A social media plan that takes one hour a week

Most small business owners quit social media for the same reason: it feels like a daily chore with no finish line. The fix is to stop treating it as a daily task. Do it once a week, in one block, and then leave it alone.

Pick one platform

You do not have to be everywhere. Choose the one place your customers already spend time. For most local businesses that serve the general public, that is Facebook. If your work is highly visual and your customers skew younger, it may be Instagram. Do one well before you add another.

The weekly hour

Block one hour on your calendar, the same time every week.

Minutes 0 to 10: collect. Scroll through your phone's camera roll. Pull out anything from the past week: a finished job, a new product, a busy Saturday, a staff member doing their thing.

Minutes 10 to 45: write three posts. Use this simple rotation so you never stare at a blank box:

1. Show your work. A photo of something you made, fixed, sold or served, with one or two sentences about it.
2. Help. Answer a question customers ask you all the time. "People always ask us whether..." is a great first line.
3. Be a person. Introduce an employee, share why you started, celebrate a milestone, or thank a customer.

Minutes 45 to 60: schedule. Use the free scheduling tools built into Facebook and Instagram to spread the three posts across the week.

Ten minutes a day

Posting is half of it. The other half is showing up when people respond. Once a day, reply to every comment and message. Quick replies turn into conversations, and conversations turn into customers.

What to skip

• Posting every day. Three good posts beat seven forgettable ones.
• Stock photos and generic graphics. Your own slightly imperfect photo of real work will almost always do better.
• Only posting sales. If every post is an ad, people stop looking.

Do this today

Put a recurring one-hour block on your calendar, then take three photos at work this week so you have something to post when the hour arrives.