Using social media for your business and picking the right channel

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Digital Marketing Digital Social Media
Using social media for your business and picking the right channel

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok… There’s no shortage of social media channels to promote your business. But which is the right one for your business needs? How can you assess your options? And should you use more than one? 

According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index consumers’ primary reasons for following a brand on social media are:

  • 68% want to stay informed about new products or services

  • 46% want to have access to exclusive deals or promotions

  • 45% consider the content the brand posts enjoyable and entertaining 

  • 28% want to engage with the community or customers

  • 21% find their values or mission aligns with the brands

Let’s explore the pros and cons of the top seven channels that currently dominate the market.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the best-known social media platforms. Founded in 2004 by a group of friends from Harvard University including Mark Zuckerberg, it was also one of the originals. Today, it is the biggest platform by almost every metric, and the favourite social media platform for the 35-44 year old demographic.  Use of the platform by teens has dropped sharply with only 33% of teens using Facebook as of 2023.  However, Facebook is the most popular site for people to get their news as 30% of social media users head to Facebook for their daily dose of what is going on in the world. 

It has 3.06 billion monthly active users - more than a third of the world’s population - and 68.6% of those users are active daily. 

Business owners can set up a Facebook account for their business and manage it through Meta Business Manager. Facebook is a great platform for small businesses as it allows them to build a business profile and include all relevant information for the customers. You could simply use this to publish information about your business. Or you could use it to sell products. It is a great platform to leverage social media direct messaging (DMs) for customer service.  Currently 88% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their investment in social media DMs for customer service (Hubspot Social Media Marketing Report, 2024).  59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform whilst 59% of those messages have been in relation to customer service issues. Moreover, 76% of customers appreciate when companies prioritise customer services whether that is on Facebook or not. Utilising Facebook groups can be very beneficial for small businesses as it allows to create tight-knit communities and increase customer loyalty. Facebook also has the highest numbers of social commerce buyers, meaning consumers are most likely to purchase directly on Facebook.

Facebook is a great place to utilise paid advertising as it has an average click-through rate (CTR) of 2.50% depending on the industry. Average conversion rate is fairly high among ads on the platform with 8.25%, again depending on the industry. With this in mind, the platform generates the highest return on investment (ROI).

Unlike some social media channels, Facebook doesn’t limit itself to a particular type or style of content. Users can post text, photo and video content. Posts with links don’t perform as well on Facebook so sticking to video content and carousel posts would be the best options.

  • Posts - Users can post or share text, photo and video content, which then appears in the feeds of their friends and connections.

  • Stories - Stories are time-limited posts. They only last for a day and are shown at the top of the screen when users view their feed. They get 500m+ daily active users. They’re a good idea for business because of where they appear in the feed. Right at the top!

  • Reels - Reels are vertical short-form videos that are heavily pushed by the algorithm. They gather about 200 billion views on a daily basis across Facebook.

  • Live streaming - This lets users film content on their mobile device and share it instantly with their audience on Facebook. For businesses, this is great for behind-the-scenes, authentic content. 

  • Events - This lets users set up and share events, invite attendees and get RSVPS, amongst other things. These can be useful for businesses looking to promote their activities. 

  • Groups - Groups let users gather together around their interests and share content within the group. Some businesses use groups for demand generation by creating a community before targeting them with products and services.  

Something else that’s interesting to note when planning content - over 80% of users ONLY access Facebook via their mobile device.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Utilise Facebook Ads for targeted marketing.

  • Utilise Facebook Groups for building loyal customer communities.

  • Engage with your audience through regular posts, live videos, and interactive content.

  • Use Facebook Insights to track performance and adjust strategies accordingly.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform built around sharing pictures and videos, with a suite of tools for users to edit, filter and enhance their visuals. 

IG, as it’s more commonly known now, has been part of the same parent company (now Meta) as Facebook  since 2012 and has 2 billion monthly users across the world. This makes it the third most-used social platform tied with WhatsApp. 

