Instagram first, then one more, chosen by where your customers say they found you. That is the whole answer for a team of one. Here is how to pick the second channel, what each one asks of you, and when to add or drop one.
One channel done well beats four done badly
Every channel wants a rhythm. One person can hold one rhythm, maybe two. Spread across four and each one goes quiet, and a quiet account tells a new customer that nobody is home. A florist posting twice a week on Instagram looks alive. The same florist with a dormant TikTok, a Facebook page from 2022 and a LinkedIn with three posts looks like they gave up.
Start where a stranger checks you out
For most small brands selling something you can photograph, that is Instagram. When someone hears your name, it is where they go to see if you are real, what it looks like and whether it is for them. It is a shop window as much as a channel. If you sell to businesses, LinkedIn takes that role. Pick the one place a stranger goes to check you out, and make sure the last post is recent.
Ask, do not guess, for the second
Ask the next twenty customers one question: where did you first see us? Tally the answers. The second channel is whichever comes up that you are not on yet. If the answers are "a friend" and "Google", those are not channels you post on. They are reasons to keep the website and the reviews tidy, and to give the friend something worth sending.
The second channel is the one your customers name, not the one you feel you should be on.
What each one asks of you
Facebook is local and older, and it runs on groups and events. If you sell in one town it still works, and it costs almost nothing if you share what you already made for Instagram. LinkedIn is for services and selling to businesses: written posts with your face on them, once or twice a week. TikTok is short video, twice a week, and it has its own three-question test. Pinterest suits home, food, fashion and weddings, anything people plan ahead for, and a pin keeps working for months with little upkeep.
When to add, when to stop
Add a channel only when the first one has held its rhythm for three months. Drop one when it has been quiet for two. Neither is a failure. It is a diary decision, and writing it down with a date makes it one. Other people's channels count too: one creator who genuinely uses your product can reach further than a fourth account of your own.
What CP3® does here
Brand Scan reads your website and Instagram into one brand profile. Branded Content drafts posts per channel and format from that profile onto one calendar. Instagram publishes from the calendar. Drafts for Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok you post yourself. One profile and one calendar, so the second channel does not double the work.