Service
Social media that sounds like you, not like ChatGPT.
Proof of life, not performance. The training to run your own socials the way that actually converts customers - channel audit, written playbook, recorded walkthroughs, a monthly snapshot a human can read in two minutes. Plus an optional management add-on if you'd rather we ran the cadence for you - on whatever tool you already use.
The channel mix isn't just Facebook and Instagram - your Google Business Profile is the social channel customers see first when they search you, and Google Merchant Centre is the product feed surface for any e-commerce side of the business. We treat all of them as one cadence.
Optional. Scoped per project. Agreed in writing before any work starts, because every project, idea and vision is different.
Editorial illustration for the social media training and management page. A UK small-business owner sat at a kitchen table on a Sunday evening with their phone in hand - the suggestion of multiple social-app icons in soft focus, the moment of 'what do I actually post today?' Warm Suffolk light, oak worktop, ivory walls, hedge-green garden through the window. No legible UI, no developer kit, no SaaS illustration, no logos.
4:3 · alt: "Editorial scene of a UK small-business owner thinking about what to post on social media on a Sunday evening"
Posting into a void?
Open your business's Instagram. What's the last post? When did you reply to a DM?
Most small businesses we talk to have socials in one of two states - either a graveyard where the last post is from 2023, or a panic-spiral where they post three times in a week then nothing for a month. Neither earns its keep. The training half is the rhythm that sticks; the management half is what happens when the rhythm wins anyway.
No "we'll go viral" promise - because anyone giving you one is either guessing or lying. What we will do is tell you which channels are worth your time, write the playbook, record the walkthroughs, and report monthly on what's actually getting engagement.
Proof of life. Not performance.
The director doesn't need to moonlight as an influencer.
The thing customers actually want to know before they enquire isn't whether you're entertaining on camera. It's whether you're still open, still picking up the phone, still doing the work. A photo of today's job on the bench. A reply to last week's review. A post that's two days old, not two years. That's proof of life - and proof of life converts. Anything beyond it is bonus, not the job.
So we don't ask the owner to moonlight as an influencer, and we don't ask the team to memorise trending sounds. The cadence is shaped around what already happens in the business - the jobs you ran today, the work that turned out well, the customer who came back. The training half teaches you to see those moments and post them in thirty seconds. The management half does it for you when life gets in the way.
The consumer-research industry (BrightLocal, Hootsuite, Sprout Social) has been consistent on this for years: when a customer checks a local business before buying, the signals that move them are recent reviews, recent posts, photos that aren't six years old, hours filled in, a Google Business Profile that responds. Not virality. Not personality. Presence.
What the service covers
Four pieces of training inside every engagement, plus two optional management add-ons that stack on top when they earn their keep. Mix and match at scope.
We look at what your business actually does, who your customers are, and which platforms are worth your time. Most small businesses pick the wrong platform - a roofer doesn't need TikTok, a venue doesn't need LinkedIn. Every local business needs Google Business Profile (GBP) set up and looked after; every e-commerce or retail business needs Google Merchant Centre (GMC) populated with a clean product feed. Set up profiles if absent, take over existing ones, kill the ones that aren't earning their keep.
A hosted document - Notion, a wiki, or a printed binder - covering posting cadence per channel, the anatomy of a post that doesn't read like ChatGPT, hashtag strategy without the spammy template lists, how to handle DMs and bad reviews, and a seasonal calendar shaped to your business. The half of social media that only works when somebody's thought about it ahead of time.
Short Loom-style videos. How to schedule a post on whichever tool you're already using. How to write a caption in your own voice. How to respond to a 1-star without making it worse. How to read what's actually working without drowning in the platform analytics dashboards. The training that sticks because you can go back to it.
Plain-English page, every month. What you posted, what got reach, what got real engagement - DMs, calls, form submissions, not vanity likes - and what we'd change next month. Short enough to read in two minutes. Same shape as the SEO retainer's monthly report.
Optional add-on. We write the posts (1-3 per week, agreed at scope) in your voice, scheduled through whatever tool you already use - Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, the native platform schedulers, or planpost (our own) if you don't have one and want one we know inside out. Captions tailored - no ChatGPT-default copy, no 'Happy Monday everyone' filler. The accounts stay yours throughout; if you cancel, you take everything with you.
Optional add-on. We respond to DMs and comments inside agreed boundaries, with explicit escalation rules for anything we shouldn't speak to on the business's behalf - medical advice, legal queries, complaints needing the owner's judgement. The boundary doc is part of the sign-up engagement; nothing goes out that you wouldn't have written yourself.
The proof, honest
Three cards, not five - because we'd rather be honest about the current scope of live management than fill out a grid with future-tense claims. One we run end-to-end today; one is the social-posting platform we built; one is a build + Google Business Profile engagement where social is the natural next layer.
mendmyi
Own business - device repair, Haverhill
Our own device-repair business. Socials run by us through planpost. The dogfood reference for what this service looks like in steady state - cadence, tone, replies, monthly snapshot.
planpost
Own product - social posting scheduler
The social-posting tool we built. Proof we understand the social-scheduling space end-to-end - not a Buffer / Hootsuite reseller. We use it on mendmyi's own socials. Clients can use it if it fits, or stay on whatever scheduler they already run.
Iron Institute
Gym / fitness - Haverhill
Build live, Google Business Profile managed. Social media is the natural next layer for a gym - member content, transformation posts, event photos. Honest framing on this card: the build came first; social is the layer that slots in next.
