Navigating Meta as a Female Business Owner in 2025
Disclaimer: This blog post is published by Westerly Creative Studio LLC and reflects our independent insights and predictions about social media platforms, including Meta and Instagram. Westerly Creative Studio is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meta Platforms, Inc. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as official guidance or advice from Meta.
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Social media is vital for small businesses. It's how we sell, network, and build community.
Yet with Meta’s January 7th announcement, that’s likely going to become harder.
At first glance, it may not seem that impactful. Sure, losing fact checking isn’t great and moving safety teams to Texas signals certain legal tactics, but is that really going to impact people trying to grow their audience?
Unfortunately, the answer seems to be yes.
Minor algorithm changes impact strategies, so major platform adjustments will as well. While we can’t know the exact outcome yet, we can make predictions.
We’ll dive into the negative first but keep reading as we have 8 recommendations for what to do!
Our predictions for how Meta’s changes will impact entrepreneurial women in this “new era.”
1 Increase in Harassment — Especially for Women.
From stalking to insults, women are more likely to experience "digital violence" than men. This can be a huge barrier, especially when showing your face has become almost a requirement for gaining a following. This ads more layers of work, increases our mental load, and negatively impacts our ability to earn $ (which we’re already earning less of anyways).
We’re already saw an increase in overtly sexist comments against women when Trump won his presidency. While some of the instances were in public places, “You’re Body, My Choice” rose on social media.
It’s also been in the news how Justin Baldoni’s campaign staff were shocked as to the momentum their claims got. According to recent articles, they allegedly commented on how people enjoy hating on women.
Women are increasingly speaking up about the impacts of comments on their content and how it has changed how they see themselves and social media platforms. If this “brazeness” continues to escalate, it’s going to be a long year.
It’s hard to show up authentically, consistently, or let’s be honest, at all if we’re afraid. It’s important that we’re honest about the hurdles in our marketing strategy. Otherwise there’s a good chance we’re going to burnout or start avoiding our tasks, only to have them pile up.
Meta has also made major changes to their hate speech policy, specifically in regards to gender-based language. Read GLAAD’s breakdown here.
This is in alignment with Dana White being added to Meta’s board.
2 More Competition, Less Reach.
Political posts are going to increase, which always impacts general reach. Sadly, the one thing everyone asks Meta for is becoming less and less likely: to have our followers consistently see our content. This will likely result in an increase in the dependence of ad spend, which means more competition.
3 Decrease in Audience.
We're already hearing of people spending less time on social media and for many, that trend will continue. Whether people logon less or leave for good, small businesses will start to see a decrease in ideal clientele regularly interacting with content.
There’s a chance this trend may be short lived, though potential not for all. With this particular announcement I’ve already seen many people opt to leave for alternative platforms, while others are vowing to simply pick one and be done with the rest. There’s even a trend of people opting for the luxury of not having their phones on all the time.
So how can female small business owners adjust their 2025 marketing strategies to lessen these impacts?
As with most things in life, it’s good to focus on what we do have control over.
1 Invest in a GOOD Website.
Even without all this added chaos, a website is still a vital tool for your business. It’s status as a professional standard isn’t likely to go away soon.
In addition to establishing credibility and acting as a central hub, it ensures that your audience can always find you — even if:
Social media platforms go down
Your account gets hacked or reported
You decide to switch social media platforms
Your website can be the constant while you figure everything out AND you can use it for my second piece of advice.
While SEO is changing greatly, you can still:
Create a Google Business Profile to show up in maps and drive local traffic
Start a blog and use your blog to create emails + social media posts
2 Grow Your Email List.
While emailing may not seem as fun as social media, it is a direct and reliable way to connect with your client base!
Social media can be unpredictable and we’ve all heard of horror stories of accounts disappearing overnight or people being locked out. For small business owners, this can be catastrophic. Websites on the other hand also require visitation, which people are less likely to do if they don’t have a reason.
