Balance a content plan so it builds trust as well as reach.
A lot of small business accounts post nothing except what they sell. Every post is a product, a price and a link. It can seem like the most direct use of your time, but it rarely builds an account that people follow, trust or buy from.
Take two accounts that sell the same thing. The first posts a product every day with a price and a link. The posts are clear and well made, and nobody comments. The second account rotates through different posts: a short tip, then a customer's story, then the owner explaining why she left her office job. Any single post from the second account sells less often, but she ends up with more customers.
People do not buy from a stranger on the first post they see. Before they buy, they need three things. They need to find you useful, believe you can deliver, and feel they know you a little. Your posts can do these three jobs, which gives you three groups: teach, prove and people. A plan that covers only one of the three leaves a gap.
A teaching post answers a question or shows how to do something. Some examples are "How to tell if your child understood a maths topic in two minutes", "Three things to check before you sign up for a tuition package" and "How to store a cake overnight if the party is tomorrow".
Teaching posts tend to collect saves and shares, because people want to come back to them or send them to someone who needs the answer. Saves and shares are among the signals the platforms describe in their creator guides, which lesson 1.1 introduced. So useful posts often travel further than promotional ones.
Teaching posts also show your expertise without you having to claim it. Priya runs a tuition centre for children. A parent who learns something from her centre in thirty seconds has a reason to believe the classes are good.
The common trap is advice so general that anyone could have posted it. To avoid it, teach from what you see in your own work and use your own examples.
A proof post shows that what you sell works. It can show results, your process, a customer story or a before and after. It can also be a delivery arriving on time, or a parent's reaction when the cake comes out of the box. Proof matters most to someone who is already considering you. They have followed you for a while and like what you teach, and now they want to know whether you deliver.
Proof must be real and fair. Do not post a customer's face, name or child without their permission. Keep your claims to what you can back up. For example, a tuition centre showing one student's big jump in marks should not suggest every student will get the same result. The rules on claims are in lesson 3.3 of Content and copywriting, "What your copy is not allowed to say".
People message businesses they feel they know. A people post shows the owner, the team, the workspace or an ordinary moment in the week, and it builds familiarity over time. Mei Ling bakes and sells cakes, often for parties. She films her 5am start before a big weekend of orders. That video builds more trust than another cake photo, because viewers start to feel they know the person who will bake their cake.
People posts rarely bring in a sale directly, so they are easy to skip. They are also the posts that finally get someone to send a message after following quietly for three months.
Selling posts are your offers, launches and discount codes. An account that posts only these gives people no reason to follow it. You might buy once if the offer is right, but following that account just means more adverts in your feed.
Selling posts still have a place. If you have something to sell, say so plainly and often enough that people know about it. Selling works far better when the rest of the account has already given people reasons to trust you. A working rule is that most of your posts should be worth watching for a viewer who never buys, and the selling posts sit on top of that.
There is no correct ratio of post types, and anyone who quotes one is guessing. What you can check is whether any of the three groups is empty.
When Priya sorted her first list of ideas, almost all of it was teaching: tips for parents, topic explanations and exam techniques. She had no proof posts at all because she felt uncomfortable talking about results, and she had only one people post. Her account would have been useful but faceless. To fill the gaps she added three posts. One explains how she plans a term. One is a short video of a student explaining a problem in her own words, posted with the student's parents' permission. The third is about why she started the centre.
Mei Ling's list had the opposite problem. It was all proof, with finished cakes and happy customers, and had no teaching. Her party planning pillar filled the teaching gap.
Now do the same with your own list. Take the twenty questions and ideas you collected in lesson 2.2 and sort each one into teach, prove or people. Look at which group is thin or empty, and add ideas to fill it, as Priya and Mei Ling did. Then put your selling posts on top of a base of posts worth watching for people who never buy.
Sort your twenty questions and ideas into three groups: teach, prove and people. Note which group is empty.
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