It depends on who pays you

That's the whole decision. If your customers are homeowners — kitchens, bathrooms, extensions, domestic repairs — Instagram and Facebook are where they are. If your customers are other businesses — office fit-outs, new-build developments, facilities contracts — LinkedIn is where the decision-makers sit.

Most tradespeople get this backwards. They pour time into the platform they personally enjoy scrolling, not the one their paying customers use. Here's how to get it right.

Instagram: for visual, residential work

Instagram works when the quality of your work is something people want to see. Builders showing finished extensions. Kitchen fitters posting before-and-after carousels. Painters and decorators showing colour schemes. Landscape gardeners with garden transformations. Plasterers with crisp, clean finishes — yes, people do notice.

The format is simple: clean phone photos of finished work, tagged with the area ("Chapel Allerton, Leeds"), posted consistently. You don't need to be a content creator. A tradesperson who posts three finished jobs a week looks busier and more reliable than one with a profile full of stock images and a four-month gap between posts.

The killer on Instagram isn't quality — it's irregularity. A half-finished profile with seven posts from 2024 looks worse than no profile at all. An abandoned Instagram signals you're not active, not in demand, and possibly not in business.

LinkedIn: for commercial and contract work

LinkedIn works when your customers are other businesses. Commercial electricians doing office refurbs. Security installers fitting CCTV for schools and warehouses. HVAC engineers maintaining boilers across a business park. Commercial plumbers working restaurants and office blocks.

The person you're trying to reach isn't a homeowner — it's a facilities manager at a Leeds business park, a property developer in Holbeck, a procurement officer at Leeds City Council, or a letting agent managing 200 properties across West Yorkshire. These people don't scroll Instagram during the workday. They scroll LinkedIn.

The content that works here is different — not photos of finished work, but proof you're reliable. Project updates ("Just completed a full rewire of 12,000 sq ft on Kirkstall Road"), certifications, testimonials from commercial clients. Show you understand the commercial side: deadlines, health and safety, working around tenants.

The Facebook factor nobody talks about

Here's what most guides skip: for Leeds tradespeople, Facebook is often the most effective platform — and it's nothing to do with your business page.

It's the community groups. "Leeds Mums", "Chapel Allerton Residents", "Headingley & Hyde Park Community" — these are where real recommendations happen. Someone posts "need a reliable plumber in Horsforth" and gets twenty replies from neighbours. If you're the plumber who's active, helpful and visible in those groups, you get the work. No algorithm, no content calendar — just being the name people think of first.

We've seen trades get more qualified leads from being genuinely helpful in one Facebook group than from six months of Instagram posts. It's not glamorous, but it works.

Three mistakes almost every tradesperson makes

Being on every platform badly. A dead Instagram, a half-filled LinkedIn, and a Facebook page last updated in March. Pick one — the one where your customers are — and do it properly. One strong presence beats three abandoned ones.

Posting for other trades, not customers. A lot of trade accounts post technical content only other tradespeople understand. That builds a peer network but doesn't win work. Post for the person paying you — the homeowner who wants to see clean work, or the facilities manager who wants proof of reliability.

No contact details or location. You'd be amazed how many profiles don't say where the business is based or how to get in touch. If someone has to work to find out you cover Leeds, they'll just go to the next person.

Which should you choose?

If you're residential (B2C): Instagram for showcasing work, Facebook community groups for getting recommended. LinkedIn is a waste of your time.

If you're commercial (B2B): LinkedIn for reaching decision-makers. Instagram as a secondary portfolio if you want one.

If you do both: pick whichever matches where 70% of your revenue comes from, and focus there. Don't split your effort.

Whatever you choose, the platform only works if it's consistent — which is the exact problem for busy tradespeople who don't have time to post every day. That's where our social media management comes in. We handle the posting, the photos, the community engagement — you handle the work. Or if social genuinely isn't your thing, you can swap it for an AI assistant on your website that captures enquiries 24/7 instead.