3 Social Media Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Written by WorkHorse Social Founder, Kelli Bland

Social media was once a walk in the park for business owners. When it used to be chronological order, your posts were bound to be seen. Now, with the algorithm forever changing, being seen is much harder. Today, I’m going over some of the most common social media mistakes we see small business owners make.

MISTAKE 1:
Using AI to create your posts for you

This one has become more common in the last couple of months… unfortunately. Small businesses are using AI for not only social media posts, but billboard designs, logos, and more. Small businesses don’t realize that this is killing their reputation. More and more people are becoming aware of the AI slop that is happening in the digital space. Not only is it hurting the business’ reputation, but it looks horrible, and they are blending in with everyone else around them who is using it.

Instead of using ChatGPT to create posts, small businesses should use free resources like Canva to create their graphic. If they wanted to take it a step further, even using specific templates designed with their branding in mind will allow posts to better stand out against competitors.

MISTAKE 2:
NOT OPTIMIZING CAPTIONS BASED ON PLATFORM

This is a big one. You might be thinking, ‘What do you mean by optimizing captions based on platform?’ And well, it’s simple. Each social media platform has different formats for captioning. For example, if a link is included in a Facebook caption, that link is clickable. If a link were to be included on an Instagram caption, however, that link is not accessible.

I believe this is a common mistake when businesses try to use Meta Business Suite to cross-post their content, or if the business is primarily relevant on Facebook, trying to reach more people on Instagram too. They tend to either forget or not realize that the link will not work in the Instagram caption, which just looks silly on the business’ end.

Optimizing captions so that Facebook keeps the link, but Instagram may have a call-to-action like “click the link in our bio to learn more” makes a huge difference in the way your business looks online.

MISTAKE 3:
CONFUSING profile/ bio

On Instagram, your business’ profile and bio are the first thing they see before they start scrolling. They could have found you from their search tab, an ad, or from their feed. If you don’t include some detail about where you’re located or what you do, your profile and bio must do just that.

Your profile name should include your business name AND a hint of what you do. The image below is a mock profile I see often and what I would do as a small business owner to be more reachable and understood at first glance.