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Tips to reach small business supporters through social

Use social media to promote your cause and engage audiences including small business owners, to help support your mission.

Remember to follow us and tag @workforgooduk into all your social media posts, so we can support you and share your charities' content.

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The Basics:

  • What sector are you targeting? Use your core supporter demographic to help you decide which business sector to target and consider which platform this audience uses most regularly. For example, the small businesses that support the baby charity Tommy’s, are often female-led and in the children and parenting market. These businesses tend to use Instagram and Facebook.
  • What platform is right for your charity? If you're limited on time and resource then it might be wise to focus on the platform most of your target audience is using. For example, are you a local charity and looking to target local businesses? If so, Facebook could be the best place to start, so check to see if there are local business groups on the platform you could target.
  • What is manageable for you? Create a weekly (or monthly) sustainable social media schedule that allows you to post frequently and consistently. This is a rule that goes for anyone who wants to experience success on social media. Create a calendar and try your best to stick to it.
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Maximise your engagement:

  • Explore your database: With 5.6 million small businesses in the UK, it's highly likely that many of your individual givers, event participants and volunteers will also be sole traders, small business owners or work for an SME. So it's important to target your current supporters and let them know about sales fundraising.
  • People connect with people: So share stories about your small business supporters. Celebrate their fundraising successes and demonstrate how their contributions have made an impact, to encourage other businesses to support you in the same way.
  • Use hashtags: They are essential on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn. Hashtags let other people find posts easily and help you reach a bigger audience. Use a tool like Ritetag to help you find the right hashtags for your campaign.
  • Post at peak times: More people, including sole traders and small business owners, will be checking their social media feeds in the evenings, early mornings and lunchtimes. Use scheduling tools to ensure your social media doesn’t switch off when people are most active, so you can reach the right audience, at the right time.
  • Images get attention: A social media post accompanied by a photo is ten times more likely to get engagement. How about using photos and videos to show the people behind your charity, to celebrate a small business already fundraising through their sales, or to show case studies of the work you do?
  • Host an online event: Use a live event to reach small businesses and tell them how they can help your charity, and why giving is good for their business. Partner with other charities to reach a larger audience and ask small business supporters to speak. Just about every platform supports live events, from Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter.