The one where your customers already are, and where what you can realistically post fits how the platform works. For most local service businesses that is Facebook. For visual work it is Instagram. For selling to other businesses it is LinkedIn. Pick one, do it properly, and ignore the rest until the first one earns.
Choosing is easier once you stop asking “which platform is best?” and ask “who am I trying to reach, and what would I actually show them?” Every platform can produce enquiries for the right business. No social media platform produces enquiries for a business with a neglected profile and nothing to say.
The clearest recent picture comes from iwoca’s April 2025 survey of UK SME owners. Almost all small businesses use social media in some form, 97% of them, but the platform mix varies enormously: Facebook leads on 69% of SMEs, then Instagram on 67%, YouTube on 63%, WhatsApp on 58%, LinkedIn on 52%, X on 50% and TikTok on 49%. 1
Two details matter more than the headline order. TikTok use splits sharply by age: 60% of business owners aged 18 to 34 use it, against just 17% of owners over 55. And the smallest businesses behave differently: microbusinesses are five times less likely to use social media than medium-sized firms. 1 In other words, plenty of successful small businesses run perfectly well on one platform, or on a Google Business Profile and word of mouth.
Start with the buyer, not the platform. Define your target audience properly: who pays you, and where do they spend attention?
Facebook remains the broadest UK audience across age groups, and its local groups are where recommendations for trades and services actually happen. If your customers are homeowners, parents or a local community, this is usually the first platform to do properly.
Instagram is visual. If your work photographs well, food, gardens, interiors, beauty, events, finished projects of any kind, it acts as a portfolio people browse before they enquire. If it does not photograph, it will feel like hard work for little return.
LinkedIn is where businesses buy from businesses, the home of B2B services. If your customers are companies, landlords, facilities managers or other professionals, your profile and your posts there carry more weight than any other platform. It is close to useless for selling to households.
TikTok and YouTube reward video. Short, frequent, personality-led video on TikTok; longer, searchable how-to and proof content on YouTube. Both demand more production effort than a photo and a caption, and TikTok’s tone does not suit every trade. WhatsApp works differently again: less a shop window, more a way to keep in touch with customers you already have, which suits appointment-based businesses.
Fewer than you think. Unpaid, organic reach is limited on every platform now, so spreading thin makes each one weaker. One social platform kept current will out-earn four abandoned profiles, and an abandoned profile costs you: a potential customer who finds a page last updated in 2023 quietly assumes you are not trading, or not busy. That is worse than not being there.
A sensible social media strategy for most small businesses is one main platform for visibility, plus WhatsApp or Messenger simply as a way for people to contact you. Add a second platform only when the first is running on a rhythm you can sustain, because the time is real. Posting properly for one platform is a couple of hours a week once you have a routine. Our guide to whether social media actually brings in customers covers what to expect from that time.
Complete the profile as if it were a second website: what you do, the areas you cover, opening hours, and a phone number or booking link that actually works. Use real photos of real work rather than stock images. Pin or highlight the posts that show you at your best.
Then give it a fair trial. Post something worth looking at, finished work, honest prices or guides, answers to the questions customers ask you, on a schedule you can keep for six months. That is your content strategy in one line: show real work, answer real questions. Steady, useful posting builds brand awareness even when individual posts do not sell. Social media marketing is a long game, but if after a fair trial you cannot trace a single enquiry to the platform, it is telling you something: keep the profile tidy as a signpost, a basic social media presence that costs nothing, and put the hours somewhere else.
Facebook, in most cases. It has the broadest UK age range, local groups where people ask for recommendations, and business pages that act as a credible shop front. Pair it with a complete Google Business Profile, which usually matters more for a local service than any social platform.
Only if you can make frequent short videos and your customers skew younger. TikTok use among UK business owners is 60% for those aged 18 to 34 but 17% for over-55s, so it suits some trades and audiences far better than others. A tradesperson with no interest in video will get more from Facebook done well.
Yes. It is still the most-used platform among UK SMEs, 69% of them in iwoca’s 2025 survey, and local community groups remain a genuine source of recommendations. It is rarely exciting, but for local services it is usually the most practical choice.
If you sell to other businesses, yes: it is where professional buyers check credibility, and personal posts from the owner outperform company-page posts. If you sell to households, your effort is almost certainly better spent elsewhere.
One main platform done consistently, plus a contact channel such as WhatsApp. Add a second platform only when the first runs on a sustainable routine. Four neglected profiles cost you credibility; one active one builds it.
[1] iwoca, “Meta channels lead the pack as 97% of SMEs now use social media for their business” (16 April 2025). https://www.iwoca.co.uk/news/meta-channels-lead-97-smes-use-social-media