  • There are over 200 million businesses using Instagram 

  • 90% of people on Instagram follow a business

  • 83% of Instagram users have discovered a new product or service through the platform

  • 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase 

  • 62.7% of users use Instagram to research brands or products

Instagram is the preferred platform of users aged 16-34 with nearly 85% of Instagram’s audience is younger than 45. Only 8% of Instagram users are teenagers, hence Instagram is best for reaching millennials and Gen Z. Influencer marketing is thriving on this platform. Instagram is great for small businesses wanting to target their audience by creating attention-grabbing photo and video content. 

  • Posts - Instagram’s USP is that it is focused on amazing visuals. Unlike Facebook and other channels which allow text-only posts, an Instagram post must include an image or video. You can also add text to accompany it, but only two lines will show in the feed under the visual - so make sure you use those wisely to grab attention encouraging users to click read more. You can include hashtags to help your post reach an interested audience. Instagram users are looking for inspiration and authenticity, not advertising, so keep that in mind when creating content. Posts are the backbone of the network and stay until they are deleted. It is worth noting carousel posts on the platform have the highest engagement rate for business accounts.

  • Stories - Like Facebook Stories, these are temporary and disappear after 24 hours. They’re a slideshow of images or videos. And each page of a story lasts for 10 seconds. You can add stickers, text overlays, filters and interactive features like quizzes to a story.  Short narrative-type Stories are the most popular format. More than 500 million people can be reached with ads on Instagram Stories. It is predicted that 53.7% of marketers will use Instagram Stories for influencer marketing this year. 

  • Reels - Reels are 60-second loops of content. You can add music, create speeded-up or slow-mo content, and apply filters. They’re designed to rival the popularity of TikTok videos. You can share your Reel to the dedicated Reels page as well as to your feed or Stories.  Reels have an average reach rate of 30.81%. By promoting Reels, Instagram has largely transitioned to video content following the success of TikTok. Using existing templates or sounds can help with increasing exposure.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Use high-quality visuals and consistent branding.

  • Leverage hashtags to increase discoverability.

  • Collaborate with influencers to expand reach and build credibility.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest online networking platform. In terms of advertising, it is generally considered to be business-to-business. Although some work-related business-to-consumer brands have a presence there (for example, products aimed at individuals who run their own businesses).

  • LinkedIn has 1 billion members 

  • 16.2% of users log in every day

  • 40% of LinkedIn users engage with business pages every week

  • 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing

  • 82% of B2B marketers see success on LinkedIn

  • Ads on LinkedIn are 6x more likely to convert  

LinkedIn users are more mature, with over a third of users in the 46-55 years bracket, and slightly more men use the network than women. The platform drives 46% of social traffic to B2B sites and is considered the most credible source of content. 

It’s worth knowing there are two types of accounts on LinkedIn. You can have a personal account and a business account. Unlike Facebook - where you tend to keep personal and business accounts separate - its OK to mix personal and business on LinkedIn. This is because your personal account on LinkedIn is more likely to be about your business and professional expertise, and less about your latest Netflix binge or Wordle score!

It makes sense to set up an account for your business and also use your personal account to share posts from your business. This is because you - as an individual - will probably have more connections than your business account has followers. So it's a great way to increase awareness of your business account.

  • Posts - Posts are much like other social networks. You can post text-only or text accompanied by an image, video or document. You can add hashtags and web addresses but LinkedIn has a famously restrictive algorithm that’s thought to restrict reach if you include a web address or too many hashtags. There’s plenty you can Google to make sure you don’t fall foul of the LinkedIn gods!

  • Articles - Articles are like blog posts that you host on LinkedIn. They’re a great way to showcase your knowledge on a particular topic. And they’re indexed by Google too, which means they can show up if someone searches Google for that topic. 

  • Sliders - Sliders are a popular format that invites users to swipe through a slideshow. These aren’t a special type of content. They’re just a standard post where someone has prepared and uploaded a multipage PDF.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Share valuable, industry-specific content to engage your audience.

  • Optimise your company page with relevant keywords and a professional appearance.

  • Participate in LinkedIn Groups to build relationships and gain insights

Pinterest

Pinterest say people come to their platform looking for ‘inspiration, crafted goods and a community of like-minded creatives’. 

It’s like an online pinboard - a virtual way to collect and categorise things you like online. Most commonly these are related to decor, DIY, weddings and recipes. Users pin images to boards, which others can see and interact with. 

