A social media strategy for a small business is six decisions written on one page.
One job social media does for the business.
One or two channels where your customer already looks.
One source of truth for every post, which is almost always your website.
A cadence you can hold for a year.
An approval rule that names who reads each post before it publishes.
One number you check monthly.
Once those six lines exist, the only remaining question is who executes them: you, a manager or software.
You are not a media company
Most social media strategy advice is written for brands whose product is attention.
They need a content team, a channel for every audience, a daily calendar and a dashboard of engagement metrics.
A plumber, a bookkeeper, a dentist or a listing agent needs none of that.
Your product is the work.
Social media has one supporting role: it lets a person who is about to call you see that you are real, current and good at the job.
That changes what a strategy has to contain.
It does not need to be long.
It needs to be small enough that it survives the busy season, the slow season and the month you forget it exists.
Everything below is built to fit on one page.
This page is the strategy step inside the wider social media marketing guide for small business; that guide covers what to post and how the channels differ, and this one settles the six decisions first.
The six decisions
1. One job
Write one sentence that begins "Social media exists so that".
For most small businesses the honest ending is one of these three.
So that a new customer who found us is comfortable enough to call.
So that past customers remember us when the need comes back.
So that a referral partner can point at something when they recommend us.
Pick one.
A strategy with three jobs is a strategy with none, because every post has to serve all of them and ends up serving nobody.
If you cannot choose, choose the first; it is the job that most directly turns into revenue.
2. One or two channels
Go where the customer already looks, not where the advice says you should be.
For a local business that is nearly always Google Business Profile, because it sits on the map result the customer is already reading.
Then add one: Facebook for a customer over forty in a town, Instagram for a visual trade, LinkedIn for a business that sells to other businesses.
The platform decision guide walks through the choice channel by channel.
Two channels is the ceiling for the first six months.
Every extra profile is another place to be visibly absent.
3. One source of truth
Every post needs to come from somewhere, and the somewhere decides whether the posts sound like you.
For a small business the right source is the website.
Your services page says what you do.
Your FAQ says what customers ask.
Your process page says how a job goes.
Your about page says why you.
Your reviews say what it was like.
A post drawn from those pages cannot run for a competitor, because it is built from your specifics.
A post drawn from a generic prompt or a template library can run for anyone, and reads that way.
This also means the strategy has a maintenance clause: when the website changes, the posts change.
Keep the website true and the posts stay true.
The 47 post ideas are grouped by which website page each one comes from, for exactly this reason.
4. A cadence you can hold
Decide the cadence last among the content decisions, after you know who is doing the work.
Two or three posts a week is the floor most businesses can keep by hand.
A weekday cadence, roughly twenty posts a month, is realistic only when someone or something else is writing.
Daily is a media company's cadence.
The test is not "how often should we post" but "what will still be happening in eleven months".
A cadence that breaks is worse than a slower one that does not, because the break is visible to the customer who checks the date on your last post.
The posting schedule guide builds the calendar from customer moments rather than a quota.
5. An approval rule
Name the person who reads every post before it publishes, and what they are reading for.
This is the line most strategies skip and the one that matters most in a regulated or reputation-heavy trade.
A dentist checks for health claims.
A listing agent checks for fair housing.
A contractor checks that the before-and-after photo had the homeowner's permission.
Every business checks that the price, the hours and the offer are still true.
The rule can be one sentence: "The owner reads every post before it publishes and flags anything about a specific patient, property or price".
Who that person is decides which execution option is open to you, as the table below shows.
6. One number
Choose the single number that would move if the job in decision one were being done.
If the job is making a new customer comfortable enough to call, the number is how many new customers say they looked at your posts before contacting you.
Ask at intake; it costs nothing.
If the job is staying in front of past customers, the number is repeat inquiries.
Likes, followers and reach are not the number for a business that is not a media company.
Check it monthly.
Change the strategy only when the number has not moved for a quarter.
A month is noise; a quarter is a signal.
The one-page template
Copy this table, fill in the right column, and the strategy is written.
| Decision | Your line | Example for a plumbing company |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Social media exists so that ... | A homeowner comparing three plumbers on Google is comfortable enough to call us. |
| Channels | One or two | Google Business Profile and Facebook. |
| Source of truth | Where every post comes from | Our website: services, FAQ, process and reviews. When the site changes, the posts change. |
| Cadence | What we can hold for a year | Three posts a week, every week, including July and December. |
| Approval rule | Who reads each post, for what | The owner reads every post; anything naming a price, a warranty or a customer waits for a second look. |
| Measurement | One number, checked monthly | New callers who say they saw our posts, asked at booking. |
| Executor | You, a manager or software | Software writes from the site; the owner approves each post in the app. |
That is the whole strategy.
