How to batch a month of social media posts in one sitting

To batch a month of social media posts, sit down once with your calendar, list what is happening in the next four weeks, turn each item into a post, and schedule them all before you get up. The writing is the small part. What batching removes is the daily decision about what to say, which is the part that stops when the business gets busy.

A month is a good distance. You already know your hours, your events and most of your stock that far out, and one sitting covers it.

Batching goes quickly when everything is on the table first. Four things are enough.

• Your calendar for the next four weeks. Closures, events, sales, arrivals, deadlines and holidays.
• Last month’s photos. The ones already on your phone: finished jobs, new stock, the team at work.
• The questions customers asked. Every question you answered twice this month is a post.
• The details. For each offer or event, the date, the hour and the price. A post without them makes someone call to ask.

Almost every post a small business needs is one of four kinds. Knowing them turns “what do I post” into filling four short lists.

A photo or a story that shows a customer needs that customer’s permission first. Getting it is your job.

1. Put the dated posts on the calendar first. They decide their own days: about a week before the date, and again the day before.
2. Fill the gaps with work posts. One photo and two sentences about what it shows.
3. Add one answer a week. Put the question in the first line, then the answer.
4. Add a people post where a week still looks thin.
5. Write each post once, then word it for each network. A caption written for Instagram, hashtags and all, reads wrong as a Google Business Profile update.
6. Schedule everything, and leave one open day a week for whatever comes up.

Three posts a week for four weeks is twelve posts. Most of them are already sitting in your calendar and your camera roll. The answer on how often a local business should post has a pace that holds all year.

Some posts cannot be written a month ahead, and scheduling them anyway is how a business ends up announcing a special that sold out.

• Anything that depends on stock. Post it when the stock is in the building.
• Anything that depends on the weather. A patio post on a rainy day reads as careless.
• News. A post about something that just happened is written the day it happens.
• Replies. Comments and messages are answered by a person, the same day.

Then keep one habit. Every Monday, read the week’s scheduled posts and change anything that is no longer true.

With Spica Post, the sitting is one message. You tell the AI assistant you already use what is happening this month and hand it your photos. It drafts each post for each of your accounts, and you read them and approve them. Nothing goes out until you do.

Each approved post is scheduled for its day, or added to your queue, where it goes out at the next posting time you saved. If your plans change, you ask for the post to be moved or cancelled.