Although Pinterest is sometimes classed as a social network, it isn’t like the rest. There’s no real scope for making friends here. It’s actually more like a search engine to help people find products and ideas. So choosing the right words to describe your Pins is essential. 

It might sound niche but Pinterest has almost 500 million monthly users. And they report rapid growth in engagement with shoppable content. 

76% of the Pinterest user base is female. But Pinterest say men are one of the platform’s fast-growing demographics. And it’s most popular in the 25-34 year-old age group - generally the age group where marriage, home-owning and other life milestones start to happen. Gen Z makes up 42% of Pinterest’s monthly active users. Not only that, but Gen Z sees Pinterest as a positive place where they can dream big and map out their future lives. 

Pinterest is pretty simple. You can set up an account for your business, and customise it with your logo and basic business info. 

Once you’ve done that, you can upload and share images and graphics - your Pins. You can attach a weblink to every Pin, which makes it a good way to drive traffic to your website and generate inbound leads. 

Your visuals could be inspirational in-situ product photos (which work well on such a visual platform). 

Or other content to drive people to your website. For example, imagine you’ve written a blog post about the ‘five steps to designing a dream kitchen’. You could promote this with a photo of a stunning kitchen or an infographic showing those five steps. 

People interested in kitchens - perhaps because they’re planning their dream refurb - will pin that to their board, so they can revisit it later as they continue to plan. Until one day, when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be on their mind.

You can also add the ability for website visitors to pin visual content from your website directly onto their Pinterest boards.

Further to Pinterest’s shopping culture, millennials who see a product on Pinterest tend to buy that product. According to Pinterest’s own data, 44% of millennial Pinners have made a purchase as a result of seeing branded content on Pinterest. The platform is the #1 destination for luxury shopping inspiration. Shopping is growing on the platform with Pinterest seeing a 50% year-on-year increase in buyable items saved to boards. Brands who upload catalogues and tag products see 30% more checkouts.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Create visually appealing pins with clear descriptions and keywords.

  • Organise boards by themes to attract specific audiences.

  • Use Pinterest Analytics to understand what content resonates with users.

Snapchat

Snapchat lets users - Snapchatters - take and exchange pictures and video - called Snaps. It describes itself as ‘the fastest way to share a moment’ and is all about lifestyle, experience and having fun. Other functions include augmented reality, and the ability to find their friends and see local Snaps on the map. 

Snapchat is a strong business-to-consumer platform for the under 35s market. Snapchat has 800 million monthly active users and 414 million daily users and reaches 75% of millennials and Gen Z. 20% of users are teenagers. There are slightly more female users than male.  90% of Snapchat users report feeling happy, comfortable and connected while using Snapchat. 

Snapchat also offers some unusual formats for advertisers, including filters that users can add to their Snaps, and interactive Lenses using augmented reality. More than 300 million users engage with AR features daily. This contributes to the positive feelings evoked in users by the app.

One interesting feature is that people are more likely to share purchases and shopping moments on Snapchat which can encourage other users to purchase from a specific brand. The users are also 45% more likely to recommend a brand after watching an ad on the platform and 34 % more likely to buy items advertised on Snapchat than other platforms.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Use geofilters and AR lenses to create interactive and location-specific content.

  • Post regularly to maintain engagement with your audience.

  • Leverage Snapchat Ads, including Snap Ads, Story Ads, and Collection Ads, to reach a wider audience.

TikTok

TikTok is dedicated to creating, sharing and finding short videos - typically 15 seconds to three minutes long. It’s popular with younger audiences and generally used for entertainment and self-expression - things like singing, dancing, lip-syncing, comedy and stunts. 

The rise of TikTok has been meteoric, with over 1.5 billion monthly active users. In 2024 TikTok was the third most downloaded app with 128 million downloads, after Temu and Capcut, TikTok’s video editing app.

