It can, but usually not in the way the platforms promise. For most small businesses, social media works as proof and reminder rather than a reliable stream of new enquiries. Whether it is worth your time depends on what you sell, who buys it and what you would do with the hours instead.
Around 79% of the UK population uses social media, some 54.8 million people. 1 Your customers are almost certainly there. But people scrolling in the evening are not necessarily looking for a supplier, and being visible to them is not the same as being chosen by them.
The honest question is not “should my business be on social media?” It is “what job would social media do for this business, and is it the best use of the time it takes?”
It provides proof. A potential customer who has heard of you, from a recommendation, a search or a van on the street, may check your profile before calling. An active page with real work, real people and recent posts reassures them. A deserted page with a 2019 opening-hours post can quietly lose you the enquiry. It also doubles as customer service: many people would rather message a business page than phone, and a quick, helpful reply is public evidence of how you treat people.
It keeps you in mind. Past customers and local contacts see you occasionally, and when the need arises, or a friend asks, your name is the one they remember. This is real value, but it is slow, indirect and hard to measure. Marketers call this brand awareness; in plain terms, people think of you first because they keep seeing you. That familiarity is how customer loyalty shows itself online: repeat work and referrals from people who already trust you.
It can also carry a specific kind of selling. Businesses whose work is visual, such as landscaping, food, interiors or events, can show the product directly. Businesses built on personality or community, such as a gym or a cafe, can be the product. In both cases the platform fits the offer.
As a first source of new enquiries for most service businesses, social media underperforms. Somebody whose boiler has failed does not browse Instagram for a heating engineer. They search, and they call whoever looks credible near the top. Being findable in that moment is a different job, done by search visibility, reviews and a working website. For lead generation in a need-now moment, search beats social almost every time.
Organic reach is also thinner than it was. Platforms show business posts to a small and shrinking slice of followers unless you pay. A page with a few hundred followers may reach a few dozen people per post. That can still be worthwhile, but expectations should match.
Finally, the time is real. Planning, photographing, writing, posting and replying across two or three platforms easily absorbs half a day a week. Half a day a week is a marketing budget. Spend it where it earns.
Ask three questions. Do my customers use these platforms when they are in a buying mood, or mainly to be entertained? Can I show or say something regularly that is genuinely worth attention, rather than filler? And what else would I do with the same hours?
A tradesperson might sensibly keep a current Facebook page as proof, post completed jobs monthly and put the remaining effort into Google visibility and reviews. A gift shop might find Instagram is its shop window and worth daily attention. For most local services, a complete Google Business Profile will out-earn any social profile. Both can be right.
If you cannot trace a single enquiry to social media after a fair trial, that is information. Keep the profile tidy as a signpost, and invest the hours where enquiries actually arrive. Our guide to starting SEO as a small business covers the places most service businesses find them.
Paid social is a different tool from posting. It can work well for offers people buy on impulse or interest, events, products, seasonal promotions, because it puts a specific message in front of a chosen audience.
It is less suited to emergency or need-now services, where the buyer searches rather than scrolls. And like any paid channel it needs measurement: a clear offer, a page that converts and tracking that tells you what the money did. Boosting posts because the platform suggests it is not a strategy. Paid ads on social platforms are interruption marketing: the person was not looking for you, so the offer has to do the work. Define your target audience properly and even a modest budget can reach the right people.
Go where your customers are and where your content fits naturally. Facebook still reaches the broadest UK age range and suits local services and community groups. Instagram suits visual work. LinkedIn suits businesses selling to other businesses. TikTok rewards frequent video and a tolerance for its tone. You do not need to be everywhere. One platform done properly beats four neglected profiles. Choosing between the social media platforms matters less than choosing one you will actually keep up.
Whichever you choose, complete the profile properly: what you do, where you cover, how to contact you, opening hours. A surprising number of business profiles make it genuinely difficult to get in touch.
As often as you can post something worth posting, consistently. Once a week with real content beats daily filler. An abandoned page looks worse than a modest active one, so choose a rhythm you can sustain for a year, not a fortnight of enthusiasm. A simple content calendar, even a monthly note of what you will post and when, makes consistency much easier.
Possibly, if the platform demonstrably earns for your kind of business. Be clear what you are buying: content, consistency and reporting, not a vague promise of engagement. Ask to see what their work produced for a business like yours, in enquiries or sales, not likes.
Ask every new enquiry where they found you, and keep a note. Watch whether profile visits turn into calls or messages. Vanity numbers, followers and likes, are not enquiries. If you cannot connect the effort to any business result after several honest months, change the effort.
Watch competitors for ideas about what the audience responds to, but copying produces forgettable content and can mislead you about what works for them. You rarely see their results, only their posts.
Decide what job social media should do for your business: proof, reminders, direct sales or none of these. Then check whether your current effort matches that job, and whether the hours would earn more elsewhere.
If you would like an honest view of where your enquiries actually come from and where the next marketing hour is best spent, Bamsh can look at it with you. We will not recommend a channel because it is fashionable.
[1] DataReportal: Digital 2025: The United Kingdom (February 2025). https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-united-kingdom
