It is Tuesday morning, the coffee is going, and the business account has not posted since the week before last. You open the app, look at the empty caption box, and close it again. Not because nothing happened. Plenty happened. You just cannot think of what counts as a post.

That feeling is not a creativity problem. It is a starting problem. When every post begins from a blank page, posting depends on having a good idea on demand, and nobody has those on a schedule. The businesses that post steadily are not more inspired. They decided once what kinds of posts they make, and now they only decide which one is next.

Five post types, one week

Pick five repeatable types and give each one a slot in the week. These five work for almost any local business, from a bakery to a law firm.

The work. Something you made, fixed, served or delivered this week. A finished kitchen, a plate leaving the pass, a before and after, a box going out the door. This is the backbone of the account because it shows what a customer actually gets.

The answer. A question a customer asked you this week, with your answer. “Can I bring my own wine?” “How long does a roof take?” “Do you see kids?” If one person asked, others wondered. This is also the post that gets saved and shared, because it is useful.

The people. Whoever does the work: a staff member, a supplier, a regular who is happy to be featured. One photo and two sentences about who they are and what they do. People buy from people, and this is the cheapest way to show there are people here.

The proof. A review, a thank-you note, a finished project with the customer’s permission. Do not just screenshot the five stars. Pull the one sentence that says what the customer cared about and post that, with a picture of the thing they were talking about.

The local. Something happening around you: a partner business, a town event, the season changing on Main Street. It ties the account to a place, and on Long Island, where people choose businesses by town, that matters more than it sounds.

That is five posts a week if you can manage it. If you cannot, run the same five across two weeks. The rhythm matters more than the number. As our guide to social media management for small businesses puts it, consistency beats perfection.

Once a month, add a sixth: the ask. An offer, a booking push, a new service, a holiday hours reminder. Keep it to once a month and people will notice it. Make every post an ask and they stop reading all of them.

Keep an idea bank

The mix tells you what kind of post comes next. The idea bank tells you what goes in it.

Start a single note on your phone, or a shared one if staff help. Give it five headings, one per post type. Then, whenever something happens that fits, add a line. That is the whole system. The trick is where the lines come from:

the questions people ask at the counter, on the phone and in email,
the jobs you were proud of this week, photographed before they leave,
the reviews that came in, and what each one actually praised,
the staff milestones: a work anniversary, a new certification, a first day,
the calendar: local events, seasons, holidays and your own busy and slow weeks.

Ask your team to add to it. The person at the front desk hears more questions in a day than the owner does in a week.

Make once, post several ways

One good idea is several posts. A finished project can be a single photo on Monday, a short vertical video of the walkthrough later in the month, and a carousel of three steps in the next quarter. The answer to a common question can be a caption, a short talking clip, and a line on your Google Business Profile.

Shoot in batches. When you are already set up for a photo, take ten. Fifteen minutes on a quiet afternoon can fill the work and people slots for a month.

Reposting is allowed. Your newest follower has never seen what you posted last spring. A strong post from six months ago, refreshed with a new first line, often does better than a new post written in a hurry.

When the bank runs dry

Some weeks the note is empty. Use one of these:

What is the most common mistake customers make before they come to you?
What does a normal day look like at 7 a.m.?
What tool or ingredient do you rely on, and why that one?
What changed in your business this year?
What do you wish more people knew about your industry?
What is your slowest week, and what would you say to people that week?

Each one is a post in any of the five slots. Write it the way you would say it to a customer, which is easier if you have a one-page brand voice guide to lean on.

Check what is working, monthly

Once a month, look at the last four weeks by post type, not post by post. Which type got the saves, the shares, the comments and the direct messages? Which type was followed by calls or bookings? Likes are the weakest signal on the list. A post that three people saved and one person called about beat a post fifty people tapped once.

Then shift the mix toward what works. If the answer posts carry the account, give them two slots. If the local posts go nowhere, drop to one every other week. Our guide to measuring what your marketing actually does covers how to tie those signals to real results.

What we do

Our social media marketing team builds a strategy per platform, including content pillars and posting cadence, then creates the photo, video and graphics in house and manages the comments and messages that follow. Organic and paid are run together and reported against a business goal, not a follower count.

Want to know where your social stands before you plan the next month? Take the free marketing audit.