What does MyBizGrade check?

We analyze your website speed, SEO tags, Google reviews, social media presence, and accessibility. Each area gets its own score and letter grade.

How is the grade calculated?

Each category is scored from 0 to 100 based on real data from your site. The overall grade is a weighted average across all five categories.

Yes, the full audit and grade are completely free. You can upgrade to a Pro report with copy-paste fixes for $39 if you want help improving.

What's in the Pro report?

You get a priority action plan, copy-paste ready fixes for every issue, time estimates, and a downloadable PDF. It tells you exactly what to change and how.

How long does the audit take?

Most audits finish in under 30 seconds. Complex sites with many pages may take up to a minute.

Do you store my data?

We store your audit results so you can revisit your report. We never sell your data or share it with third parties.

How often should I check my grade?

We recommend running a new audit every month. Your online presence changes as you update your site, get new reviews, and post on social media.

MyBizGrade was built by a small team of developers who wanted to make online presence auditing simple and affordable for small businesses.

Social Media for Small Business: Which Platforms Matter

# Social Media for Small Business: Which Platforms Matter Small business owners waste hours posting on platforms their customers never use. A B2B consulting firm posting dance videos on TikTok. A plumber maintaining a Pinterest board. A restaurant ignoring Instagram while tweeting into the void. You do not need to be on every social media platform. You need to be active on the right ones. This guide breaks down which platforms drive results by business type, what to post, and how to spend the least time for the biggest impact. ## The Truth About Social Media for Small Business Social media is not a replacement for your website, Google Business Profile, or reviews. It is a supporting channel. For most local businesses, social media ranks fourth or fifth in importance behind GBP, your website, reviews, and local SEO. This does not mean social media is unimportant. Active social profiles build trust, keep your brand visible, and give customers another way to connect with you. Abandoned social profiles, on the other hand, hurt your credibility. The goal is not going viral. The goal is showing up consistently where your customers already spend time. ## Platform Breakdown: Who Should Use What ### Facebook **Best for:** Restaurants, retail shops, service businesses, medical practices, home services, any business serving local consumers. **Why it works:** Facebook remains the largest social platform with over 3 billion monthly users. Local business pages appear in search results. Facebook reviews influence customer decisions. Events, offers, and community groups drive local engagement. **What to post:** - Customer stories and testimonials (with permission) - Behind-the-scenes photos of your team and workspace - Special offers, seasonal promotions - Community involvement and local events - Tips related to your industry - Before-and-after project photos **Posting frequency:** 3-4 times per week. ### Instagram **Best for:** Restaurants, salons, fitness studios, retail, real estate, photographers, any visually-driven business. **Why it works:** Instagram is a visual platform. Businesses with attractive products, spaces, or results thrive here. Instagram Stories and Reels reach people who do not follow you. The platform skews younger (18-44) and drives strong engagement. **What to post:** - High-quality photos of products, food, spaces, and results - Short videos showing your work process - Reels (15-60 second videos) for reach - Stories for daily updates and polls - Customer features and user-generated content **Posting frequency:** 3-5 times per week on the feed, daily on Stories. ### LinkedIn **Best for:** B2B companies, professional services (lawyers, accountants, consultants), agencies, SaaS companies, recruiters. **Why it works:** LinkedIn is where business decisions happen. Decision-makers scroll LinkedIn during work hours. Content reaching 1,000 views on LinkedIn carries more business value than 10,000 views on Instagram for a B2B company. **What to post:** - Industry insights and observations - Case studies and client results (anonymized if needed) - Company news and milestones - Team highlights and hiring posts - Thought leadership and opinion pieces **Posting frequency:** 2-3 times per week. ### Google Business Profile (Posts) **Best for:** Every local business. No exceptions. **Why it works:** Google Business Profile posts appear directly in search results when people look for your business. This is the one "social" channel sitting right inside the buying decision. GBP posts affect your local search visibility. **What to post:** - Weekly updates about your business - Special offers with clear expiration dates - Events with dates and details - Product and service highlights - Industry tips relevant to your customers **Posting frequency:** At least once per week. ### TikTok **Best for:** Businesses targeting audiences under 35. Restaurants, fitness, beauty, retail, entertainment, real estate agents building personal brands. **Why it works:** TikTok's algorithm pushes content to people who have never heard of you. Organic reach on TikTok dwarfs every other platform. A single video reaching 100,000 views is common even for small accounts. **What to post:** - Short, entertaining videos about your industry - Day-in-the-life content - Process videos showing how you do your work - Trending sounds and formats adapted to your business - Customer reactions and transformations **Posting frequency:** 3-5 times per week for growth. ### YouTube **Best for:** Businesses benefiting from educational content. Home services, fitness, cooking, automotive, professional services. **Why it works:** YouTube is the second largest