Built around the time you actually have
Practical social media training for small business owners and small teams, where the constraint is never ambition and always hours. One session on your own accounts, with a plan you can keep running in twenty minutes a day. Half day £1,200, full day £1,800 for up to six people, excluding VAT.
What is social media training for small businesses?
Training built for organisations where one or two people do everything, rather than for a marketing department. The difference is not the content, it is the constraint. A small business cannot post daily on five channels, does not have a designer, and cannot spend three hours a week reading analytics.
So the day is spent deciding what to stop, choosing where to concentrate, and building a routine that survives a busy fortnight. Anything that only works when you have plenty of time is not worth teaching you.
Why does social media stall for small businesses?
Almost never for lack of effort. The usual pattern is a burst of enthusiasm, five channels opened, daily posting for three weeks, then a busy month and silence. Then guilt, then another burst.
What breaks the cycle is doing less on purpose. One or two channels rather than five. A small number of repeatable post types so nothing starts from a blank page. And a fixed hour in the week when the next fortnight gets planned, rather than deciding what to post while you are supposed to be doing something else.
What does the day cover?
1. Where to concentrate
An honest decision about which one or two channels earn your time, and permission to close the rest.
2. Your profiles, fixed
Bios, images, links and pinned posts sorted in the room. Quick, and usually overdue by a couple of years.
3. Post types you can repeat
Four or five formats so the weekly question becomes which one is next rather than what on earth do I post.
4. Making it fast
Photos and short video on a phone, captions that sound like you, and what good enough looks like.
5. A fortnight in an hour
Batching and scheduling, using free tools where they are good enough. Most small businesses do not need paid software.
6. Local and community reach
Groups, local pages, partnerships and reviews, which for many small businesses beat any amount of posting.
7. Spending a little, well
What twenty pounds behind the right post can do, and the boost button trap.
8. Using AI without sounding like it
Genuinely useful when you are the only person writing. See AI for social media content.
What does the day look like?
| Time | Block | What comes out of it |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30 | Your accounts and your competitors | An honest read, and a decision about where to stop |
| 10:15 | Customers and what they respond to | Who you are actually posting for, written down |
| 11:15 | Post types and making content | A fortnight of posts drafted, photos and video taken |
| 13:15 | Planning and scheduling | The next month in a calendar, scheduled before you leave |
| 14:45 | Local reach and small budgets | Two or three things to try that do not need more time |
| 15:45 | The weekly routine | A twenty minute a day habit, and the four numbers to watch |
Half days keep the account review, the post types and the routine. That is the combination most small businesses need, and it is the most common booking.
Is training worth it for a small business?
Sometimes not, and we would rather say so on the scoping call than afterwards. If you are a sole trader whose customers all come from word of mouth and a van, a day of social media training is unlikely to be the best use of £1,200.
Where it does pay back is when you are already spending real time on social and getting little from it. That is the common case, and the saving is usually in time rather than in reach. Teams typically leave doing less, on fewer channels, with a routine that takes a fraction of what they were spending.
Who runs the day?
I am Chris Norton and I run most of these sessions myself. I founded Prohibition, the PR, social and content agency behind this site, I have worked in public relations for more than twenty years, and I have been running training since 2009. I co-authored Share This Too, the social media handbook published by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
The agency works with national brands, and none of that is much use to you on its own. What is useful is that we know which of those tactics scale down to one person with an hour a week and which quietly need a team behind them. Most training for small businesses is big brand advice with the budget removed.
Small business social media questions
How much does social media training cost for a small business?
Half day £1,200 and full day £1,800 for up to six people, excluding VAT, priced by the group rather than per head. Around £200 to £300 each. If it is just you, one to one coaching is usually better value, see one to one coaching.
How many channels should a small business be on?
One or two, done properly. Five accounts posted to occasionally performs worse than one posted to consistently, and it costs considerably more time. Deciding which ones is most of the value of the first hour.
How much time does social media take?
Around twenty minutes a day plus one planning hour a week, once a routine exists. Before that it tends to take far longer and feel worse, because every post is decided from scratch.
Do we need paid tools?
Usually not. The free tiers of scheduling tools are enough at small business volume, and we will tell you where paying actually earns its keep rather than recommending software.
Should we pay to boost posts?
Carefully. The boost button is the least efficient way to spend money on these platforms. A small budget in the ads manager, aimed properly, does considerably more, and we cover the difference.
Is this training or is it done for us?
Training. The agency can run social media for you as a separate service, but most people on this page want to do it themselves and just need it to stop being a mess.
Do you train larger organisations too?
Yes, and the day is different. If several teams post and sign off is unclear, see corporate social media training.
What if we are complete beginners?
That is fine and common. See social media training for beginners if nobody in the business has run an account before.
Can you come to us?
Yes, anywhere in the UK, or run it online. Travel is included in the price with no expenses line afterwards.
Related training
Beginners
If nobody has run an account before. See beginners training.
One to one
If it is just you. See one to one coaching.
Larger organisations
Several teams, unclear sign off. See corporate training.
Tell us how much time you actually have
Half day £1,200, full day £1,800, up to six people, excluding VAT. At your place or online.
One of the sectors we train, alongside every social media course. Delivered UK wide or online. Last reviewed August 2026.
