We contacted over 500 independent local businesses across the UK. Here are the patterns — and what they reveal about the opportunity most businesses are missing.
When Agency Media launched, we knew we needed to understand the market before we could serve it properly. So we did something simple: we contacted businesses. Hundreds of them. Salons, restaurants, gyms, cafes, florists, barbers — independent local businesses across the UK.
Not to sell immediately. To understand what was actually happening with their social media — what they were doing, what they were struggling with, and what they actually wanted help with.
After reaching over 500 businesses, clear patterns emerged. Here is what we found.
This was unprompted. We didn't ask "do you post consistently?" — yet the vast majority of business owners immediately volunteered that they knew their social media was not where it should be. The awareness is there. The execution is the problem.
This tells us something important: the barrier is not understanding — it's action. Business owners already know they should post more. They just cannot make it happen consistently alongside everything else they are managing.
Before reaching out to any business, we checked their social media. The pattern was consistent: a burst of activity, then silence for weeks or months, then another burst. The businesses that had posted most recently were almost always the most professionally run in other ways too.
Consistent social media is a leading indicator of consistent business operations. It makes sense — both require the same discipline: showing up reliably even when you don't feel like it.
Six hours of starting posts and deleting them. Looking at what competitors are doing. Feeling guilty for not posting. Posting once, getting no engagement, and losing motivation. Six hours of effort producing no meaningful output.
Across all business types, Instagram was cited most frequently as the platform owners felt they should prioritise. Facebook was second — still highly relevant for local businesses, particularly those with an older customer base. TikTok was viewed with interest and mild fear — owners could see the potential but didn't know where to start.
LinkedIn came up repeatedly for service providers — estate agents, consultants, accountants — as a platform they were actively underusing. Most had profiles but posted rarely or never.
The consistent thread: business owners want to be in multiple places but can barely manage one. The idea of creating tailored content for three different platforms feels overwhelming before they have even started with one.
This was the most commercially useful finding. When we asked what had previously stopped people from getting help with social media, "cost" came up far less than expected. The main barriers were:
The opportunity is clear: most local UK businesses know they are falling short, have already tried to fix it, and are open to help — if the content sounds authentic, if getting started is quick, and if there is no long-term commitment.
That is exactly what we built Agency Media to be.
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