Social Media for Your Business: 10 Minutes a Day, Not 2 Hours

You Haven't Posted in 3 Weeks. You Feel Guilty About It.

Here's the cycle. Tell me if this sounds familiar.

Monday: "I really need to post something this week."

Tuesday: "What should I even post? I'll figure it out tonight."

Wednesday evening: You open Instagram. You scroll. You see a competitor's perfectly edited Reel with 2,000 views. You feel behind. You close the app.

Thursday: "I'll post tomorrow for sure."

Friday: You're exhausted from the week. Social media is the last thing on your mind.

Saturday: A customer asks if you're still in business because your last post was from January.

Repeat this cycle for six months and you have the social media experience of 80% of small business owners. It's not that you don't care. It's not that you don't know social media matters. It's that the gap between "I should post" and "I know what to post and I have time to post it" feels like a canyon.

So you don't post. Or you post once every few weeks -- a random photo with a caption you agonized over for 20 minutes. It gets 3 likes. One is from your mom. One is from your business partner. The third is a bot.

And you think: "Social media doesn't work for my business."

It does work. You just don't have a system for it yet.

Why It Feels So Overwhelming

Social media feels like a second job because most advice about it is written for people whose actual job is social media.

"Post 3-5 times a day." "Create a content pillar strategy." "Use trending audio." "Engage with your audience for 30 minutes daily." "Repurpose your long-form content into micro-content across 4 platforms."

That's great advice for a marketing agency with a 5-person content team. It's completely useless for a plumber, hairstylist, personal trainer, or accountant who's trying to run a business and has zero employees dedicated to marketing.

You don't need a content strategy document. You don't need to be on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X all at once. You don't need professional videography.

You need a realistic plan that takes 10 minutes a day and actually moves the needle.

The 10-Minute Daily Framework

Here's a week of social media content that any small business owner can execute. No design skills. No videography. No spending an hour crafting the perfect caption.

Monday: Before and After

Take a photo of your work. Before and after if possible. A freshly landscaped yard. A client's new haircut. A clean office after your janitorial service. A finished deck.

Time to capture: 2 minutes. You're already there doing the work. Pull out your phone.

Time to post: 3 minutes. Upload the photo. Write a short caption: "Backyard transformation in Etobicoke this morning. The homeowner wanted low-maintenance landscaping that still looks great in winter. Swipe for the before." Done.

Total: 5 minutes.

Tuesday: Quick Tip

Share something useful from your industry. Something your customers ask you about regularly.

"How often should you service your furnace? Once a year, ideally before November. A $150 tune-up prevents a $3,000 breakdown in February."

"Thinking about going blonde? Here's what your stylist wishes you knew before your appointment..."

"Three stretches you should do every morning if you sit at a desk all day."

Time: 3-5 minutes. You already know this stuff. You say it to clients every week. Type it out.

Wednesday: Client Review or Testimonial

Screenshot a great Google review. Or ask a happy client if you can share their feedback (most will say yes -- they're flattered).

Post the screenshot with a caption: "This is why we do what we do. Thanks, Sarah! If you're looking for [service] in [city], we'd love to help."

Time: 2-3 minutes. Screenshot, caption, post.

Thursday: Behind the Scenes

Show people what your day looks like. Your morning coffee at the shop before clients arrive. Loading up the van. A time-lapse of a project in progress. Your team meeting.

People connect with people, not logos. Showing the human side of your business builds trust faster than any polished ad ever could.

Time: 3-5 minutes. Snap a photo during your day. Post it with a short, honest caption: "6:45 AM. Loading up for a full day of installs in Brampton. This is the part they don't show you in the brochure."

Friday: Offer or Call to Action

Wrap up the week with something that drives business. Not a hard sell. A nudge.

"Weekend bookings are open for next week. Link in bio to grab a spot."

"We have two openings left this month for [service]. DM us if you're interested."

"Happy Friday! If your [thing] needs attention before spring, now's the time. Hit the link in our bio to book a free estimate."

Time: 2-3 minutes.

Weekly total: About 50-70 minutes across the whole week.

That's roughly 10 minutes a day. Not 2 hours. Not a second job. Ten minutes.

Batch It: 30 Minutes on Sunday, Done for the Week

If daily posting still feels like too much, batch it.

Sit down Sunday evening for 30 minutes. Write all 5 captions. Choose your photos from what you captured during the week. Schedule everything using a free scheduling tool (Meta Business Suite handles Facebook and Instagram, and it's free).

Monday through Friday, your posts go out automatically. You don't touch it. You don't think about it. You respond to comments when you have a minute, and that's it.

30 minutes once a week beats agonizing about it every single day.

The key is capturing content during the week. Make it a habit: finish a job, take a photo. Hear a great question from a client, write it down. Get a compliment, screenshot it. By Sunday, you have a folder of raw material ready to go.

