I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: what makes an SME successful is the SME owner. People buy from a small business, despite it often costing more, to get a more personalised experience and to support the business owner they have come to love across Social Media.

Of course, you have to show your products, advertise your services and be professional, but you also need to be social. You need people to see who you are when you’re not a business owner. That being said, finding the right balance can be quite hard.

The 80-20 rule

There is a rule that suggests that 80% of your posts should be entertaining or educational while 20% of your posts should directly promote your business. I think this rule is good at showing how few direct promotions you should post but I don’t think the exact percentage really matters.

I think you have to find a balance that you are comfortable with and that your followers seem to enjoy.

Knowing what to share

What you share as personal posts is of course a personal choice. Some people aren’t comfortable with any of their personal life being promoted to strangers, and some people share every detail of their lives. Really you need to find somewhere in the middle that you are comfortable with while keeping your business in mind.

What you share is also going to be influenced by your business. Let’s suppose, for example, that you’ve been for a walk and you have a beautiful photo you are considering sharing.

If you provide a service, I would say share that photo! As a service provider, you are actually marketing yourself and the more people relate to you, the more likely they are to work with you.

If you sell products, it really depends on what you sell. Sharing a photo of your walk if you’re trying to sell a kettle isn’t going to help you, however, if you sell accessories for dogs, then that photo makes sense.

Networking

I’ve mentioned Networking Hours on Twitter in a previous article, but I feel like it’s important to talk about them again here. During a Networking Hour, your goal is to get people to relate to you so you can share much more personal posts than you usually would. You could even save that photo of your walk for your next Networking Hour!

When you work with a professional

As a Social Media Manager, personal posts are always the hardest posts to prepare, but they are the reason why I have weekly chats with my clients. Although I use these chats to talk about strategy and ask questions about their business, the initial “how are you doing?” is just as important.