search engine. Videos rank in Google search results. A plumber creating "How to Fix a Running Toilet" generates leads for years from a single video. **What to post:** - How-to tutorials related to your services - FAQ videos answering common customer questions - Virtual tours of your business - Customer testimonial videos - Product demonstrations **Posting frequency:** 1-2 videos per month (quality over quantity). ### X (Twitter) **Best for:** Tech companies, media, news-driven industries, personal brands, B2B thought leaders. **Why it works for some:** Fast-paced conversation, direct interaction with industry leaders, trending topic visibility. **Why it does not work for most small businesses:** Low engagement for local businesses. The algorithm favors frequent posting. Time investment rarely translates to local customers. **Skip if:** You serve local consumers, do not enjoy writing short-form content, or lack time for daily posting. ### Pinterest **Best for:** Home decor, wedding services, fashion, food, crafts, interior design, photography. **Why it works:** Pinterest functions as a visual search engine. Pins drive website traffic for months or years. Users browse Pinterest with buying intent. **Skip if:** Your business is not visual or does not sell products people plan purchases for. ## The Minimum Viable Social Presence If social media overwhelms you, start with the bare minimum. An active, consistent presence on two platforms beats a scattered presence on six. **For most local businesses:** Facebook + Google Business Profile posts. **For visual businesses:** Instagram + Google Business Profile posts. **For B2B businesses:** LinkedIn + Google Business Profile posts. Master two platforms before adding a third. ## What to Post: The Content Mix Follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content should inform, educate, or entertain. 20% should promote your business directly. No one follows a business account posting "Buy our stuff" five times a week. People follow accounts giving them something valuable. **Content ideas working across platforms:** - Answer a common customer question - Share a tip your audience uses today - Show your team at work - Highlight a happy customer (with permission) - Share a before-and-after transformation - Post about a community event you attended or sponsored - Celebrate a business milestone - Share an industry statistic your audience cares about - Give a behind-the-scenes look at your process - Respond to a trending topic relevant to your business ## How to Save Time on Social Media ### Batch Content Creation Set aside two hours once a week. Create all your posts for the week in one sitting. Write captions, select or take photos, and schedule everything at once. Batching is faster than creating one post per day because you stay in a creative mindset instead of context-switching. ### Use a Scheduling Tool Free and low-cost tools schedule posts in advance: - **Meta Business Suite:** Free. Schedules Facebook and Instagram posts. - **Buffer:** Free plan covers 3 channels with 10 scheduled posts each. - **Later:** Free plan with basic scheduling for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest. Schedule your week's content on Monday. The posts go live automatically throughout the week. ### Repurpose Content One piece of content works across multiple platforms with small adjustments: - A blog post becomes 3-4 social media tips - A customer testimonial becomes a quote graphic, a video, and a text post - A how-to video becomes a Reel, a TikTok, and a YouTube Short - A photo with a caption works on Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile Create once, distribute many times. ### Set Time Limits Social media is designed to keep you scrolling. Set a timer. Spend 15 minutes posting and engaging, then close the app. For most small businesses, 30 minutes per day on social media is plenty. More time does not produce proportionally better results. ## Signs Your Social Media Is Working Track these metrics monthly: - **Follower growth:** Slow, steady growth means you reach new people - **Engagement rate:** Likes, comments, and shares relative to followers - **Website clicks:** People moving from social media to your site - **Direct messages:** Inquiries and questions from potential customers - **Phone calls or bookings attributed to social:** Ask new customers how they found you Do not obsess over vanity metrics like follower count. A business with 500 engaged local followers generates more revenue than one with 10,000 random followers. ## Signs You Should Stop Using a Platform Not every platform works for every business. Drop a platform if: - You posted consistently for 6 months with zero engagement - Your audience is not on the platform - The time investment outweighs any measurable benefit - You dread posting and it shows in your content quality An inactive social profile hurts your credibility. It is better to delete a page than leave it abandoned with a last post from 2023. ## Grade Your Social Media Presence GradeMyBiz evaluates your social media presence as part of your overall online presence grade. See how your social activity compares to local competitors. [Get your free social media grade at GradeMyBiz](https://grademybiz.vercel.app) ## For more on this topic, read [How to Check Your Business Online Presence in 5 Minutes](/blog/how-to-check-business-online-presence). For more on this topic, read [Local SEO for Small Business: A Beginner's Guide](/blog/local-seo-beginners-guide).Pick Your Platforms and Start Posting Choose two platforms matching your business type. Create a content plan for one week. Schedule the posts. Engage with comments for 15 minutes per day. Consistency beats perfection. A business posting three decent posts per week for a year outperforms one posting ten perfect posts and then disappearing for months. Start small. Stay consistent. Grow from there. [Grade your online presence for free](https://grademybiz.vercel.app)