peterbamuhigire/strategy-pdca-workflow-design

PDCA Workflow Design for Social Media Management

Based on Neal Schaffer, Maximize Your Social (Wiley, 2013).

---

<!-- dual-compat:start -->

Use when

• Produces a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) daily execution loop for social media management — defining the daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm of tasks, what triggers an optimisation decision, and how to run the continuous improvement cycle. Output is an operational manual the client or their team can follow without external guidance. Invoke when setting up a new social media management system for a client, when social media is being handed over to an in-house team, when a consultant needs to document their own workflow for a client retainer, or when a client reports that things are disorganised and wants a structured process.
• Use this skill when it is the closest match to the requested deliverable or workflow.

Do not use when

• Do not use this skill for graphic design, video production, software development, or legal advice beyond the repository's stated scope.
• Do not use it when another skill in this repository is clearly more specific to the requested deliverable.

Workflow

1. Collect the required inputs or source material before drafting, unless this skill explicitly generates the intake itself.
2. Follow the section order and decision rules in this SKILL.md; do not skip mandatory steps or required fields.
3. Review the draft against the quality criteria, then deliver the final output in markdown unless the skill specifies another format.

Anti-Patterns

• Do not invent client facts, performance data, budgets, or approvals that were not provided or clearly inferred from evidence.
• Do not skip required inputs, mandatory sections, or quality checks just to make the output shorter.
• Do not drift into out-of-scope work such as code implementation, design production, or unsupported legal conclusions.

Outputs

• A structured markdown document, plan, playbook, or strategy ready for client-facing or internal use.

References

• Use the inline instructions in this skill now. If a references/ directory is added later, treat its files as the deeper source material and keep this SKILL.md execution-focused.

<!-- dual-compat:end -->

Overview

The PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is a continuous improvement loop applied to social media management. It runs on three timeframes simultaneously:

• Daily — Do + Light Check (execute tasks, catch urgent issues)
• Weekly — Check + Act (review metrics, make small adjustments)
• Monthly — Plan + Act in full (reset strategy, document learnings)

The output of this skill is an operational manual. It tells the client — or their team — exactly what to do, when to do it, and what to do when something is not working.

---

Required Input

Before generating the workflow manual, ask for:

1. Client business name and industry
2. Country and city (affects timing defaults and platform mix)
3. Platforms in scope (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, WhatsApp)
4. Who manages day-to-day: client themselves / in-house team member / consultant
5. Available time per day for social media management
6. Existing analytics access: Meta Business Suite, Google Analytics 4, TikTok Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, other
7. Current pain points: what is disorganised or falling through the cracks?

---

Section 1 — Daily Routine (Do + Light Check)

Time defaults are East Africa Time (EAT). Adjust for the client's timezone.

Morning Block — 30 minutes (08:00–08:30 EAT)

1. Check overnight notifications: comments, DMs, mentions — respond to anything urgent
2. Review what is scheduled to publish today — confirm content is ready and accurate
3. Post any content not pre-scheduled (Stories, quick updates, timely content)
4. Check for any negative mentions or complaints requiring immediate response
5. Brief review of competitor activity — any significant posts or announcements in the past 24 hours?

Midday Block — 10 minutes (12:30–13:00 EAT)

1. Respond to comments and DMs received since the morning block
2. Engage with the audience on current posts (acknowledge genuine comments, reply to questions)
3. Confirm today's scheduled post has gone live

End-of-Day Block — 10 minutes (17:00–17:30 EAT)

1. Final check of comments and DMs
2. Log any content ideas or audience questions that emerged today into the content ideas file
3. Confirm tomorrow's scheduled content is ready in the queue

Daily Time Investment

| Scope | Total Daily Time | |---|---| | One active platform | 50 minutes | | Two active platforms | 65 minutes | | Three active platforms | 80 minutes | | Each additional platform | +15 minutes |

State the client's total daily time investment at the top of their manual so expectations are set from day one.

---

Section 2 — Weekly Routine (Check + Act)

Schedule: Every Monday, 45 minutes.

Step 1 — Pull Weekly Metrics (20 minutes)

Pull from native analytics for each active platform:

• Reach and impressions for the week
• Engagement rate per post (average and per individual post)
• Follower change (net gain or loss)
• Best-performing post: screenshot it, note the format, topic, and time posted
• Worst-performing post: note what to avoid repeating

Step 2 — Compare to Previous Week (10 minutes)

• Is the primary metric improving, stable, or declining?
• Is engagement rate above or below the EA benchmark for this platform?
• Is follower growth on trend with the monthly target?

Step 3 — Review and Prepare the Coming Week (15 minutes)

• Check the content queue — are all posts for the coming week written, approved, and scheduled? (Cross-reference 11-content-calendar)
• Identify one optimisation action for the week — for example: test a different posting time, add a stronger CTA to promotional posts, or experiment with a new content format
• Note any timely content opportunities (events, awareness days, news) to add to the queue

Weekly Review Note

At the end of every Monday review, write one paragraph (internal, not client-facing):

"This week: [best post and why]. [Platform] engagement was [up/down X%]. Next week: try [one specific change]."

This note becomes the working memory of the social media programme. File it in a running weekly log document.

WhatsApp Note

WhatsApp community management is not tracked in native analytics. Add a manual WhatsApp log to the weekly routine:

• Number of inbound messages received
• Number resolved
• Any recurring questions to address in content
• Any complaints or escalations

---

Section 3 — Monthly Routine (Plan + Act in Full)

Total monthly time investment: 3 hours, spread across the month.

