Social Media, Local Groups and the Reality for a Small Business

Running a small business today means dealing with social media - whether you want to or not. It can help you grow, it can help you connect with people and it can also give you headaches you never asked for. I have learned both sides of it over the years.

Some days it feels like one of the best tools we have. Other days it feels like it can undo hours of hard work in a single post.

Most people assume social media is mainly about advertising. For us, it is more about visibility. Years ago, if you wanted someone to know you cared about your work, you relied on people telling their friends. That still matters, but now a single post from a customer can reach thousands of people who had never heard of us before. When someone shares a photo of their car after we have fixed something difficult, or when they mention how they were treated, that carries more weight than any advert we could pay for. You cannot buy that kind of trust.

It also gives customers a way to talk to us easily. People message at all hours with questions, requesting quotes or with worries about their vehicles. Sometimes that can be tiring, but most of the time it helps us build a relationship before they even arrive. They can see that there are real people behind the business and not just a name above a door. When the message is positive, it reminds the team why we do what we do.

That is the good side. The difficult side is the speed at which things can turn negative when something is misunderstood. Someone might post about an issue without giving us a chance to explain what actually happened. It can be something small or something that has not even been discussed with us yet. Once it is online, it spreads quickly because everyone has an opinion. It is hard to defend your business when you are dealing with a half story.

This is where the local ‘spotted’ groups come in. These groups can genuinely help a business. I have seen customers go out of their way to recommend us and that support has filled our diary at times when we needed it most. When someone has had a good experience and takes the time to share it in a local group, it reaches exactly the right people. It tells others in the area that we are doing things properly.

But the same groups can also create noise and confusion. You can have forty or fifty comments on a post before we even know it exists. People will say things that are miles away from the truth, usually because they are backing the original poster without knowing the full details. As business owners we have to stay professional and avoid getting drawn into arguments, which is not always easy when you know the information being shared is wrong or unfair.

The challenge is that ‘spotted’ groups often feel more personal than normal social media. It is your town, your community, your customers and sometimes even your neighbours. When a negative comment appears there, the impact feels heavier than a random online review. You want to respond and explain, but you also know that arguing online rarely improves things. It is frustrating because most problems can be sorted quickly with a simple conversation.

From a business owner’s point of view, the trick is accepting that you cannot control the entire online world. All you can do is keep your standards high, communicate clearly and stay open to feedback even when it is uncomfortable. If a mistake is made, we put it right. If something is unfair, we stay calm and carry on doing good work. Over time the truth usually wins, because the customers who actually know us are the ones who keep us busy.

Social media and ‘spotted’ groups will always have a mixture of good and bad. Some posts will boost the business more than any paid advert ever could. Others will test your patience. But they are part of modern life, and when used well they create a stronger connection between a business and the community it serves.

At the end of the day, most people judge us on how we treat them in person, not on a single comment online. And that is what we focus on every day.