Social media without giving up your evenings

The classic trap for a small business: posting every day for two weeks, then nothing for three months. A modest pace you can keep up is better. AI helps you keep it up: it prepares the calendar, turns one idea into several formats, suggests visuals. You keep the choices, the proofreading and the honesty.

Choose little, and stick to it

One or two networks, where your customers really are, beat five half-maintained ones. Set a pace you can keep even in busy weeks, for example two posts a week. A regular appointment does more for you than a burst followed by a long silence.

A month of posts in one hour

A request to copy and paste:

"I run a hair salon in a village. My typical customers: [your profiles from lesson 1]. Suggest a calendar of eight posts for next month, two a week, alternating: a useful tip, behind the scenes at the salon, a finished look (photo taken with the customer's consent), practical information (opening hours, something new). For each post: the day, the idea in one sentence, the suggested format (photo, short video, text). Don't suggest any promotion or any figure I haven't given you."

Keep what feels like you, throw out the rest, and set aside one hour a week to prepare the next posts in one go.

One idea, several formats

A good idea can be used more than once. A baker launching a seasonal tart can turn it into:

• a photo post with three lines of text;
• the script for a short video: the hands at work, the tart coming out of the oven;
• a short message or a story announcing it's available this Saturday;
• a paragraph for the monthly newsletter.

Ask the AI: "Here is my idea and the facts: [...]. Turn it into these four formats, adapting the length and tone to each one." Then reread every version: from one format to the next, the tone must stay yours.

Generated visuals: useful, but honest

• Yes to a poster, a background, an illustration, the layout of an announcement ("Closed from 10 to 17 August"), a mood visual that is clearly a drawing.
• No to a fake photo of your products, your shop or your work. A customer who finds out that the cake in the photo doesn't exist, or that the haircut shown was never done in the salon, won't come back. Presenting a misleading image as real can also get you into trouble.
• Your real photos, even taken on a phone, are still the best visuals. The AI can help you pick the best ones, crop them or write their captions.
• If a generated image could be mistaken for a real photo, say that it's generated: it's more honest, and it's in line with the European rules on generated content.

For photos of customers (a haircut, a finished job, work at someone's home), always ask for their consent before posting.