Posts, stories and reels: what each is for

Most small businesses treat these as three places to put the same thing, which is why two of them feel like extra work for no result. They are doing genuinely different jobs — one reaches people who do not know you, one talks to people who already do, and one is the thing that is still there in a year. Once that is clear, the question of what to put where mostly answers itself.

Reels and short video: reaching strangers

The only format that routinely gets shown to people who do not follow you, because it is distributed by what the video is about rather than by who follows you.

So this is your discovery format. If you want new people to find you, this is the one that does it, and nothing else really substitutes.

What suits it: the work itself, a transformation, something satisfying to watch, a short answer to a question you get asked constantly. Ten seconds of real work beats a minute of anything staged.

What does not: anything that looks like an advert, anything with a long preamble, anything where the first second gives no reason to keep watching.

The caveat for a local business is that the reach is not local — see whether you need TikTok, where the same point decides the whole question.

Stories: talking to people who already follow you

Shown mostly to existing followers, gone in 24 hours. That combination is exactly what makes them useful, and it is why the low-effort thing is the right thing here.

Because they disappear, the bar is low and should be. This is where the unpolished stuff belongs: what you are doing today, a van full of materials, a job halfway through, a quick answer, "we're closed Monday".

Stories do two things well that the other formats do not:

• They keep you present for people who already know you, which is most of what converts a follower into a customer eventually.
• They ask questions. Polls, question boxes and reply prompts get answered here far more than anywhere else, and the answers are genuinely useful — what people are confused about, what they would want, which of two options they prefer.

This is the format most small businesses under-use, usually because it feels too trivial to bother with. That feeling is the point: it is meant to be trivial, and it works because it is.

Grid posts: the thing that stays

Permanent, and the first thing a stranger sees when they land on your profile after a recommendation or a search.

So a grid post is doing a different job again: it is your shop window. Somebody arrives, looks at the top nine things, and decides in about four seconds whether you look like a real, competent, currently-trading business.

What belongs here: finished work you are proud of, before-and-afters, the things you most want to be known for, anything a prospective customer should see when checking you out. Quality over frequency — this is the one place where a mediocre post has a lasting cost, because it sits there.

Also worth remembering: the caption is searchable and durable in a way a story is not. Say where you work and what the job was, in plain words.

The way they fit together

The useful mental model:

• Reels bring people to your profile.
• The grid decides whether they stay.
• Stories keep you in mind until they need you.

Which means a business doing only reels gets discovered and then loses people at a bare profile. A business doing only grid posts has a nice shop window nobody walks past. And a business doing only stories talks to the same small group forever.

You do not need all three. You need to know which problem you have. If nobody finds you, make video. If people find you and do not enquire, fix the grid. If you have followers who never buy, use stories.

One piece of work, three formats

The practical shortcut, and it is not the same as posting the same thing three times.

From one job:

• A reel of the work happening, or the before-and-after in eight seconds.
• Stories across the day — arriving, the problem you found, the finish.
• One grid post of the finished result, with a proper caption.

Same visit, three genuinely different things, each doing its own job. That is the whole method in turning one piece of content into several.

What not to worry about

• The exact dimensions. Vertical and full-screen is right for stories and reels; square or portrait for the grid. Beyond that, do not lose an afternoon to it.
• Posting at the perfect time. It matters far less than you are told.
• Whether stories "count". They are not measured the same way and that is fine — their job is presence, not reach.
• Doing all three every day. Nobody sustains that, and stopping entirely is worse than a smaller habit held for a year.

If you only do one thing

For most small local businesses: a grid post of finished work once or twice a week, and stories whenever something is happening. That covers the shop window and the staying-present, which are the two that convert.

Add short video when you want to be found by people who have never heard of you — and only when you are willing to actually film.

The bottom line

Reels reach strangers, the grid decides whether they stay, and stories keep you in mind until someone needs you. Match the format to the problem you actually have rather than doing all three out of duty. Stories are the most under-used and deliberately the least polished. And one job can produce all three without repeating itself. See also what a local business should post.