What Actually Performs (It's Not What You Think)

Here's the part that might surprise you. The posts that perform best for small businesses are almost never the polished, professional-looking ones.

Your face outperforms stock photos. Every time. A selfie from the job site gets 3-5x the engagement of a stock image with text overlay. People want to see the person behind the business.

Authentic beats polished. A shaky phone video of you explaining something gets more saves and shares than a professionally edited brand video. Not always. But far more often than you'd expect.

Stories beat sales pitches. "We replaced a 30-year-old furnace today and the homeowner couldn't believe the difference in her heating bill" is a better post than "We offer furnace replacement services! Call today for a free quote!"

Short captions work. You don't need to write 500 words. Two or three sentences and a photo is enough. The scroll is fast. Capture attention. Deliver value. Move on.

Consistency beats virality. One viral post doesn't build a business. Posting 3-5 times a week for 6 months does. You're not trying to go viral. You're trying to stay visible so that when someone needs what you offer, you're the first name that comes to mind.

The 80/20 Rule for Social Media

Here's the split that keeps your audience engaged without making your feed feel like a non-stop infomercial.

80% value and personality. Tips. Behind-the-scenes. Stories. Client results. Industry education. Humor. Anything that makes people glad they follow you.

20% selling. Offers. Promotions. Book now. Call to action. Direct pitches for your services.

If every post is "hire us," people unfollow. If every post is helpful or interesting, people stick around. And when they need your service, they come to you first because you've been showing up in their feed for months, providing value, proving your expertise.

You don't earn trust by asking for business. You earn it by showing you're good at what you do, consistently, over time.

Pick One Platform. Dominate It.

This is the mistake that kills most small businesses on social media: trying to be everywhere at once.

You post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Each platform has different optimal formats, different audiences, different algorithms. You're spreading yourself thin across all of them and making zero impact on any of them.

Pick one. The one where your customers actually are.

• Home services, trades, local businesses: Facebook and Instagram are your bread and butter. Your customers are 30-55 and spend time on these platforms daily.
• Professional services, B2B, consultants: LinkedIn. That's where decision-makers browse.
• Youth-oriented, trendy, visual businesses: Instagram and TikTok.
• Not sure? Start with Instagram. It works for almost every small business category, and content cross-posts easily to Facebook.

Master one platform. Get consistent. Build an audience. Then -- and only then -- consider adding a second.

Three posts a week on one platform will always outperform one post a week scattered across five platforms.

When 3 Likes Feels Demoralizing

You posted something. You thought it was good. It got 4 likes and zero comments. Why bother?

Your audience is small, and that's fine. You're a local business. You don't need 10,000 followers. You need 500 local people who know what you do and remember your name when they need it.

Views matter more than likes. A post with 4 likes might have been seen by 200 people. You don't know which of those 200 will call you next month.

Social media is a long game. The ROI shows up in month six when a new client says "I've been following you on Instagram for a while and finally need [service]." That happens. Regularly. You just have to stick with it long enough.

Stop comparing yourself to influencers. Your social media exists to support your business, not to become your business. Ten new clients from social media this year is a win.

Tools That Make It Easier

You don't need expensive social media management software. Here's what actually helps:

• Meta Business Suite (free): Schedule posts for Facebook and Instagram. Basic analytics. Handles 90% of what you need.
• AI caption suggestions: Stuck on what to write? AI tools can draft captions from a quick description. You edit, personalize, and post in 3 minutes.
• Your phone's camera: That's the only equipment you need. No ring light. No DSLR. Just your phone and natural lighting.
• A simple content calendar: Monday is before/after, Tuesday is tips, Wednesday is reviews, Thursday is behind-the-scenes, Friday is offers. Write it on a sticky note. Follow it every week.

Social Media Is Not a Second Job

10 minutes a day. A simple framework you repeat every week. Content captured while you're already doing the work. Scheduled in advance so you're not scrambling every morning.

That's not a second job. That's a habit. Like checking your email or sending an invoice. And unlike most marketing tactics, social media is free. Your time is the only investment. Ten minutes is a pretty small one for a channel that puts your business in front of hundreds of local people every week.

Stop Overthinking. Start Posting.

You don't need a strategy deck. You don't need a brand photoshoot. You don't need a viral moment.

You need to take a photo of today's work, write two sentences about it, and hit post. Do that five times this week. Then do it again next week. And the week after that.

In 90 days, you'll have a feed that shows potential customers exactly who you are, what you do, and why they should hire you. That's more than most of your competitors can say.

Alpaca Launch includes social media tools and AI content suggestions -- so posting takes minutes, not hours.

See how our platform helps small businesses grow -- from your website to your social media to your client pipeline, all in one place.