  • Average user spends 95 minutes per day on the app

  • 90% of TikTok users think sounds is important for the TikTok user experience

  • 44% of Gen X TikTok users say the platform helps them discover new things

  • 50% of TikTok users have bought something after watching TikTok LIVE

  • 57% of brands now leverage short-form videos

  • TikTok has an average engagement rate of 2.65% making it the most engaging social media platform

  • 55% of TikTok users have made an impulse purchase on the platform

Although TikTok audiences are diversifying, it’s best for brands hoping to reach a younger female audience. 54% of TikTok users are female. And it is most popular in the 18-24 age bracket. 78% of Gen Z users use TikTok. As a result, 28% of marketers agree TikTok is the most effective platform for building an active community on social media. Investment in influencer marketing is likely to increase on TikTok with 67% of female shoppers relying on creator recommendations before making a purchase with Gen-Z being the most likely to purchase directly on TikTok. As TikTok becomes the top global app for consumer spending, the platform can be utilised to promote sales of products.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Focus on creating entertaining and authentic content.

  • Participate in trending challenges and use popular music.

  • Engage with your audience through comments and collaborations.

X (formerly Twitter)

X is another of the original social networks. It’s a microblogging platform that allows users to share primarily text filled posts with the ability to attach images, videos and links, which then show in other users’ feeds. Including mentions using the @ symbol and hashtags helps get your posts  in front of your desired audience. X is often used to check worldwide news due to its news feed layout. 

Previously called Twitter, X has undergone some changes in the recent years but it still remains a favourite microblogging network.

X shows posts in real-time, which means you don’t linger long in someone’s feed. And each post is restricted to 280 characters, which is the epitome of short-and-sweet. You have two streams on your so called timeline with posts from people you follow as well as posts from people X thinks you might like.

Despite these limitations, X is hugely popular, with estimated 415 million users overall, and 335 million of those using the platform monthly. espite being an original social platform, the demographic remains fairly youthful, with 25-34 year olds as the largest age group.

Thanks to the hybrid way people use X, it can be effective for both B2C and B2B audiences.  As well as text, X can handle images, video and ad carousels. 

Bucking the general trend, X is more popular with male users than females. It’s a 66/34 split in favour of the fellas.  More recently X introduced a paid subscription including Premium features such as a checkmark, reduced ads, access to apply for ads revenue sharing and creator subscriptions and Media Studio.

Users prefer to see informative, relevant and engaging content on the platform. X can be utilising for great customer service with the platform encouraging communication with its layout. 64% of X users state they would rather reach out to a brand on the platform than call the business. However, 50% of X users expect a response to their complaint within three hours suggesting timely responses are crucial for improving customer loyalty.

Benefits for businesses

Tips:

  • Post regularly and engage with followers through replies and retweets.

  • Use the Analytics to measure the performance of your posts.

  • Monitor industry hashtags and participate in relevant conversations.

So there you have it. A quick run down of the top social media platforms.

Time to get your thinking caps on and work out which is best for your business? 

To narrow the field, ask yourself:

  • Which social networks are are my target audience most likely to be on?

  • Am I reaching my audience at the best time?

  • What do I want to be able to do - eg. raise awareness, make sales?

  • What type of content do I have the time and skills to create?

  • Can my company’s customer service workflow meet expectations?

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Privacy Notice & Cookies Policy

Privacy Notice - Scope

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our clients, visitors to our website and subscribers to our newsletter. Maintaining the security of your data is critical and we have implemented measures to ensure your privacy rights are respected and applied. We commit to process your data fairly, legally and to be transparent about how we do so.

This notice, which applies whether you use our services or use our website, explains our approach to data integrity and your individual rights.

By using our services, you understand the collection, use and transfer of your information under the terms of this notice.

Put simply, we set out what we are going to do with your data in this Privacy Notice.

We ask you to read this Privacy Notice to ensure you understand the way that Smarta will process your data.

We provide the option to opt into the different marketing options that you prefer.

The processing of personal data is governed by the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and the UK General Data Protection. Regulation.

The notice may change from time to time so please check for updates.

If you need further details or are unsure in any way, please contact us at hello@gosmarta.com.

 

Who are we?

Smarta is a trading name of Transmit Start-Ups Ltd, which is a Limited Company registered in England. (referred to as “Smarta”, “we”, “our” or “us” in this notice).

Our registered company number is 08702257.

Our registered office is Northern Design Centre, Baltic Business Quarter, Abbott's Hill, Gateshead, NE8 3DF.

 

What personal information do we collect and process?