Week 1 — Review (60 minutes)

• Pull the monthly analytics report for all platforms (Cross-reference meta-reporting and meta-social-metrics-framework)
• Calculate Net Sentiment Score (NSS) from the month's comments: (positive comments − negative comments) ÷ total comments × 100
• Compare primary metrics to the SMART targets set at the start of the month
• Answer: which content pillar performed best? Which underperformed?
• Answer: which platform drove the most results against the primary metric?

Weeks 1–2 — Plan (60 minutes)

• Review next month's content calendar (Cross-reference 11-content-calendar)
• Adjust pillar balance based on last month's performance data
• Plan any campaign content or seasonal moments for the coming month
• Identify three evergreen posts to recycle this month
• Set one optimisation hypothesis to test: "If we [change X], we expect [result Y] to improve by [measure Z] within [timeframe]."

Write the hypothesis down in the PDCA documentation log before the month begins.

Week 4 — Act (60 minutes)

• Prepare the monthly client report (Cross-reference meta-reporting or deck-monthly-report)
• Record the optimisation hypothesis result in the log: did the change work? Why or why not?
• Document one learning from this month: "We learned that [audience insight]. Next month we will [action]."
• Book the next monthly review session before closing out the month

---

Section 4 — Optimisation Decision Triggers

These signals should prompt an Act decision immediately — do not wait for the monthly review cycle.

| Signal | Action | |---|---| | Engagement rate drops below EA benchmark for 2 consecutive weeks | Review content quality — is it relevant, well-timed, and visually strong? | | Follower count declining for 3 or more consecutive weeks | Review recent content — has tone, topic, or posting frequency changed? | | Complaint volume increases noticeably | Check community management response time and quality of replies | | One post significantly outperforms all others | Analyse and replicate the format, topic, and timing in future posts | | One platform consistently underperforms relative to others | Consider reducing posting frequency or deprioritising the platform | | Primary metric (enquiries or leads) drops for 2 consecutive months | Review the full content-to-conversion path — identify where the drop-off occurs |

Cross-reference playbook-daily-operations-routine for escalation procedures when multiple triggers fire simultaneously.

---

Section 5 — The PDCA Documentation Log

Every Act decision must be documented. Create a simple optimisation log and update it every month without exception.

Log Template

| Month | Hypothesis | Change Made | Result | Next Action | |---|---|---|---|---| | [Month Year] | [If we do X, Y will improve] | [Exact change made] | [Measured outcome] | [Continue / reverse / iterate] |

Worked Example

| Month | Hypothesis | Change Made | Result | Next Action | |---|---|---|---|---| | March 2026 | Posting at 19:30 EAT will increase ER vs 12:00 EAT | Moved 3 posts/week to 19:30 for 4 weeks | ER increased from 2.8% to 3.4% | Continue 19:30 for all evening content |

This log is the institutional memory of the client's social media performance. It prevents repeating the same mistakes and builds a picture of what works for this specific audience, on these specific platforms, in this specific market.

Store the log in the same shared folder as the content calendar and monthly reports.

---

Section 6 — East Africa-Specific Workflow Notes

Apply these adjustments for clients operating in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and neighbouring markets.

Peak engagement timing: Monday morning is the highest-traffic time for professional content in East Africa. For B2B clients, prioritise posting on Sunday evening (20:00–21:00 EAT) or Monday morning (07:30–09:00 EAT) to catch the start-of-week audience.

Mobile-first review: Most East African social media managers check analytics on a smartphone rather than a desktop. Confirm that all analytics dashboards — Meta Business Suite, TikTok Analytics, LinkedIn — are accessible and readable on mobile before handing the workflow to an in-house team.

Load-shedding and power disruptions: Scheduled power cuts in parts of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania can disrupt scheduled posts if the scheduling tool loses connectivity. Mitigate this by:

• Always maintaining mobile data as a backup to Wi-Fi
• Enabling push notifications from the scheduling tool so missed posts are flagged immediately
• Adding a midday confirmation step to the daily routine (already included above) to catch any posts that did not go live

WhatsApp management: WhatsApp is the dominant customer communication channel across East Africa. It operates outside native social analytics and requires a manual tracking process. Include the WhatsApp weekly log (see Section 2) from day one.

Public holidays and cultural calendar: Uganda and East Africa have a distinct public holiday and cultural calendar. Build these into the monthly planning step: Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Liberation Day (Uganda, 26 January), Independence Day (Uganda, 9 October), Christmas, Easter, and major regional sporting and cultural events.

---

Quality Criteria

• Daily routine has named tasks with specific time estimates for each block (morning, midday, end-of-day)
• Weekly routine produces a documented one-paragraph note — not merely a prompt to "review analytics"
• Monthly routine follows the Plan-Review-Act structure clearly mapped across four weeks
• Optimisation decision triggers are specific signals with specific, actionable responses
• PDCA documentation log template is included with a fully worked example
• EA-specific notes address mobile-first management, load-shedding risk, and WhatsApp tracking
• Total daily time investment is stated numerically for one platform and for each additional platform
• All Act decisions are logged — the skill does not permit undocumented changes to strategy

---

Cross-References

| Skill | When to use | |---|---| | 11-content-calendar | Review and populate the content queue during weekly and monthly planning | | meta-reporting | Generate the monthly analytics report in Week 4 of the monthly cycle | | meta-social-metrics-framework | Define which metrics constitute the primary metric and EA benchmarks | | playbook-daily-operations-routine | Escalation procedures when multiple optimisation triggers fire at once |