How to Create an Organized Social Media Calendar

A social media calendar is a comprehensive schedule that outlines your upcoming social media posts, organized by date and time. These calendars can take the form of documents, spreadsheets, or interactive dashboards, and they play a crucial role in managing social media marketing.

What’s on a Social Media Calendar?

Each entry in a social media calendar typically includes the following details:

• Content elements (copy, images, videos, links, hashtags, etc.)
• Date and time of publication
• The social network and specific account for publication
• Any additional notes or instructions

Creating a Social Media Calendar in 4 Simple Steps

Follow these four steps to create a streamlined and efficient social media content plan:

Step 1: Audit Your Social Networks and Content

Before constructing your social media posting calendar, you must clearly understand your existing social media accounts. Utilize a social media audit template to create an accurate record, covering elements such as:

• Identifying impostor accounts and outdated profiles
• Ensuring account security and managing passwords
• Establishing goals and KPIs for each branded account on various platforms
• Understanding your target audience, including demographics and personas
• Determining responsibilities within your team
• Analyzing your most successful posts, campaigns, and strategies
• Identifying gaps, areas of underperformance, and opportunities for improvement
• Defining key metrics to measure future success on each platform
• Monitoring the activities of your competitors to learn from their strategies

As part of your audit, pay attention to your current posting frequency on each social network and examine analytics data to gauge the impact of your posting frequency and timing on engagement and conversions.

Step 2: Choose Your Social Media Channels and Content Mix

Decide on the types of content you intend to post, a crucial component of your social media strategy and calendar. Consider two common content mix strategies to kickstart your planning:

The Social Media Rule of Thirds:

One-third of your posts promote your business or drive conversions.

One-third of your posts share curated content from industry thought leaders.

One-third of your posts involve personal interaction with your followers.

The 80-20 Rule:

80 percent of your posts inform, educate, or entertain.

20 percent of your posts promote your business or drive conversions.

Additionally, determine which social channels are most suitable for each content type. Some platforms may not be relevant to your business, so your audit from step 1 will help you identify the best-fit platforms.

Remember to schedule user-generated and curated content to alleviate the burden of creating all content in-house.

Step 3: Decide What Your Social Media Calendar Should Include

Tailor your social media calendar to your unique needs, understanding that it won't resemble anyone else's exactly. Consider the following basic details for inclusion:

Platform

• Date
• Time (including time zone)
• Copy
• Visual assets (e.g., photos, videos, infographics)
• Links to relevant resources
• Links to published posts, including tracking information (e.g., UTM parameters)
• For more advanced planning, you can include additional details such as:
• Platform-specific format (e.g., feed post, Story, Reel, poll, live stream, ad)
• Associated vertical or social media campaign (e.g., product launch, contest)
• Geo-targeting (e.g., global, regional)
• Identification of paid or organic content (with budget details, if applicable)
• Approval status

For beginners, a simple spreadsheet can suffice. However, for a more robust solution, consider utilizing a social media management tool like Hootsuite, which offers an interactive calendar with features such as post creation, scheduling, team collaboration, content recommendations, and bulk scheduling.

Step 4: Invite Your Team to Review and Incorporate Feedback

An effective social media calendar should be comprehensible to all members of your marketing team. Encourage feedback and ideas from stakeholders and your team to ensure that the calendar serves everyone's needs.

As you start using your calendar, continually assess its effectiveness and solicit ongoing feedback from your team. Adjust the calendar to streamline processes or enhance detail as necessary. Recognize that your calendar will evolve as your business grows and changes.

Benefits of Using a Social Media Content Calendar

Using a social media content calendar offers several advantages:

Get Organized and Save Time: Social media calendars allow you to plan in advance, batch your work, and efficiently manage your content ideas. They also enable you to schedule posts ahead of time, ensuring consistent activity without the need for real-time monitoring.

Post Consistently: Consistency in posting is essential to maintain audience expectations and engagement. A social media calendar helps you adhere to a regular posting schedule, making it easier to plan themed posts, such as #MondayMotivation.

Enjoy Vacation Time: By creating and scheduling content in advance, you can take time off without worrying about maintaining your social media accounts during holidays or personal breaks.

Reduce Errors: Planning ahead allows you to review and proofread content, reducing the likelihood of typos and errors. It also provides a safety net to prevent social media crises.

Produce High-Quality and Cohesive Content: A calendar enables you to allocate resources effectively, ensuring that your team can create high-quality content. It also facilitates long-term planning to support your marketing goals.

Time Content for Holidays and Events: Social media calendars help you align your content with relevant holidays and events, making your posts timely and engaging.

Identify Partnership Opportunities: Advance planning allows you to identify and coordinate partnership opportunities with influencers or other brands. It also helps you align organic and paid content effectively.

Track and Improve Results: A calendar provides a structured framework to measure and analyze your social media performance, enabling you to refine your strategies and produce better content.

An Organized Social Media Calendar

. By following the four simple steps outlined here and tailoring your calendar to your unique needs, you can streamline your content planning, engage your audience consistently, and achieve your marketing goals more effectively.