Social media is always a great way to spread the word about your small business. If you have a new service or a product that you are planning to launch, you can always use social media to raise awareness from your audience. It’s imperative to be equipped with a social media checklist, to help you make sure everything is in order.

Choose your social media platform

This must be the most important step you do before starting anything. If you choose the wrong platform, everything can go downhill pretty fast.

But if you choose the right social media platform, your audience can immediately be interested by your brand and give you the kind of support you need even before you ask for it.

Choosing your platform also determines how seriously you’ll take your new business endeavor.

You’d want a social media platform that would support your business goals in the long run and not just temporarily.

Be sure to avoid following trends just because they work for another business. Choose your platform according to your business needs and not the needs of other brands.

Write a social media guideline

Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur managing a start-up business, you should still have predetermined guidelines to follow and to avoid common social media marketing mistakes.

This can help make your posting decisions easier. Some common questions you should ask yourself are the following:

• How would you refer to your brand?
• What kind of tone and voice do you want your brand to have?
• Are there certain words you want to avoid when creating your content?
• What is your brand’s personality?

You can be as specific as you want and list down all the things you can think of. Think of it as explaining your brand to a new employee or friend.

You would want to relay everything and make sure that the person understands as many details as needed.

Create your social media calendar

A publishing calendar will help you schedule your social media posts and avoid missing out on the important events in your industry.

If you don’t have a clear vision for your small business yet, you can look at your existing content to help you create ideas for your future social media posting calendar.

Over time, this can help you to determine how long you want to keep up with your new chosen social media platform and how you can improve on your current posting calendar.