The key points
- It works before people are ready to enquire, so it is hard to attribute.
- Engaged local followers beat large scattered audiences.
- A sustainable cadence beats ambitious posting that stops.
- Real photos and video of your own work usually perform better than stock.
What does social media actually do for you?
It builds familiarity. Someone choosing a service often looks you up first, and an active, genuine presence reassures them before they ever fill in a form. That effect happens before the enquiry, which is why it is hard to attribute and easy to abandon.
How should you measure it?
Not by follower count. A local business with a few thousand engaged followers in its own city outperforms one with far more scattered across the country. Report on reach within the right audience and on enquiries that mention social, and ask new customers how they found you.
Keep the link back to enquiries simple. A clear profile description, a working contact link tagged with campaign parameters and an occasional post that explains how to get in touch turn recognition into action without turning every post into a sales pitch. Ask new customers how they found you and keep a running tally; it is imperfect, but it shows whether the effort is reaching real people.
What makes it sustainable?
A cadence you can keep. A few well-made posts a week, maintained for a year, beats daily posting abandoned after six weeks. A content calendar and a small set of content themes mean there is always something obvious to post. Photographs and video your team captures often outperform produced content, because they show the real place and people.
- A content calendar with a few clear themes
- A sustainable posting rhythm
- Real photos and video from your own team
- Permission before featuring customers, patients or children
Social media reality check
- Which platform do your customers genuinely use?
- Can someone capture photos and video weekly?
- What would count as success other than followers?
- Do you have permission to photograph customers?
Sources
Rules and guidance this answer relies on. Policies change, so check the current version before acting on it.