In this video, Polly Barnfield, OBE, uses SHS Heating and Renewables as a case study to illustrate how small independent businesses can boost social media reach by sharing value‑added, informational content. She walks through a high‑performing Facebook post that highlights new government smoke‑alarm regulations, clearly presents the business’s service offering, contact details, and a local‑focused tagline. By providing useful, easy‑to‑understand information, the post achieved seven times more shares than typical content, generating trust and word‑of‑mouth referrals. Barnfield then explains how any business can replicate this approach by sharing relevant articles or tips for their audience. She introduces a dashboard tool that lets users benchmark their posts against competitors, analyze posting frequency, hashtags, follower counts, and sentiment, enabling continuous improvement. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action to use the dashboard’s support button for further assistance.
Chapters
Today we're in South Lanarkshire and this business has shown how sharing information can really mean sharing your social media feed with multiple people. SHS Heating and Renewables like to post regularly on Facebook and what we've noticed is that they post a mix of content around what they do. They share job updates etc and like most of these businesses, but when they post something that's safe from the government or it's new legislation or something that ultimately helps their potential customers and followers, that is when they get the shares and sharing is paramount on social media. So let's have a look at one of their best posts. So it's this one here. Now, this one talks about gives customers vital information. So it's just saying. Happy Saturday. With the new government regulations on interlinking smoke alarms coming into effect next month, we want to let you know that this is something that we offer and then said if you've got any questions and you're basically, if you're not quite sure what it's all about, then let us know. Telling them when they're open, giving them a really, really nice strap line. We put the heart into heating. Scotland loves local. So supporting, you know, your local independent business, they've even. They've pinned their address and they've put their opening times and then of course, they've got the phone number and then the website there as well. So quite literally they've told you that there's new government regulations that you might not have known about. They've said that, don't worry, we're experts, we understand it and we can help you. They've then given us the peace of mind that, that, you know, that they, you can buy with confidence and it's a local independent company, so you know that you're supporting local. And they've given me all the information that I would need in order to make that call. So what does it mean? So whilst they are promoting their services, they've explained really, really clearly, both in the graphics and in the post, what it is, but without, I guess, over complicating it, so without giving all the detail about the regulations, they've just said, FYI, they're new ones and we can help you. So this has actually got them seven times more shares than most other posts. Now, seven doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually is when you're a small independent business, because whilst they might be promoting their services, they're doing it through adding value and educating people, which means that people buy into them and they've trusted them so if I was one of these people and I chosen to share that on my feed, then I've chosen to trust you. It means that I trust your information enough to share it with my friends, to share it with my family, and that's gold dust. It might as well be a testimonial. So adding value for people is the absolute best way to generate more shares and that ultimately helps get you recognized on other people's feeds and say they've each got 200 friends and even, even if only 20 of them see it as 20 people who didn't know you existed before. So adding value for people is the best way to generate shares. And also, you know, sharing something, I guess that is helpful to them means that they're much more likely to take, to take it on board and give you a call as well. So, I mean, any business can do this. I mean, here they go, they've done it again. Any business can do this because it is just about adding value. So even if it's sharing articles that are relevant to your customers, it might be something that you read in Women's Health, it might be something to do with parenting, it doesn't matter. It's something that's relevant to your customers and all you're doing is sharing it on your feed. Just as a little FYI, now if I was this business, I'd be wanting to look at other businesses like this that can, I guess, you know, that I can benchmark my. I can benchmark my content against benchmark what I'm doing. So what I can do is I can very quickly add in, you know, say Said X Electrical company or Ex Heating company, add them in here to change insight. And then I'll start seeing my best post against their best post. I'll start seeing what days they post, how often they post, which channels they post. I can start to look at my followers versus their followers. I can start to look at what works. And FYI, if nothing's, if there's nothing to see there, that's because there's not enough content that's been done. You can see what hashtags they're using, see if there's any ones that you should be using. You can see how people feel about them. It's a really great way of them being able to benchmark what they're doing and keep getting better and better at social. So if you've got any questions whatsoever, please just hop on the dashboard, go into the little blue button here. It connects us 24 7. We love to help.
