Twitter has been making headlines as of late for what feels like all the wrong reasons, but the platform, which is still widely used by many, is offering some great tips for businesses to ready themselves for the upcoming Small Business Saturday.

The annual event, which encourages consumers to shop small for their holiday purchases, comes just one day after Black Friday (for 2022, that date is Nov. 26)—when shoppers typically spend with big box stores, a retail tradition of slashed prices and doorbuster deals.

While Twitter’s tips were written with its own platform in mind, many of the concepts can be applied across all or most social media sites, especially those currently more successfully associated with e-commerce, like Instagram or TikTok.

View Twitter’s tips in full here, and read on for some of the highlights.

Start Talking About Small Business Saturday Now

Twitter suggests making your participation in the annual shopping event clear from the start, both on social and off. That means advertising for it on your website as often as on social, building anticipation by teasing discounts and special offers as well as product previews. For extra engagement, Twitter suggests using its polls feature (something that can be done on other platforms too), to get customers’ input on what they’d hope to see this holiday event. It’s a good chance to gauge interest in your customer base’s plans to shop and may help to direct your plans if they aren’t already set in stone.

Twitter also recommends planning in-store events or online promotions and sharing those details early to get in front of shoppers who will undoubtedly be inundated with offers and events in the weeks to come.

Use Hashtags

Twitter is the master of hashtags, though we’ve come to use them across most social media platforms at this point. The platform suggests making use of the official #ShopSmall hashtag for U.S. businesses but recommends the #SmallBusinessSaturday one as well. It advises sticking with two hashtags and capitalizing the first letter of each word to make your tweets more accessible.

Make Shopping Online Easy

While Twitter recommends setting up your business for e-commerce on its platform (Professional Account holders can showcase their business’s location, hours, context info, and more on their profiles), it’s a good idea to ready any in-app shops you may have, whether you’re open on Instagram or driving consumers to your website.

Partner With Other Small Businesses

The suggestion to partner with other small businesses (SMBs) in your community is a good one and works to expand a business’s potential reach while lending a show of support for fellow local retailers. Some towns run initiatives making it easier to participate, but if yours isn’t one of them, begin outreach now to see if the right partner is out there. Whether it’s a local bakery or restaurant to cater an in-store event, a nail salon to offer manicures to match jewelry, or any other pairings, there’s enormous possibility in a partnership.

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