It takes about an hour, and most of the hour is the first line.
Who executes it
The strategy is the easy part.
The reason most small business social media stops is that nobody was assigned the execution, or the person assigned had a real job to do.
There are three ways to execute a one-page strategy, and the axis is who does the work, with price second.
| Executor | Who writes and makes the image | Who approves and publishes | Monthly cost | Holds a year? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You, with a free scheduler | You, from your own site and photos | You | $0, or the scheduler price on the vendor site | Only if you enjoy it and protect three hours a week |
| A freelance social media manager | A person, from your briefing and the media you send | You approve, they publish | $500 to $1,500 is a typical quoted range, not a survey | Yes, as long as you keep briefing and supplying photos |
| An agency | A team, with strategy, often ads and reporting | Agency, with your sign-off | $1,500 to $2,500 and up, typical range | Yes, and you are paying for services a one-page strategy does not need |
| Software that reads your website (Boomp Packs) | The software, from your site | You, by email link; nothing connected | $9 | Yes, if you will post ten posts a month yourself |
| Software that reads your website (Boomp Core) | The software, from your site | You approve in the app; Boomp publishes | $39 | Yes, as long as you approve each post |
| Software with a person approving (Boomp done-for-you) | The software, from your site | Boomp's founder approves; Boomp publishes | $275 | Yes, and you never open the app |
Freelancer and agency figures are typical quoted ranges, not a survey; get three quotes.
A few things the table does not show.
The freelancer and agency options carry decisions four and five for you, but they need decisions one to three from you every month, in the form of a briefing.
The moment the briefing stops, the posts go generic.
The software options carry decision three permanently, because the website is the briefing and it does not need to be re-sent.
They do not carry decision one or two, and they should not; choosing the job and the channels is an owner's call.
Where each executor fits the six decisions
You. The best fit when the job is small, the cadence is two posts a week, and you like doing it.
The risk is decision four.
The cadence holds until the busy season, then the last post is dated and stays dated.
A freelancer. The best fit when you need a human to handle a campaign, a launch or a sensitive topic that the website does not hold.
The strategy above does not contain those things, so most one-page strategies do not need one.
Hire the person when the strategy grows.
An agency. The best fit when you also need ads, video production or a strategy call.
That is what the extra thousand dollars a month buys.
If your strategy fits on one page, you are paying for pages you did not write.
Software. The best fit when decisions one to three are made, the website is true, and you want the cadence held without becoming the person who holds it.
The trade is flexibility.
Software that writes from the website will not write your response to a bad week in the news; that is a person's job.
What stays with you
Whoever executes, four things do not leave the owner's desk.
The job and the channels. Decisions one and two are yours, and nobody outside the business should make them.
The approval rule in a regulated trade. Fair housing for an agent, health claims for a clinic, legal claims for a firm.
Whoever approves the post carries that check, so name the person and make sure they know what they are reading for.
Perishable facts. Prices, hours, offers and availability change; the post that quotes them is only as true as the day it publishes.
Keep the website current and re-read anything with a number in it.
Permissions. A customer's photo, a before-and-after, a review quoted with a name.
Ask before it publishes, every time.
How to write it this week
1. Write decision one in one sentence.
If it takes longer than twenty minutes, pick "a new customer is comfortable enough to call".
2. Pick one or two channels from the platform guide, the first of which is almost certainly Google Business Profile.
3. Open your website and check that the services, FAQ and about pages are true today.
That is your source, so fix it before anything is written from it.
4. Decide who executes, then set the cadence that executor can hold for a year.
5. Write the approval rule and the one number, and put a monthly reminder on the calendar to read the number.
The three doors at Boomp
Every Boomp plan executes the same strategy the same way: the software reads your website and writes posts about your business.
The price follows how much of the execution you keep.
- Packs, $9 a month. Ten finished posts by email link.
You post them, on the cadence you chose.
Nothing to connect.
- Core, $39 a month. Twenty posts, one carousel and one video, published to your connected channels after you approve each one in the app.
You are the approval rule.
- Done for you, $275 a month. The same twenty posts, carousel and video.
Boomp's founder approves every post.
You never open the app.
No contract on any of the three, and the plans and prices page shows the larger plans for a business that wants more than Core.
Before any of them, the free door: ten finished posts made from your own website, no email, account or card, so you can read what your source of truth produces before you decide who executes the strategy.