Smarta is what is known as the controller of the personal data you provide to us. We collect personal data about you which will (where relevant) also include any special types of information or location-based information.

We collect and process your data in the following circumstances:

  • When you use our services

  • When you register to join Smarta or access our eLearning/online courses

  • When you join the small business directory

  • When you use our website

  • When you sign up for our mailing list

  • When you complete the contact form on our website

  • When you contact us through other means such as email, telephone, or web chat

Smarta will collect the following information about you:

  • Your name

  • Your contact details: postal address, telephone number(s) and email address(es), including personal contact details and business contact details (where relevant)

  • Your date of birth (where relevant)

  • Your gender (where relevant)

  • Your ethnicity (where relevant)

  • Your qualification levels (where relevant)

  • Your employment status (where relevant)

  • Other publicly available personal data, including any which you have shared via a public platform (such as a LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed or public Facebook page) (where relevant)

  • Your device’s IP address

  • Your online browsing activities on our website

  • Your communication and marketing preferences

  • Your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses

  • Your location

  • Your correspondence and communications with us

  • Information about your business 

 

Smarta deliver some of our services under contract on behalf of other organisations, for example to offer business coaching, mentoring or consultancy services, or access to eLearning. In some cases we may receive data about you from our customers or other third parties. For information on how our customer uses your personal data, including how we fit into that processing, you should review their privacy notice or contact them for more information.

 

Why do we collect and process your personal information?

We only collect and process the information needed to effectively provide our services to you, as well as for contact and communication purposes.

We will use your personal information as part of the reporting process we have agreed with any partner organisations we provide services for.

We will use your personal information as part of our internal reporting processes.

 

The lawful basis for processing your personal information

Legitimate interest

We will collect, hold and process your personal data on the basis of legitimate interest where it is necessary in order for us to fulfil our needs as a business and to be able to provide you with our services, including, but not limited to:

  • To send you information about our services

  • To communicate with you about your enquiry

  • Facilitating introductions to our partners, or network of consultants, mentors and coaches

  • Communicating and reporting to the organisations for whom we are contracted to deliver support

  • Handling customer contacts, queries, complaints or disputes

  • Promoting, marketing and advertising our products and services (for business-to-business relationships only)

  • Understanding our customers’ behaviour, activities, preferences, and needs

  • Improving existing products and services and developing new products and services

 

Consent

We will seek your consent to hold and process your data when you sign up for a Smarta membership or to our mailing list. If you choose not to sign up to our mailing list we will still communicate with you when necessary as part of our contractual obligations.

You remain in control of the personal data you share with us. You can update your personal details in your Smarta account on gosmarta.com and in your eLearning account on mysmarta.com. You can change your preferences at any time by choosing whether you want to give consent to your data being processed for specific types of communication and / or communication channels. You can unsubscribe from our email newsletters by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ option at the bottom of the email and if you wish to manage or amend your preferences, you can send an email to hello@gosmarta.com.

 

Vital Interest

We will use your personal information to contact you if we reasonably believe that the processing of your personal data will prevent or reduce any potential harm to you. This type of notification is in your vital interest.

 

Legal Obligation

We will use and process your personal data to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, if it is genuinely needed for law enforcement, to identify you as an individual if you contact us, or to verify the accuracy of your data. This includes effectively handling any legal claims or regulatory enforcement actions taken against us.

Your personal data will also be used in situations that protect you, our customers, employees and other individuals to maintain their safety, health and welfare.

 

Contract

We will use and process your personal data where it is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.

How is your personal information used?

Below we have set out the reasons we use your personal data and the lawful basis for each use.

How we use your personal information

Lawful Basis

To effectively communicate with you

Legitimate interest

To respond to your enquiries

Legitimate interest

To enable us to manage service interactions with you

Legitimate interest / Contract

To ensure compliance with our contractual obligations, including auditing and reporting, we have in providing our service to you

Legitimate interest / Contract

To make our website and other social media content available to you

Legitimate interest

To assess your eligibility for our services and those that we deliver on behalf of other organisations

Legitimate interest

To contact you (with your agreement) electronically about promotional offers and services which may interest you

Consent

For market research purposes and to better understand your needs

Legitimate interest

To verify your identity

Legal obligation

For crime and fraud prevention, detection and related purposes (if mandated by law)

Legal obligation

Where we have a legal right or duty to use or disclose your information (for example in relation to an investigation by a public authority or in a legal dispute)

Legal obligation

To test new systems and check upgrades to existing systems to improve our service delivery

Legitimate interest

To help improve our products and services, for quality control, security, internal record keeping and other business needs

Legitimate interest

To effectively manage our business and our relationships with you, partners and consultants

Legitimate interest

Certain types of personal information, such as gender and ethnicity, are used only by aggregating the information for reporting requirements, and for the purposes of monitoring and promoting equal opportunities.

