State of Local Business
Social Media 2026
We analyzed anonymized, aggregated data from local businesses using Boomp. Here's what's actually working — and what's surprising.
Platform engagement rate
Average engagement rate (likes + comments + shares ÷ impressions) across all posts with measurable data. Higher is better. Minimum 15 posts per platform to qualify.
Average impressions per post
How many people see each post on average, by platform. Impressions measure reach — how many eyeballs your content actually gets.
Which platforms local businesses connect
Number of businesses with each platform connected in Boomp. Reflects where businesses believe they need to be present.
How often local businesses post
Posting frequency settings across the 17 businesses with a live schedule. Counts, not percentages — 17 is too small a base for a percentage to carry meaning.
Engagement by Content Category (Sparks)
Boomp’s engine generates content across several core categories ("Sparks"). Here is how different types of posts perform on average across all local service businesses.
The Psychology of Content Engagement
1. The "pattern interrupts" (myths & contrarian)
Social media is incredibly noisy. Consumers have developed total blindness to standard "We offer roofing" posts. But humans are hardwired to notice cognitive dissonance. When a local business posts an insider truth that defies common knowledge (a Myth) or takes a stance against an industry norm (Contrarian), it forces the user to stop scrolling to see why. These categories dominate at 4.6% to 5.2% engagement because they look like authoritative insider knowledge, not marketing.
2. The "Decision-Makers" (Comparisons & How-To)
This tier captures "high intent" users. When someone is close to making a buying decision, they don't want a generic pitch; they want a straightforward comparison or a how-to guide to help them decide. Pulling 3.2% to 3.7% engagement, this content builds immense trust because it positions the business owner as an expert educator rather than a pushy vendor.
3. The "amateur traps" (questions & problems)
For years, "gurus" told local businesses to "ask questions for engagement" or "agitate the problem." Because everyone did this, the platforms became flooded with it. Today, consumers instantly recognize a pure "Problem" post as the opening line of a sales pitch. Dropping down to 2.0% - 2.8% engagement, the data proves that relying on these amateur traps triggers ad-blindness and limits reach.
Engagement rate is total engagements (likes, comments, shares, saves) divided by total impressions for that platform — not a mean of per-post rates, which would let one small-reach post distort the figure. Mean impressions counts only posts that returned at least one impression.
Window: posts published on or after 1 June 2026 — 972 platform-posts. Analytics recorded before that date were inflated by a sync defect that has since been corrected, and mixing the two windows produces figures we cannot stand behind. The earlier version of this report, published in April 2026, drew on that inflated period; several of its numbers were materially wrong and have been withdrawn rather than adjusted.
Two platforms report nothing. Google Business Profile (195 posts) and Pinterest (152 posts) returned zero impressions and zero engagement on every post in the window. They are shown in the connection chart and excluded from every performance chart. We have not established whether the gap is at the platform or in the pipeline that reads it, so we make no claim about the cause.
Small samples: TikTok (8 posts) and YouTube (15) are directional only. Anything under about 30 posts here should be read as a hint, not a benchmark.
Data collected under Boomp's Privacy policy, which explicitly covers anonymized aggregate research use.
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