How pricing works
One shape: a monthly retainer, agreed at scope. There's no public £/mo figure on this page, and not because it's a secret - because every project, idea and vision is different. A sole trader running one Facebook page and a regional business running Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook for six locations don't share a price; pretending otherwise on a rate card means somebody is overpaying.
Retainer
We talk through what you want (more enquiries, a steady cadence you can stick to, replies that don't sit unread for a week), look at the channels your customers actually use, and agree the scope and the monthly figure in writing before any work starts. Add-ons (managed cadence, community management) stack on top by the same logic.
Cancellation
Retainers run month to month with a short notice period agreed at scope - not a twelve-month contract you regret in month three. The accounts and content stay yours throughout - no agency-owned logins, no 'we'll send you a CSV in a month' on exit.
Pay monthly instead of all at once
The retainer is already monthly, so split-pay isn't usually the relevant question here. Where it does come up is around one-off pieces of work that sometimes land in the same scope conversation - a social audit, a playbook build, or a migration to consolidate an existing presence scattered across half a dozen scheduling tools. Split-pay over monthly instalments is always available on that kind of work, with terms agreed at scope alongside everything else.
Often paired with
Social media on its own is half the picture. Most engagements land in the same scope conversation as the website it points back to, the SEO retainer that catches buyers searching for the trade, or the broader handover-and-runbook engagement social often sits inside.
Website build & hosting
Brochure, online shop, migration off Wix / Squarespace / WordPress, or a redesign. The destination your socials point back to. From £99 build; hosting and SEO optional on top.
SEO retainer
The other organic-retainer sibling. Google Business Profile, local citations, on-page work, monthly performance report. The two retainers compound when they run alongside each other - social and search are two halves of the same audience-finding job.
Training & ongoing support
The broader handover-and-runbook engagement. Post-handover training, recorded walkthroughs, monthly on-call retainer for small changes and questions. Social media training often lands inside this larger conversation.
FAQ
Will you guarantee followers, virality, or a certain reach?
No - and anyone who does is selling you something they can't deliver. Reach is decided by the platforms' algorithms, not the agency you've hired; the honest job is to make the content earn engagement from the people who'd actually enquire from you, and tell you what's realistic for your business before you sign. Vanity follower counts are the trap that pulls small businesses into the wrong content.
I already have the SEO retainer - is Google Business Profile managed twice?
No - GBP is shared between the two retainers, and you don't get billed twice for the same work. The SEO retainer treats GBP as the local-ranking surface (NAP consistency, citations, schema, search-shaped posts). The social retainer treats GBP as a content channel (audience-shaped posts, reviews replied to, photos refreshed monthly, Q&A monitored). If you're on both, the work happens once and the scope conversation merges the two - no duplicate billing.
Do I need this if I already post sometimes?
Most small businesses don't need full management - the training half is what most pay for. We'll teach you a sustainable rhythm, give you a written playbook and recorded walkthroughs, and you'll know whether the management add-on would actually earn its keep before you commit to it. If a retainer wouldn't pay for itself, we'll say so.
What about TikTok, Reels, or the latest algorithm thing?
We pick channels by what your customers actually use, not what the algorithm rewards this month. Most local businesses get more from a well-run Facebook page, Instagram for the visual-heavy ones, and a Google Business Profile that's looked after, than they ever will from chasing TikTok views. We'll tell you which channels are worth your time, honestly.
Do I need to be on camera? Does my team need to do TikTok dances?
No. The director doesn't moonlight as an influencer; the team doesn't memorise trending sounds. What converts customers checking a small business before they buy is proof of life - a photo of today's work, a reply to last week's review, a post that's two days old not two years - not performance content. The cadence is shaped around what already happens in the business. Thirty seconds of attention per post, not thirty minutes of production. Some businesses do thrive with an on-camera personality (a chef whose cooking videos are the brand, a tradesperson whose explainers convert); we'll tell you honestly if that's your shape. For most local businesses it isn't, and we'll say so.
Will the posts sound like ChatGPT?
No. We write them in your voice. AI helps with brainstorming, not with voice - your customers can spot ChatGPT-default copy from a hundred metres. The whole point of the content playbook and the cadence add-on is captions that sound like a human who works at your business wrote them, because that's what gets replies.
What about the platforms' algorithms changing?
They change constantly. The training half is built so you're not dependent on any one platform's whims; the management half adapts as platforms move. We don't sell algorithm hacks because they don't survive the next update - we sell a steady cadence, a voice your customers recognise, and replies that come within hours. That stack outlasts any single algorithm cycle.
What if I want to take it back in-house?
Easily - that's the design. Your social accounts stay in your name throughout; we never own the logins, never put your content somewhere you can't reach it, never hold the calendar hostage. A short notice period agreed at scope, and you walk away with the playbook, the recorded walkthroughs, and a working cadence your team can keep running. The whole point of the training half of the service is that the team can take it back at any time - the management half is the option for when they shouldn't have to.
How much does it cost?
Agreed at scope, in writing, before any work starts. A sole trader running one Facebook page and a regional business running Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook for six locations don't share a price - and pretending they do, on a published rate card, means somebody is overpaying. We'll talk through what you need, agree the scope and the monthly figure, then start.
I didn't build my socials with you - can you still help?
Yes - although we'd want a short audit first to see what's working, what's wasted effort, and which platforms are worth keeping. If the foundations are sound, the training slots straight on top; if a couple of accounts are doing more harm than good, we'll be honest about that and tell you which to retire.
Tell us about your business
What do you do, who are your customers, and where are you posting today (or not posting)? Don't know - that's fine, just write 'help' in the box. We'll come back within 24 hours by email with a sketch of what we'd run for you and a price.