OPINION - In this seventh instalment of the online series, Business Unplugged, by local expert Prof Adéle Potgieter, she unpacks why many small businesses are visible everywhere online - but effective nowhere. 

From Facebook and Instagram to Google Business and LinkedIn, discover where your customers are actually looking for your services and why focusing on fewer platforms could bring better results. 

Plus: a practical platform audit every business owner should do today.

Kevin runs a mid-sized electrical contracting business based in George. He has a Facebook page he updates occasionally, an Instagram account his daughter set up for him two years ago, a LinkedIn profile he joined because someone told him he should, and a WhatsApp Business number he is not entirely sure how to use. He spends roughly three hours a week across all of them and cannot tell you whether any of it has brought in a single customer.

Meanwhile, his Google Business profile - the one thing that would actually make the phone ring when someone on George searches “electrician near me” - has not been updated since 2021.

This is the most common digital mistake small business owners make: being present on many platforms and effective on none. This column is about fixing that.

The question you should ask before you post anything

Before you decide where to show up online, you should answer one question: where does my customer actually go when they are looking for what I offer?

This sounds obvious. Yet it is surprisingly rarely asked. And the answer is different for every type of business.

A family planning a holiday in the Garden Route opens Instagram to look at places that feel beautiful and welcoming. A George homeowner whose geyser burst at 07:00 opens Google and types “plumber George emergency”. A procurement manager at a local business looking for a reliable supplier opens LinkedIn. A mother planning her daughter’s birthday party opens a local Facebook community group and asks for recommendations.

Same town. Four different customers. Four different starting points. The business that is visible in the right place at the right moment wins. The business that is visible everywhere and excellent nowhere loses to the one that is chosen deliberately.

A plain-language guide to each platform

Facebook remains the most powerful platform for reaching local communities in most South African towns, including George. It is where local recommendations happen, where community groups live, and where your neighbour asks: “Does anyone know a good caterer?” 

If your business serves a local consumer audience - hospitality, retail, food, services - Facebook is where you need to be visible and active. The 35-plus age group, which holds a significant share of purchasing power in the Garden Route, is more consistently on Facebook than on any other platform.

Instagram is a visual platform. If the appearance of what you offer is a meaningful part of why someone chooses you - a guest house, a restaurant, a wedding venue, a florist, a hair salon - Instagram is where you can build genuine desire. 

Beautiful, consistent imagery that reflects your brand is worth more here than clever captions. If your business is not inherently visual, Instagram will be an uphill battle.

Google Business Profile is the most underutilised and highest-return digital asset for most local small businesses. When someone types “electrician in George” or “accommodation Wilderness” into Google, the businesses that appear at the top are not the ones with the most expensive websites - they are the ones with complete, updated, well-reviewed Google Business profiles. This should be the first thing any small business owner claims and maintains, before any other platform.

LinkedIn is for business-to-business (B2B). If your customers are other businesses - you supply to contractors, offer professional services, or sell in volume to commercial clients - LinkedIn is where your professional credibility lives. If your customers are individual consumers, LinkedIn might be irrelevant to your marketing.

TikTok is the honest conversation that most small-business advice avoids. It can produce extraordinary reach for the right type of business - quirky, visual, entertainment-driven content performs brilliantly. 

But it is high-effort, unpredictable, and most effective with audiences under 35. For the majority of small businesses in the George area, the return does not justify the time investment. Unless video content genuinely excites you and fits your brand, put TikTok last.

Three platforms done well beat seven done poorly

There is a principle in digital marketing that sounds counterintuitive until you live it: every platform you add dilutes the ones you already have. Posting mediocre content across six channels is worse than excellent content on two, because mediocre content does not just fail to build your brand - it actively signals that you are not paying attention.

The practical model for most small businesses with limited time: one primary platform, chosen because that is where your customer actually is; one supporting platform, for a different dimension of your audience; and a Google Business profile that is always current and monitored. That is it. Do those three things well, and you have a digital presence that outperforms most of your competitors.

Measure it or change it

The final question every business owner should ask about their digital presence is the one almost nobody asks: is it working?

Not “how many likes did that post get?”. How did your last five new customers find you? Ask them. The answer will tell you more in 30 seconds than three months of analytics. If social media does not appear in the top three answers, it is not your most important channel - regardless of how much time you are spending on it.

The three Fs of platform focus

•  Find: Find out where your customer actually goes when they are looking for what you offer. Not where you think they go. Ask them. The answer changes everything.
•  Fit: Match the platform to your business type. Visual business? Instagram. Local community reach? Facebook. Local search? Google Business Profile. B2B? LinkedIn. Do not fight the platform.
•  Focus: Choose two or three platforms and do them properly. Consistency and quality on a few channels will always outperform scattered presence on many.

This week’s exercise: Your platform audit

• Step 1: Ask your last five new customers how they found you. Write down their answers.
• Step 2: List every digital platform on which your business is currently present.
• Step 3: For each platform, ask honestly: is this where my customer actually looks? Am I showing up here consistently and well?

Then decide:

• Which platform deserves your primary investment of time?
• Which one supports it?
•  Which ones should you stop pretending to maintain?

And if your Google Business profile is not fully complete, updated and monitored, do that today. It will produce more return than almost anything else on this list.

Next column: What happens when things go wrong online - and the three-step response that protects your reputation when it matters most.

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