A frazzled cartoon café owner in an apron shouts through a megaphone at a giant smartphone, on whose screen a cheeky green gremlin hides the owner's burger photo behind its back while passers-by scroll their phones without noticing

Social Media Isn’t Enough: Why Your Business Needs to Be Discoverable Elsewhere

You took the perfect photo of tonight’s special, wrote a caption you were quite proud of, and posted it. Then… crickets. A handful of likes, mostly from your staff and your mum.

It’s not you. It’s the algorithm. Social media is still useful, but if it’s the only way people can find you, your business is depending on a gatekeeper that doesn’t work for you.

How few followers actually see your posts

When you post, the platform decides who sees it, and that’s usually a small slice of your followers. In a 2026 Socialinsider analysis of brand pages active from January 2025 to August 2026:

  • Average organic reach was 3.20% of followers on Instagram and 1.25% on Facebook.
  • Instagram reach was down 14% on the year before.
  • Smaller Facebook pages did better: those with 1,000 to 5,000 followers averaged 4.35%, while pages with 100,000 to 1 million averaged 0.50%.
  • On Facebook, link posts averaged just 0.20% reach, compared with 1.20% for image posts.

Then there’s engagement. Socialinsider’s Facebook benchmarks put the average engagement rate at around 0.15%. In plain terms, most followers never see a given post, and most who do scroll straight past.

The algorithm is your landlord

Building your marketing solely on social media is like building a shop on rented land. The platform can change the rules at any time: what gets shown, which formats are favoured, whether links are penalised. You don’t get a vote, and you can’t take your followers with you.

That doesn’t mean quit social media. It means don’t make it your only front door.

Where else locals look

When people want somewhere to eat or shop, many don’t open Instagram at all. They search. In BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer search behaviour research (a US panel of 1,227 consumers):

  • 52% started their most recent local business search on Google Search, and a further 9% on Google Maps.
  • 75% used more than one channel during their search.
  • 84% had searched for a local business online in the previous three months.

That’s US data, but the lesson travels well: people use several channels, and search is a big one. Here are the front doors worth opening.

1. Google Business Profile. Free and essential. Keep your hours, photos, menu and category accurate. One tip: Google’s profile guidelines say the business description shouldn’t focus on promotions or prices and can’t contain links, so describe what you are and put offers in posts instead.

2. Reviews. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (also a US panel) found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, using an average of six review sites. Ask happy customers to leave one and reply to every review, good or bad.

3. Local directories and deal sites. Listings that locals browse when they’re actively looking for something to do.

4. Word of mouth. The oldest algorithm there is. Give people something worth mentioning: a regular special, a friendly welcome or a great event.

5. Signage. A chalkboard on the footpath reaches everyone walking past, no algorithm required.

Cartoon locals find a charming café by different routes at once: one beside a wooden signpost, one holding a paper map with a heart pin, one pointing the way for a friend and one checking a map pin on her phone, while the owner waves from the doorway
Signposts, maps, mates and search: the more ways in, the better.

An illustrative example

These figures are illustrative only, not data from a real business.

Bean There Café has 2,000 Facebook followers. At the 4.35% average reach for pages that size, a typical post reaches about 87 people. Some of them live across town, and many of the rest have already eaten.

So the owner spends one afternoon spreading out:

  • Updates the Google Business Profile with fresh photos, hours and the weekly special as a post.
  • Adds a QR code at the counter asking for Google reviews, and replies to every one.
  • Lists the café and its Thursday trivia on local directories and deal sites.
  • Puts a chalkboard out front each morning.

Now there are five front doors instead of one, and none depends on whether the algorithm is in a good mood.

Practical takeaways

  • Keep posting on social media, but don’t rely on it alone.
  • Treat your Google Business Profile like a shopfront. Keep it accurate and active.
  • Build reviews steadily and reply to them.
  • List on local directories and deal sites where locals are already looking.
  • Don’t underestimate the footpath. Signage and word of mouth still work.

Another front door

In Store Only (ISO) is a no-commission local deals and directory platform launching in Balmain and Rozelle. Your venue, deals and events sit where locals go specifically to see what’s on nearby, rather than competing in a feed. Locals can also opt in to notifications on instoreonly.com.au and are notified whenever a new listing goes up. No gremlins involved.

Discover how to promote your business at instoreonly.biz, and see what’s on locally at instoreonly.com.au.

Local Deals from Local Businesses.

Sources

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