A salon owner asked me: âShould I be on TikTok?â She was already struggling to post consistently on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Adding TikTok would have meant doing four things badly instead of three.
My advice: quit LinkedIn (her clients arenât there), quit Facebook (she was posting the same content as Instagram), and go all-in on Instagram. Her engagement tripled within two months.
Which platform for which business
Best for: Visual businesses â restaurants, salons, fashion, hospitality, events, fitness, real estate
Why: Visual-first platform. Reels for discovery, Stories for daily engagement, posts for portfolio. Rwandaâs Instagram audience skews young and urban.
Best for: Community-oriented businesses â retail, services, local businesses targeting 30+ age group
Why: Largest user base in Rwanda. Groups are powerful for community building. Marketplace for selling. Ads have the best targeting options in the region.
Best for: B2B businesses â consulting, law firms, tech companies, recruitment
Why: Decision-makers are here. Thought leadership content works well. Not for consumer-facing businesses.
TikTok
Best for: Businesses targeting under-25 audience with entertaining content
Why: Massive organic reach. But the content demands are high â you need to create video constantly. Only commit if you have the capacity.
The 80/20 content rule
80% value, 20% promotion. If every post is âbuy our product,â people unfollow. Give value first:
- Tips and how-tos related to your industry
- Behind-the-scenes of your work
- Customer stories and testimonials
- Industry news and commentary
- Then, occasionally: your products and services
Posting frequency
Better to post 3 excellent posts per week than 7 mediocre ones daily. Quality over quantity. Always.
Use Meta Business Suite (free) to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts in advance. Batch-create a weekâs content on one day. This is far more efficient than scrambling to post daily.
Social media + website = the winning combo
Social media builds awareness. Your website converts that awareness into customers. Drive social traffic to your website where you control the experience, the information, and the call-to-action.
Pick one platform. Master it. Then consider adding another. Being excellent on one platform beats being mediocre on five.