Before the posting comes the strategy: budget, platforms, and how much to do yourself. These are plain-language answers to the questions business owners ask before they start.
Most small businesses should budget for social media as a small, steady line item — not a big one-off. The real spend is the mix of time and money: expect to commit a few hours a week or a modest monthly tool budget, scaling only once it's clearly paying back.
Choosing a social media management tool comes down to where your bottleneck is. If scheduling is the hard part, a classic scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer fits. If creating the content is the hard part, an AI-first tool that also schedules will save you more time.
