A weekly social media plan for small businesses
· 4 min read
In a small business, the person who looks after social media usually looks after other things too. The most sustainable approach then is not to create content every day, but to prepare everything in one batch each week and schedule the posts ahead of time.
Set aside one preparation hour a week
Sit down on the same day at the same time every week. The goal of that session is to prepare every post going out that week. Once the slot is fixed in your calendar, the task becomes a habit and stops getting forgotten.
A weekly skeleton: three types of posts
For most businesses, three types of posts are enough for a week:
- A post that shows your product or service.
- A post that answers a question customers often ask.
- A post that shows the people or the process behind the business.
You don't have to keep this skeleton the same every week. Having a starting point just saves you from losing time in front of a blank page.
Schedule ahead instead of waiting for publishing day
Instead of publishing posts the moment you finish them, spread them across the week. In Fourdeck you can schedule direct publishing to five channels: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. The post goes out by itself at the time you set. No "post now" reminder lands on your phone, and your computer doesn't need to be on.
Check messages once a day
Watching customer messages all day takes time. Pick one time of day, such as the afternoon, and go through the messages from every channel in one go. Fourdeck's shared inbox lets you do that from one place. Which channels support comment and message management depends on the platform.
Look at what worked once a month
At the end of the month, pick the three posts that got the most attention and note what they have in common. Was it the topic, the visual or the posting time? Build next month's skeleton from those notes.