Which social networks should my business be on?

The short version

• Pick one or two networks to run well. More accounts means more to keep up.
• Choose by where your customers already spend time, not by what’s popular this year.
• Local services: Facebook and Nextdoor. Visual work: Instagram and Pinterest. Selling to businesses: LinkedIn. Video-first: TikTok or YouTube.
• Claim your business name on the rest, add your website link, and keep them quiet but logged into. Each platform has its own inactivity rules.
• Review the choice once a year.

How do I decide which networks to use?

Work through these four steps. They take about an hour.

1. Ask your customers. Look at your last 20 or so customers and ask, or remember, how they found you and which apps they use. A quick question at checkout works: “Do you follow any local businesses on social media? Where?”
2. Look at businesses like yours. Search for three or four similar businesses in nearby towns. Where do their posts get comments and questions, not just likes? That’s where conversations happen in your trade.
3. Match the network to what you can make. If you can take good photos of finished work, Instagram and Pinterest fit. If you’d rather write short updates, Facebook, LinkedIn or Nextdoor fit. If you’re comfortable on camera, try TikTok or YouTube.
4. Be honest about time. Each active network needs posts, replies and the odd look at the numbers. Most small businesses can run one or two well.

What is each network good for?

The “often a good fit” column is our experience, not a rule from the platforms. Your customers decide.

What about YouTube?

YouTube works as a social network and as a place people go looking for how-to answers. It’s covered in our video hub: see YouTube channel basics.

Why not be everywhere?

Each account you open is a promise to customers that someone’s there. An Instagram account with three posts from two years ago, or a Facebook Page where messages go unanswered, can make a business look closed. One well-run network beats five neglected ones.

There’s also the admin side. Every account needs a business owner with top-level access, a backup admin, a recovery email you control and two-step login. Our guide to owning your digital assets explains why that matters.

What should I do with the networks I skip?

Claim your name anyway, so nobody else takes it and customers searching find the real you:

• Use your real business name and logo.
• Fill in the bio with one line on what you do, your town and your website.
• Pin or post one note saying where customers can find you, such as “We post our latest work on Facebook. Call us at…”
• Turn on notifications for messages, so you see if someone does reach out.
• Log in now and then. A claimed account isn’t reserved forever: X, for example, says to log in at least every 30 days and may remove accounts that stay inactive. Check each platform’s own rules.

Nextdoor is a special case. Nextdoor’s help center says it creates business pages automatically for local businesses, so neighbors may already be recommending you there. Claim it even if you never post. See claiming your Nextdoor business page.

What are the common mistakes?

• Following trends instead of customers. A network being popular doesn’t mean your customers use it to find a plumber.
• Starting three networks at once. Get one running smoothly first, then add another if you have time.
• Copying the same post everywhere without adjusting it. A long Facebook update looks odd as an Instagram caption with no photo. Meta Business Suite lets you customize the text for Facebook and Instagram in the same post.
• Personal profiles as business pages. Use the business version of each network. Personal accounts can’t show business insights or contact buttons.

What if I picked the wrong one?

That’s fine. Check your numbers after three months, using our guide to measuring what works. If a network brings no messages, calls or website visits, scale it back to “claimed and quiet” and try another. Don’t delete an account with followers; post a note pointing to where you are now.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

Business accounts on all of these networks are free. Deciding takes an hour. Setting up each account properly takes an hour or two, and running each active one takes roughly an hour a week once you have a content calendar.

How does E-3 handle this?

When clients ask us where to post, we start with their customers and their Google Business Profile, because that’s usually where local customers find them first. We make sure the profiles they choose are linked from their website and their Google profile, as part of our SEO and AI search service.

Related questions

• What should I post, and how often?
• How do I set up a Facebook Page and Meta Business Suite?
• Should my company have a LinkedIn Page?
• Do Facebook and Yelp reviews matter, or only Google?
• Back to the complete social media guide

Sources

1. How Meta Business Suite works (Meta Business Help Center)
2. Claim or create your business page (Nextdoor Help Center)
3. Create a LinkedIn Page (LinkedIn Help)
4. Account types on TikTok (TikTok Help Center)
5. Get a business account (Pinterest Help)
6. Professional Accounts (X Help Center)