Our Blog
21
Jul
Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Local Business Use?
You do not need to be on every social media platform. Most small businesses do better by doing one or two well than by posting now and then on five. The question is which social media platforms your local business should use, and that depends on who your customers are and what you sell.
Here is a practical look at the main platforms, who tends to use them and the kinds of local businesses they suit.
Start With Your Customers
Before looking at the platforms, answer three questions:
- Who buys from you? Age, location, and whether they are consumers or other businesses.
- How do they decide? Do they need to see your work, read reviews or speak to someone?
- How much time can you give it each week, honestly?
A wedding florist, an accountant and a takeaway will get very different answers. That is fine. The best platform is the one where your customers already spend time.
Facebook is still the platform most local customers use to find and check out nearby businesses. Local community groups are active in most towns, people leave reviews, and events and offers get shared among friends. It suits most consumer-facing businesses, especially trades, cafes, shops, salons and anything with a local following. Facebook's ad tools also let you target people in a specific radius of your premises. The Meta Business Help Centre covers setting up a page and running ads.
Good for: local reach, events, offers, community groups, reviews.
Instagram is built around photos and short videos. If your work looks good, it belongs here. Restaurants, hairdressers, beauty salons, florists, interior designers and builders who do visually striking projects can all do well. Stories and Reels help you show day-to-day life in the business, which builds familiarity with people who have not bought from you yet.
Instagram and Facebook are both owned by Meta, so you can manage them from one place and run ads across both. For examples of what visual businesses need from their websites too, see our pages on websites for hairdressers and restaurant websites.
Good for: food, beauty, design, anything visual.
If you sell to other businesses, LinkedIn is usually where you should be. Accountants, solicitors, IT companies, recruiters, commercial cleaners and consultants can reach decision makers directly. Posts from a person tend to get more attention than posts from a company page, so your own profile matters as much as the business page. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions explains the paid options if you want to go further.
Good for: business-to-business services, recruitment, professional services.
TikTok
TikTok is about short, informal video. It is not only for younger audiences any more, but it does reward people who are comfortable on camera and willing to post often. Trades showing how a job is done, food businesses showing how a dish is made and shops showing new stock can all find an audience. It takes more effort than the other platforms, so only take it on if you can keep it going.
Good for: businesses with a personality to show and time to film.
YouTube
YouTube works differently from the others. People search it like Google, and a helpful video can keep bringing in views for years. How-to videos, product demonstrations and answers to common questions all work well. It takes time to make good videos, but the payoff lasts.
Good for: explaining how things work, product walkthroughs, answering common questions.
A Simple Way To Choose
- Selling to local households? Start with Facebook.
- Your work photographs well? Add Instagram.
- Selling to other businesses? Focus on LinkedIn.
- Comfortable on camera with time to post often? Try TikTok.
- Customers ask the same questions again and again? Consider YouTube.
Consistency Beats Volume
An account that posted ten times in January and nothing since does more harm than no account at all. It suggests the business has closed or lost interest. Pick a pace you can keep, even if it is only once or twice a week, and stick to it. Plan posts in advance, reuse good photos across platforms with different captions and reply to comments and messages quickly.
Organic Posts Or Paid Ads
Organic posting builds trust with people who already follow you. Paid ads reach new people. Most local businesses benefit from a mix of the two. Meta Ads can target people by location and interest for a modest budget. If people are searching for exactly what you do, search ads on Google can work alongside social media. Our pay per click management covers Google Ads and Bing Ads if you want to compare the two approaches.
Getting Help
Running social media well takes time that most small business owners do not have. If you would rather hand it over, our social media management service covers setup, content creation, weekly posting, campaigns and Meta Ads, with a monthly report. You deal with one team throughout, and we will tell you honestly which platforms are worth your time.