 

Where your personal information is stored and who we share it with

Your data may be shared with some of our service providers, which allow us to carry out our services, or with other third parties as outlined in this section. This Privacy Notice does not cover the processing of your data by these third parties. For information on how a third party processes your personal data, please refer to their privacy notices.

Your information is stored on dedicated hardware used by Smarta and all data is held and backed up within the UK or EU, is covered by comparable data protection standards (Adequacy) or is covered by the EU SCCs + UK Addendum.

To deliver a full range of services to you, it may on occasion be necessary for us to share your data outside of the European Economic Area. This will typically occur when service providers are located outside the EEA or if you are based outside the EEA. These transfers are subject to special rules under GDPR and UK GDPR.

If this happens, we will ensure that the transfer will be compliant with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice will be to use the EU SCCs + UK Addendum which has been approved by the European Commission and UK Information Commissioner’s Office for such transfers. Those clauses can be accessed on the European Commission website and the UK Information Commissioner’s website.

IT service providers

In order to make certain services available to you, we will share your personal data with our IT service providers. We use IT services providers for activities such as email communication, calendar invites, file storage, customer relationship management, email marketing, customer journey management, and task processing.

Website data is stored within a MariaDB database in a secure hosting environment. The only way to access the database is via a server console or via SSH. Images and assets are securely hosted on a service called S3 - which is an Amazon Web Service (AWS) service. Only authenticated users within the site have access to push files to this location.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data when we have confirmed that they apply appropriate data protection and security controls. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to data protection and security, which mean they can only use your data to provide services to us and to you, and for no other purposes.

Partners and suppliers

Where relevant for the delivery of services we will also share your personal data to organisations who contract us to deliver services, and to our network of consultants, coaches and mentors if you are working with one. We will only share your contact details with such partners for the purposes of delivering services to you or to fulfil contractual obligations such as reporting. 

We only allow our partners and suppliers to handle your personal data when we have confirmed that they apply appropriate data protection and security controls. We also impose contractual obligations on partners and suppliers relating to data protection and security, which mean they can only use your data to provide services to us and to you, and for no other purposes.

Other third parties

Aside from our service providers and partners, we will not disclose your personal information to any third party unless we are legally obliged to do so, or you provide your consent for us to do so. We will never sell or rent our customer data to other organisations for marketing purposes.

Examples of where we may be legally obliged to share your personal information include:

  • Governmental bodies, regulators, law enforcement agencies, courts/tribunals and insurers where we are required to do so;

  • To comply with our legal obligations;

  • To exercise our legal rights (for example in court cases);

  • For the prevention, detection, investigation of crime or prosecution of offenders; and

  • For the protection of our employees and customers.

 

How we keep your personal information secure

We are committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure.

Our security measures include:

  • Encryption of data

  • Back up of data

  • Password management

  • Implementing risk management and data impact assessment analysis

  • Regular cyber security assessments of all service providers who may handle your personal data

  • Security controls which protect our IT infrastructure from external attack and unauthorised access

  • Internal policies setting out our data security approach and training for staff.

Only authorised and trained personnel can access your personal information if required to do so as part of their legitimate job role.

Website security and backups

Our website has HTTPS encryption via a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to ensure any data passed between your browser and the web server (where this website is hosted) is encrypted. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

This website and its database are automatically backed up every day via our hosting provider AWS (Amazon Web Services). Backups are stored for 90 days in the EU Region.

 

How long we keep your personal information

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this notice.

We are required by law to keep some information for a minimum period e.g. financial information for tax purposes.

