If you help run a club, community group or small business, you probably have plenty to share. The tricky part isn't always finding things to talk about. It's making sure your feed doesn’t become a long run of announcements.

If you’re constantly wondering what to post on social media, a useful way to create a more balanced social media content plan is to give each post a job. Try these four:

1. Help

Answer a question, explain something or make a task easier.

- A sports club could explain what to bring to a first training session.
- A community group might share how to access a local service.
- A small business could explain how to choose between two products.
- A library might be answer a question people regularly ask about using a service, attending an event or finding a particular resource.

Ask: What are people unsure about? What do they ask us repeatedly?

Those questions are often excellent on social media.

2. Human

Show the people, values and everyday work behind your organisation.

Introduce a volunteer, share a behind-the-scenes moment or explain why your team cares about what it does. These posts help people get to know the people behind the page.

Ask: Who is behind this work? What happened this week? Why does it matter to us?

You don’t need a huge story. Small, genuine glimpses into your organisation can make your social media feel much more human.

3. Proof

Show your experience, impact or what you’ve learned.

• That might be a customer or community story

• a project result

• a milestone or a small change your group helped make.

• something you learned.

Be specific. Real details are more convincing than broad claims about the work you do.

Ask: What changed? What result, story or lesson can we share?

4. Prompt

Invite people to take one clear next step.

That could be registering, asking a question, booking, attending, donating or sharing their experience. Give people the details they need, and make sure the action fits the post.

Ask: What do we want someone to do next?

Not every post needs a call to action that sends someone to a booking or registration page. Sometimes the next step might simply be commenting, replying or sharing an experience.

A quick planning exercise:

• Write down your next four post ideas.

• Label each one Help, Human, Proof or Prompt.

• If they all have the same label, look for another angle on what you’re already planning to share.

A single topic can create several posts. A community event, for example, could inspire a helpful post explaining who it’s for, a human post introducing the organisers, a proof post sharing what happened, and a prompt with details for the next event.

You don’t need to use all four categories equally. The aim is to notice whether your posts are doing different kinds of useful work.

Start with one small action

Before drafting your next post, decide what job it needs to do.

Help? Human? Proof? Prompt?

That one choice can make your message clearer and your content mix more useful.

If you’d like practical support with social media for your library, community organisation or small business, you can find out more about how I can help at:

https://vervesocialmedia.com/

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do I need to use Help, Human, Proof and Prompt equally?

No. The goal isn’t to create exactly the same number of posts in each category. It’s to notice whether your content is doing different kinds of useful work rather than repeating the same type of post.

Can one topic become several social media posts?

Absolutely. One event, project, service or piece of news can often be approached from several angles. Think about what would help your audience, the human story behind it, what proof you can share and whether there is a useful prompt or next step.

Can several team members contribute to social media?

Yes. Involving several people can make your content stronger and more representative of your organisation. The key is to have clear responsibilities, one place to collect content and a straightforward approval process.