The Playbook
What to post, which platforms, how to run ads, how to handle reviews and what it all costs. Written for Houston business owners by the people who plan and run social every day. Use them yourself, or let us run them for you.
Strategy and planning
Published 2026 guides put social media management at $500 to $5,000 a month. What drives the price, what cheap plans skip and how to compare quotes.
Data desk
Share of U.S. adults who say they use each platform. Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 5,022 adults, 2025.
From the editor
“Anyone can post now. Showing up every week with posts people stop for, answering them fast and knowing which posts bring in calls is the hard part. That’s what we write about here.”
Get a free Social CheckConsistency beats volume. What Buffer's posting data shows, and why 3 steady posts a week is the right start for most small businesses.
An honest look at handling social media yourself, hiring a freelancer or using an agency, including when doing it yourself is the smart call.
Ask these 12 questions before you sign with a social media agency, covering account ownership, who makes the content, approvals, reports and contracts.
Real photos prove you exist and show who customers will deal with. How to plan a quarterly shoot day, what to capture and how to get permissions.
AI helps with drafts, ideas and repurposing but slips on voice, facts and images. How to label AI content and keep a person approving every post.
Hooks, one idea per post, local details, a clear ask and a few targeted hashtags, with before and after caption examples for local businesses.
Aim for the same business day and never past 24 hours. Here's a simple reply system for small teams, with auto-replies and saved answers.
When to reply, hide, delete or take it offline, plus a calm reply template and a moderation checklist for small businesses.
HIPAA basics in plain words for practice social media: patient photos need written authorization, and replies should never confirm someone is a patient.
Your business should own its accounts. How to use a Meta business portfolio, partner access and two full control admins so nobody leaving locks you out.
Ask real customers for reviews, reshare their posts with permission and stay clear of what the FTC's 2024 fake reviews rule bans.
Set your first ad budget from what a customer is worth, fund a real test and judge it by cost per lead, not likes.
Draw your ad area around real drive times, use ZIP lists, watch Meta's Special Ad Category rules and make the ad look local.
A good monthly report fits on one page, leads with leads and cost per lead and ends with what changes next month.
Use UTM links, the Meta Pixel and Conversions API, a how-did-you-hear question and tracked phone numbers to see what brings customers.
Send us your profiles. We’ll look at your posts, your replies and your ads, then tell you plainly what’s worth fixing. If the answer is “not much”, we’ll say that too.
Get my free Social CheckNo cost. No obligation. A real person replies within one business day.
