Give Every Post One Job: Plan a Week of Posts in 30 Minutes

Most posts that fall flat have the same problem. The owner knew what to say, but not what the post was for. A post with no job tries to do everything at once: get seen, sound friendly, sell something and start a conversation. It rarely does any of them well. A post with one job is easier to write, easier to finish and easier to judge afterward. This guide gives you six jobs, a way to give each day of your week one, and a short test to run before you post. Plan on about 30 minutes to set up your first week.

You need: a rough idea of what you could post this week, a calendar and one real photo.

A theme is what a post is about. A job is what it is for. You can keep your themes. This guide adds the job.

Step 1. Learn the six jobs

Every post you write does one of these. The last column is how you will know it worked.

Job	What it does	How you will know
Reach	New people who have never heard of you see you	More views, a few new followers
Found	Someone searching for what you sell lands on you	More people reaching your Google profile or website from a search
Engage	People answer, so the post travels further and a conversation starts	Comments, votes, shares
Trust	Shows you are good at what you do	People visit your profile and click through to your website
Offer	Shows what you sell and how to get it	Calls, bookings, direction requests, link clicks
Return	Brings back people who already know you	Repeat visits and bookings

Reach and Found are different on purpose. Someone scrolling past is not looking for you. Someone searching is. They need different posts, and you judge them by different numbers.

Step 2. Name one job for each post

Before you write, finish this sentence: "This post is for [job]." If you cannot name the job in one word, the post is not ready.

If a post seems to have two jobs, split it into two posts or pick the stronger one. A few examples:

• "We have two openings Friday" is an Offer.
• "Thank you to everyone who has been coming in for six years" is a Return.
• "Which would you pick, A or B?" is Engage.
• "Here is how we prepare before every job" is Trust.

Step 3. Give each day of your week a job

Pick the pace you can hold first. See How Often Should a Small Business Post on Social Media?. Then give each post a job so the week is not all one thing.

If you post three times a week, a week can look like this:

• Monday: Trust, such as a before and after or a look behind the scenes.
• Wednesday: Found or Reach, such as an answer to a question customers ask, or a tie to something happening in town.
• Friday: Offer or Return, such as open slots, holiday hours or a reminder that it is time for the next visit.

If you post once a week, rotate. Trust one week, Offer the next, then Found, then Engage, and start over.

One rule of thumb of ours: no more than about one post in four should be an Offer. If every post asks for money, your page starts to read like an ad.

Step 4. Pick a kind of post for the job

Each job has plenty of options. Here are two for each to start with.

• Reach: a local event or season tie-in, or one quick tip a customer can use today.
• Found: a question customers really ask, answered plainly, or a post that points to one of your service pages.
• Engage: a poll with two to four answers, or a sentence with a blank for people to finish.
• Trust: a before and after (with the customer's permission), or a look at how the work gets done.
• Offer: one service, with who it is for and how to book, or the real openings this week.
• Return: holiday hours posted before the date, or a thank you to your regulars.

If you are stuck, Nothing to Say? Post One of These Seven has fill-in lines you can use for several of these.

Only plan a kind of post you can actually feed. No photos this month means no before and after. No special this month means no special post. Pick a different job instead of faking one.

Step 5. Write the ending first

Every post ends with one question or one next step. Decide it before you write the rest.

• A question: "Which would you pick?" or "What is the first thing you notice?"
• A next step: "Book here," "Call us at [number]," "Read the guide" or "Reply with the word and we will send it."

One ending per post. Two asks split people's attention, and most will do neither.

Step 6. Check where the post points

A good post that sends people to the wrong hours, a dead link or an old phone number is wasted. Before you post, click the link yourself. Check that your hours, phone number and booking link are right on your website, your Google profile and your social pages. If they are not, fix those first.

These guides help:

• Make Your Name, Address and Phone Number Match Everywhere
• Check Your Hours Before the Holidays
• How to Answer a Google Review, because replying to comments and reviews is part of your presence too

Step 7. Check by job, not by post

One post's numbers are mostly noise. After about four weeks, look at each job as a group.

1. Write down how many posts you made for each job.
2. Write down the number from the last column of the table in Step 1 for that job.
3. Mark each job: better, worse or about the same as last month.
4. Change one or two things, not five. Then wait another month.

If you do not have enough numbers to tell, write "can't tell yet" and keep going. That is an honest answer. For a simple way to look, see Check Your Own Marketing in 30 Minutes a Week and How to Tell If a Marketing Change Worked.

Use AI for a first draft of the week

Use the facts-first method in How to Use AI to Write Your Marketing Without It Making Things Up, paste your facts sheet, and then ask:

Using only my facts sheet, plan one week of three posts. The jobs are Trust, [Found or Reach] and [Offer or Return]. For each post give me the job, the kind of post, a draft under 60 words, and one ending, either a question or a next step. Plain words, no exclamation points. Do not invent prices, specials, events, statistics or customer quotes. If you need a fact that is not in the sheet, write [ASK ME].

Then edit it. Cut anything that is not true, fill in every [ASK ME], and check that each post has exactly one job and one ending.

Check your work

• Every post you plan has one job, named in one word.
• No more than about one in four is an Offer.
• Every post ends with one question or one next step.
• You clicked the link, and your hours and phone number are right.
• You have a date on the calendar to look at the results by job.

Keep it up

Do this planning once a week, or plan a month at a time. If you get busy, skip a post, not the thinking. A shorter plan with a job on every post beats a full calendar with none.

If you would rather hand this off

Every post we write for a client has one job, one ending and a place to point. We plan around the jobs, write and publish on a schedule, and check what worked by job. See our Posting Schedule FAQ, or get started.