LinkedIn as the main channel

If you sell to businesses, LinkedIn is usually the most important channel. Its reach is smaller: according to the digimeter, 19 percent of Flemish people use it at least monthly. Those who are there, however, are there for professional reasons. That makes it a channel where a business owner or buyer sees your work in a business context.

On LinkedIn, personal profiles often work better than company pages. A business owner who posts about projects and insights personally usually reaches more people than the company page. Combine both: the company page as a fixed base, the personal profile as the engine.

How often to post

The right frequency is the frequency you can keep up for a year. A steady rhythm works better than peaks. Your followers get used to your presence and the platforms show your posts more often to people who responded to them before.

So decide:

• on which days you post
• who supplies the content and who publishes it
• how much time you spend on it each week

Work in batches. Plan a month ahead, create the images and copy in one block and schedule them. That takes less time than starting from scratch every day. Better a good post every week than something daily just to have something up.

What to post: show what you do

The strongest content for an SME is its own work. A customer buys trust. You build that by showing how you work. A few formats that suit most businesses:

• Before and after: the result of a project, with a short explanation of the approach.
• Behind the scenes: your workshop, your team, a day on site.
• Question and answer: a question customers often ask, answered briefly and clearly.
• The team: who works with you and what that person does.
• Tips from your trade: something that helps your customer, even if they are not buying from you yet.
• Announcements: a new service, an opening, a vacancy.

Video works well on all platforms, as long as it stays short and the first seconds make clear what it is about. A mobile phone and good light are often enough. Make sure every post is recognisable as yours, with fixed colours and a fixed layout from your brand identity.

What you had better avoid

A few habits cost time without producing results:

• posting without a plan, only when there happens to be time
• only advertising your offer without showing or explaining anything
• starting on five channels at once and stopping after a month
• leaving comments and messages unanswered

That last one weighs heavily. Someone who sends you a message is often a potential customer. Replying quickly is part of your presence on social media, just as answering the phone is part of your business.

What you can do now

1. Based on your customers, choose one or two channels and put the others on hold for now.
2. Set a fixed rhythm with fixed days and a person responsible. Always plan a month ahead.
3. Make a list of ten topics from your own work: projects, customer questions, people from your team.

We work from Ghent for SMEs across Flanders. You can read more about how we approach social media on our social media page. Would you like messages and comments to land automatically in your customer database? Our sister agency hetaibureau.be can help you with that.