Small business owners online, platform by platform
How US small business owners use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, podcasts and newsletters, and what each one is good for if you want to reach them.
Contents
One owner stands at a bench with a stack of six work blocks while a stream of cards slides past. Most pass by; three that fix something are taken onto the bench, and a block comes off the stack for each. A last empty slot at the end of the bench is labelled you.
Do small business owners use Facebook?
Yes - 82% of small businesses use Facebook to promote products and connect with customers. But I had the wrong mental model for how.
I thought of Facebook as a posting platform. For business owners, it's more like a storefront and a customer service desk rolled into one.
Over 250 million people engage with Facebook Shops every month. 58% of US shoppers have bought something after seeing it on social media, and Facebook is the primary discovery channel. Business owners aren't just posting updates; they're managing ads, responding to Messenger leads, and updating store inventory.
The average adult spends 31-35 minutes daily on Facebook. For business owners, I'd guess almost all of that is operational - checking leads, responding to customers, running ads.
What I took from this: If you're selling to business owners, Facebook isn't for brand awareness. It's for commerce. Show up in their Shop feed, their Messenger inbox, or their ad targeting - not their timeline.
One market booth with two sides: a counter with goods, labelled Shop, and a desk with a stack of letters, labelled Messenger. Customers walk to the counter and the desk. A blank wall beside it, labelled timeline, gets no visitors.
What about Instagram?
62% of decision-makers increased their investment in content creation this past year, with heavy focus on Instagram Stories and Reels. Stories alone get 500 million daily views.
For lifestyle, retail, and hospitality businesses, Instagram is what I'd call "aesthetic proof" - evidence that the brand exists and cares about presentation. It's visual credibility.
But there's a catch: organic reach dropped 41% in 2024. The free ride is over. You're paying to play now, whether that's with money or with enough content volume to game the algorithm.
My takeaway: Instagram matters if you have something visual to show. But you can't rely on organic reach anymore. Budget for ads or plan to post constantly.
A lantern lights a row of ten passers-by. Its light narrows by 41 percent and four go dark. A coin and a stack of posts are fed in, and the light widens part of the way back, not all of it.
Is LinkedIn actually useful for small business?
This one surprised me.
LinkedIn has 67 million small businesses on it. Over 53% of American users earn more than $100,000 annually. It drives 80% of B2B social media leads. 69% of US users check it daily.
I'd underestimated it because I thought of LinkedIn as a job hunting platform. For business owners, it's where trust gets built.
Posts between 800-1,000 words get 26% more engagement than shorter updates. 65% of business owners on LinkedIn now identify as content creators. They're moving from simple updates to long-form thought leadership. LinkedIn Newsletters have 28 million subscribers globally.
What I learned: LinkedIn is where decision-makers go to feel smart and find peers. If you're selling B2B services, this is your primary stage. Post substance, not announcements.
Two speakers. The one with a short announcement has four listeners half turned away. The one with a long page of substance has five listeners facing in, labelled 26 percent more engagement.
Do business owners actually use TikTok?
More than I expected. 58% of small businesses are now active on TikTok. Users spend 53.8 minutes daily on the app - more than any other platform.
The engagement numbers are wild: for accounts under 100,000 followers, engagement rates can hit 7.5%. That's unheard of on other platforms.
60% of TikTok users use the app for shopping inspiration. 70 million people in the US use TikTok Shop.
What's happening here is that TikTok's algorithm is genuinely democratic. A small business with something surprising or useful can reach as many people as a big brand with a million-dollar budget. The "human touch" and authenticity that plays well here levels the playing field.
My takeaway: If you have something visual, surprising, or genuinely useful, TikTok might actually show it to people. The algorithm doesn't care how big you are.
A big brand stand with a pile of coins and a small stall stand, with one lantern between them lighting both the same. Two equal streams of walkers go to each.
What about YouTube?
YouTube reaches 78.5% of the total internet user base. The average session is 7 minutes 37 seconds - significantly longer than other platforms.
For business owners, YouTube functions as a "de facto business school." Tax strategies, marketing tactics, technical troubleshooting - it's where they go for deep-dive learning.
I've started thinking of YouTube differently. It's not social media. It's a searchable library of tutorials. Business owners are there to learn, not to be entertained.
What I took from this: If you can explain something complex in 7-10 minutes, YouTube is your classroom.
A shelf of tutorial spines. An owner walks up and slides one out. It opens as a lit panel with a ring that fills to 7 minutes 37 seconds.
Do business owners listen to podcasts?
78% of business leaders listen to podcasts weekly, spending more than 54 minutes daily on audio content.
The completion rate is what caught my attention: people finish audio nearly 7 times as often as video, 80% against 12%. When someone starts a podcast, they usually finish it. That's nearly an hour of undivided attention.
The top podcasts for business owners include How I Built This, The Tim Ferriss Show, Masters of Scale, and Marketing School. And there's a shift happening: 58% of business podcasts are now video-first, which means owners discover content via social clips, then commit to full episodes during commutes or admin tasks.
What I took from this: Podcasts have your audience's attention for nearly an hour. If you can get on the right ones, you're not interrupting - you're accompanying.
Two parallel roads, audio above and video below, each with one owner carrying a work tray. The audio owner walks to the end flag, labelled 80 percent. The video owner stops early and sits down, labelled 12 percent.
What about newsletters?
Business newsletters have open rates of 48-49%. That's remarkably high for email.
Morning Brew has 4 million subscribers. The Hustle has 2.5 million. TLDR has 1.25 million. These land directly in the owner's inbox.
30% of business owners follow newsletters specifically to stay ahead of AI trends. Email marketing contributes 11% of total e-commerce sales with an ROI of up to $50 for every $1 spent by top performers.
My takeaway: The inbox is still the highest-trust channel. If you can earn a spot there, you've bypassed the algorithm entirely.
Feed cards go into a sorting box and only trickle out. Beside it, ten envelopes slide along a straight path to an owner's door and about half open, labelled 48 to 49 percent opened.