Different retention periods apply for different types of data, however the longest we will normally hold any personal data is six years after we have fulfilled the service to you. Where there is no legal requirement, or a business reasons such as the fulfilment and management of a contractual agreement, we will retain personal information for only as long as necessary to deliver our services and respond to any subsequent communications.

As long as you wish to have a membership on the Smarta platform, we will retain your data for that purpose.

You can update, amend or request deletion of your personal information at any time (see below).

 

Automated decision making, including profiling

We do not use automated decision making or engage in profiling activity.

When do we collect your information?

Website forms

Our website has forms built-in to allow you to interact with the site via the submission of data. When you use our forms, the information submitted is securely stored in the website’s database. Your personal data stored in the website’s database will be automatically deleted from here after five years. Your personal data is encrypted by the website.

The website is built using a framework called Laravel (it is an open-source PHP MVC framework for bespoke platform development). 

The forms are built within this stack using VueJS, form data is submitted via Axios (AJAX HTTP requests) to a controller that parsers the data and stores in within a data store. Some forms are also built in the HubSpot platform.

Sensitive data and passwords are encrypted using OpenSSL and the AES-256-CBC cipher.

 

Mailing list

When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address and name so that we can correspond with you. Your personal data will be shared with the service provider that facilitates our sending of our newsletters. You can request to be removed from our mailing list at any time by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ in any newsletter/mailout or by contacting us.

 

Ongoing communication

We will also collect additional information from you as we communicate with you in order to deliver our services. For example, we will (where relevant) collect documentation from you via email.

Cookies

Like most websites the Smarta website uses cookies to collect information. Cookies are small data files which store information on your browser, your computer, or other connected devices (such as smart phones or tablets).

How do I manage cookies?

When you visit our website only strictly necessary cookies are applied. You can then manage which additional cookies are applied using the pop-up window. After cookie settings are applied your preferences can still be changed by clicking the black circle icon in the bottom left of your browser window.

Alternatively, you can set your browser to block cookies. Please check your browser for instructions on how to do this.

Use of cookies

The main purposes for which cookies are used are:

  • For technical purposes essential to effective operation of our websites, particularly in relation to site navigation.

  • To improve your experience on our website.

  • To enable us to collect information about your browsing patterns, including to monitor the success of conveying our information to you.

Our website does not store any information that would, on its own, allow us to identify individual users without their permission. Any cookies on this website are used either solely on a per session basis or to maintain user preferences. Cookies are not shared with any third parties.

Online data management (analytics and security)

If you accept non-essential marketing cookies when using our website, we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.

We collect information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit, entry and exit points and the number of page views).

We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.

We do not make and do not permit Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

If we do ever want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be upfront about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

 

Your rights in respect of the personal information we hold

We fully support and facilitate the ability of people to exercise their rights.

If you wish to correct, complain, object, or otherwise control the data we hold please contact us and we will respond accordingly.

Please contact us if you have any questions about how your personal information is being used or if you are unhappy about our service or anything we do. We will do our best to resolve the issue.

 

An overview of your different rights

You have the right to request:

  • Access to the personal information we hold about you, free of charge.

  • Corrections to your personal information when it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.

  • Erasure of your personal information, for example, when you withdraw consent, or object and we have no legitimate overriding interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the personal information has come to an end.

  • Obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services (known as data portability).

  • That we stop using your personal information for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).

  • That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal information after you withdraw that consent.

Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

 

Where we rely on our legitimate interest

In cases where we are processing your personal information on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal information.

 

Direct marketing

You have the right to stop the use of your personal information for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.

 

How you can make a request about your data subject rights

You can make a request related to any of the rights listed above by contacting us using the details below.

We will respond to you as soon as possible, and always within one month of receipt of the request.

To protect the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

 

Getting in touch with Smarta

We can be contacted at:

Smarta / Transmit Start-Ups Ltd

Northern Design Centre

Baltic Business Quarter

Abbott's Hill

Gateshead

NE8 3DF

 

Email: hello@gosmarta.com

 

The Supervisory Authority in the UK is the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

 

Smarta / Transmit Start-Ups Ltd can be found on the Data Protection Register. The registration number is ZA047144.

 

Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint about the way your personal data has been handled, you can contact us using the details given above.

Alternatively, you can refer your complaint to the ICO