, went viral on social media by shocking people with videos that showed men’s reactions when hooked up to a
“Every small business owner needs social media to some degree – for exposure and to be able to reach people,” says Lauren Shirreffs, CEO and founder of, a digital creative agency. “It would be a major disadvantage not to have a presence, even if it just acts as another reference point, so customers can gain a better understanding of the business and legitimize it.”
Ms. Perry’s initial goal at Somedays was to get views by creating buzzy content around periods. For example, the brand hired trans men in bloody underwear to raise awareness that many genders have periods. Once the brand had a substantial following, its strategy pivoted toward education. Similarly, “YouTube is great for organic reach and search since it’s part of Google,” says Ms. Shirreffs. That means when someone searches keywords that relate to your brand or the videos you produce, you have a better chance of having them land on your content or product.
Ms. Goguen says that although organic, imperfect content performs best on social, you can still maintain your desired brand aesthetic in a cohesive way. On Instagram, “choose a more curated cover photo,” she says, followed by natural, less contrived content.“There’s a lot of clutter on social media,” says Mr. Stradiotto. “While posting more frequently gives you more opportunity to test content and see what works, there’s a cost to releasing lots of content and having poor success.
Ms. Perry agrees: “Especially at the beginning, we responded to every comment, every DM, no matter if it was positive or negative.”Many small business owners believe they need “just one big influencer” for their business to boom – but both Ms. Shirreffs and Mr. Stradiotto say that’s often not the case. If you want to go the influencer route, Stradiotto says, “test multiple creators, as opposed to putting all of your eggs in one basket.