Plan a month of posts in one sitting

Deciding what to post every morning is what makes social media feel endless. This guide helps you sit down once, for an afternoon, and plan a whole month of posts, so each day you only have to take the photo or press post.

Before you start

• A rough idea of how often you can really post. Two or three times a week, done every week, beats daily for a fortnight and then nothing.
• A calendar for next month, with anything coming up: offers, launches, holidays, local events, quiet or busy weeks.
• A few posts that did well before, if you have them.
• About two hours. The plan takes 30 minutes; the rest is writing captions.
• An AI chat tool such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for step 3. A notebook works too.

Want to do it yourself?

Difficulty

4 out of 10

Estimated completion time

2–4 hours for one month

Skills you’ll need: Choose themes, edit captions, gather usable media, and schedule posts in your platform or scheduling tool.

I’ll do it myselfI’d rather get help

How this helps your brand

A planned mix of useful posts can give the right people reasons to explore your profile. Matching each offer to a ready website page helps that attention lead to a meaningful next action.

1. 1

   Step 1: Choose three or four themes you’ll keep coming back to

   A theme is a kind of post you can make again and again without running out. Having a few set themes means you never start from nothing; you just pick the next one.

   Good themes for most small businesses:

   • Quick tips: one useful thing your customers would want to know.
   • Behind the scenes: how you make, prepare, or do the work.
   • Customer stories: a happy customer, a finished job, a review.
   • Offers and news: what’s new, what’s on, how to buy.

   Tip: Keep offers to roughly one post in four or five. If every post is selling, people stop paying attention.

2. 2

   Step 2: Decide how often, and on which days

   Pick a number of posts per week you can keep up even in a busy week, and pick the days. For example: Tuesday tip, Thursday behind the scenes, Saturday customer story. Fixed days turn posting into a habit instead of a decision.

   If you post on more than one platform, start with the one where your customers spend the most time. You can share some posts on the others later.

3. 3

   Step 3: Draft the month with AI

   Paste your themes, days, and important dates into an AI tool with the prompt at the end of this guide. It gives you a simple table: date, theme, post idea, and format, such as a photo, a short video, or a swipe-through post.

   Go through it line by line. Delete ideas that don’t sound like you or that you can’t actually photograph or film. Swap in your own ideas wherever you have a better one.

   Add a destination and intended action to posts that promote an offer: the matching service, article, event, or booking page, plus what the visitor should do there. Prepare and test that page and its intake before scheduling the post. Useful content can encourage relevant people to explore your profile and link, but clicks and enquiries are outcomes to measure, not promises.

   Tip: Copy the finished table into a spreadsheet, a notes app, or a paper calendar. Somewhere you’ll see it every day.

   Illustrated exampleSee a whole month at a glance

   November 2026Example bakery · 3 posts a week

   Four-week posting plan with a date, theme, idea, and format for every post.

   Week	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday
   Week 1	Tue 3 NovTipKeep a loaf’s crust crispSwipe-through	Thu 5 NovBehind the scenesShape a loaf with usShort video	Sat 7 NovCustomer storyA customer’s weekend loafPhoto
   Week 2	Tue 10 NovTipFreeze bread in slicesSwipe-through	Thu 12 NovBehind the scenesHow we pack a loafPhoto	Sat 14 NovOfferInvite weekend preordersPhoto
   Week 3	Tue 17 NovTipToast yesterday’s breadShort video	Thu 19 NovBehind the scenesScore the dough before bakingShort video	Sat 21 NovOfferRemind people to preorderPhoto
   Week 4	Tue 24 NovTipStore a loaf once it’s cutSwipe-through	Thu 26 NovBehind the scenesMorning prep at the benchShort video	Sat 28 NovCustomer storyAnother customer’s loafPhoto

   10 useful posts + 2 offers. Check the preorder details before using this example. Keep a separate space each week for an unplanned moment.

4. 4

   Step 4: Write all the captions in one go

   Writing ten captions in a row is much quicker than writing one on ten different days, because you’re already in the right frame of mind. Ask the AI to draft captions for the whole table, then edit each one so it sounds like you.

   Check every price, date, and promise. AI sometimes adds details you never gave it.

   Tip: If you used the guide “Teach AI your brand voice”, paste your voice guide in first and the captions will need far less editing.

5. 5

   Step 5: Gather the photos and videos in one session

   Go through the month and list every photo or clip you need. Then take as many as you can in one session: your workspace, your products, you at work. Phone photos in good daylight are fine.

   Anything you can’t shoot ahead, like a customer’s finished job, mark as “take on the day”.

   Illustrated exampleTurn the calendar into one photo session

   01

   One daylight session

   Work through the same setup before moving on.

   1. Finished loafWhole, sliced, and close upFor tips + preorder posts
   2. Hands at workFilm shaping and scoringFor 5 + 19 November
   3. Workspace + packingCapture the bench and a packed loafFor 12 + 26 November

   02

   Mark these “take on the day”

   7 + 28 November · photograph the real customer’s loaf, with their permission if they appear.

   Keep files easy to match: name them “05-nov-shaping” or “14-nov-preorder-loaf” beside the calendar entry.

6. 6

   Step 6: Schedule what you can and leave room for real life

   Most platforms let you schedule posts ahead, either in the app or in a free tool from the platform. Schedule the first week or two now. Menus change, so if you can’t find it, search the platform’s official help pages for “schedule a post”.

   • Instagram and Facebook: schedule in the app when you create a post, or use Meta Business Suite.
   • TikTok: scheduling is available for some accounts, often from the desktop site.
   • LinkedIn: look for the clock icon when you create a post.
   • Google Business Profile: updates go live when you post them, so set a reminder for the day instead.

   Tip: Leave one gap a week for something that happens in the moment: a busy day, a new delivery, a happy customer. Those posts often feel the most real.

I run [what your business does] for [who your customers are]. I post on [platform], [number] times a week, on [which days].

My themes are:
[list your three or four themes, with one line on why customers care about each]

Important dates next month: [offers, launches, holidays, local events, or “none”]

Please make a four-week posting calendar as a table with these columns: date, theme, post idea (one sentence), and format (photo, short video, swipe-through post, or text). Rotate the themes so the same one doesn’t appear twice in a row. Keep offers to about one post in five, and place them near the important dates.

Then, below the table, write a short caption for each post that suits [platform]. Write in plain, friendly English that sounds like a real small business, not an ad. Use only facts I’ve given you. Don’t invent prices, offers, events, or claims, and mark anything I need to fill in as [ADD DETAIL].