So show up where your potential customers are and build a long-term asset by compiling an email list that you OWN.* That way if something happens, you can take many of your dedicated followers with you.
*Warning: Some email marketing companies own the lists of their customers, so make sure beforehand that you aren’t signing up for one of those.
Squarespace’s Email Campaigns are a great way to get started and if you’d like support doing that, let me know!
3 Have Your Instagram Followers Add You to Their Favorites
This will help them see your posts more often — especially if they use the “Favorites” filtering! (I know I’m going to be using that a lot more often this year.)
The best part of this that it’s free. They don’t have to subscribe or leave the platform. You can do a series of Stories about this and maybe even share some accounts that you’ve decided to favorite.
Step 1: They need to go to your profile and click where it says “Following” on their profile page.
Step 2: They’ll select “Add to favorites.”
Did you know you can change how you see your Instagram feed?
By selecting the Instagram logo at the top, you can click “Following” or “Favorites.”
Following allows you to see the latest posts (in the order they were originally added) from accounts that you are already a fan of.
Favorites shows you the most recent posts of accounts on your Favorites list.
4 Encourage Your Instagram Followers to Enable Notifications for Your Profile.
If your followers are letting you know that they keep not seeing you in their feed, they can opt to get notified of when you post — it even allows them to control what kind of post they receive a notification for.
Step 1: They need to go to your profile and click the bell icon.
Step 2: This opens a menu where they can toggle on / off notifications.
5 Find Clients Locally.
Many of my clients find great leads from talking with local audiences, attending networking events, and finding places their audience is likely hanging out.
This makes sense because:
(a) There’s less noise.
(b) They may be more likely interested in engaging with you (instead of you interrupting their zone out time consisting of baking tutorials and videos of puppies being cute).
(c) Your personality gets to shine through! People love connecting with other people and for many, it’s far easier to do that in person.
Word of mouth is still the strongest form of marketing.
So this year, think of how you can make connections outside of platforms!
Sustainability tip: You can design a digital business card with a QR code that people can scan and have your contact information added to their phone. You’ll save money and have the knowledge that your information isn’t going to end up crumpled or put in a pile.
6 Post in Your Stories.
People’s feeds may get more congested but Stories is still a great way to reach people. In your Stories you can:
Be less formal.
Show behind the scenes footage.
Talk directly to your audience and get them to engage by asking questions.
Share previews of new posts.
Add links to your blog, offers, calendar, etc. directly in your image or video!
If you post daily, you’ll likely stay near the top of their list.
7 Make Sure You’re Showing Up Consistently Somewhere.
Wherever you decide to focus your marketing efforts, it’s critical that you’re able to do so with a plan and a schedule. This helps build trust with your audience, it integrates you into their world, and algorithms tend to rewards those who participate.
Plus, it helps you to train your audience to interact with you. Through interacting with your Stories, questions in posts, etc. you can help them get used to doing more than liking your posts. The more engagement you get, the more reach your posts will have.
dont forget: the way you show up matters
If things are getting negative out there, be a safe place for your audience. That could mean giving realistic advice, being an escape, or adding humor.
It’s important to decide how you want to sound / look, who it is that you’re talking to, and what your end goals are before you start down a new marketing path.
It’s a lot, I know. Changing strategies, especially last minute, can be incredibly draining! It requires research, learning, designing, writing … and we all wanted to start 2025 with forward progress.
If it would help, I would love to talk through your 2025 strategy with you.
I’m offering my strategy calls for $100 an hour (on sale from $200) until the end of February! Learn more about my Expert Clarity Calls here.
Tired of doing it all on your own?
Westerly Creative Studio offers everything from audits & consultations to websites, decks, social media support, print collateral, and more.
We’re here to help!
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about the author
Meghan is a co-founder and lead designer of Westerly Creative Studio. With 15 years experience in her field, in addition to a BA in Graphic Design, she’s nerdy about all things color, typography, and illustration related. While her skill set spans the digital and print realms, she specializes in Squarespace websites and branding foundations.
