If you’ve been tasked with the responsibility of managing your brand’s social media, it may seem daunting. However, if you are able to develop a content calendar, it makes the process much easier. Let’s take a look at what it is, why you should have one, how to get started, and how to use my free spreadsheet template. Ready? Let’s go!
What is a Content Calendar?
It is simply a way to plan the content you are going to post in a given time period. There are multiple tools to use to create one such as…
- blank printed calendar (not ideal)
- project management software
- social media scheduler
- spreadsheet (my favorite!)
It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be easily repeatable and functional.
Why Do I Need a Content Calendar?
First, it helps you be consistent and intentional. While you can choose to write your content on the fly directly into the social media platform itself, this is often not a sustainable pattern. Your posts may be several all at once, then nothing for a few days or weeks. Consistency matters.
Second, it’s reliable. Without a content calendar, you could lose the content before you hit “post”. If there is a glitch in the scheduler you use, you can simply go back to your calendar and copy and paste, rather than be frustrated.
Third, having a calendar makes it easier to repurpose content. Since you have a digital record of that content you can pull from your content bank more easily. If a social platform suddenly ceases to exist, you won’t lose all your content.
How Do I Make One?
These are the five steps I would recommend. If you’re like me, you probably just want to jump ahead to the freebie and skip these introductory steps, but they really are worth your time.
Step 1: Audience
When you define your ideal audience, you’ll be more likely to create content that connects with them. This step helps you be intentional on social media. Quality over quantity.
So, how do you do this? Well, if you already have an editorial style guide in place, you can simply pull a few important details about your audience. This helps everyone involved with the content creation process stay focused on who you want to reach.
If you don’t have your audience defined yet, jot down a few details and come back to it as it becomes more clear. For instance,
- What are their struggles?
- What kind of content do they like?
- What do they value?
Keep in mind that your audience may vary slightly on different platforms. You may need to do a bit of digging into the platform’s analytics or simply do a search for who uses the platform.
With this information defined, you are ready to add this to the top of your content calendar. If you use the template I’ll provide at the end, there is already space for this.
Step 2: Strategy
If you’re just starting out, you may not have a strategy yet. My biggest tip is to focus on consistency. Start with at least once a week and increase from there. As you post content, you’ll be able to use analytics to learn the times your audience is active.
- How often do you plan to post? Once a day? Twice a week?
- Will you post on certain days?
- What time will you post?
Add this information to your content calendar.
Step 3: Content Buckets
Keeping your audience in mind, think about the kind of content you want to create. Sometimes these are called “content buckets”. For example,
- Educational
- Promotional
- Inspirational
- Holidays or events
- Reviews
- About us
Whatever buckets you choose, you don’t have to create one of each before repeating, but having them listed out helps you include variety. Some creators like to assign different days of the week to different content buckets (example: Motivational Monday, Tip Tuesday, etc.). I personally do not use this strategy, but it might be a helpful starting point.
Step 4: Tool
Now it’s time to choose which tool you would like to use for your calendar. A quick web search yields dozens of options. While some creators use social media schedulers as their content calendar, I prefer Google Sheets. Since starting my business in 2018, I have been using this tool with my clients. It is…
- Free
- Easy to share
- Completely customizable
- Easy to embed links to important files or resources
- Searchable (search the entire spreadsheet quickly for words, links, etc.)
Step 5: Start
After defining your audience, strategy, and content buckets, then choosing the tool to use, you’re ready to start. Pull content from the content you’ve already made: your website, freebies, videos, blog posts, or newsletters. Write your posts, design your graphics, and keep track of it all in your content calendar. Then schedule it. Repeat month after month.
How to Use the Free Template
If you’d like to try using Google Sheets as your tool, be sure to snag my free editable template. It will make it easier to implement each of these steps. When you open it, you’ll see five tabs.
- Start: Please read this tab first. You’ll find helpful information on how to use it.
- Template: This is the actual calendar. Customize it to your liking, then duplicate and rename the copy each month. If you find you need to make changes, be sure to update your template as needed.
- Hashtags: Keep your hashtag research in this tab. I’ve separated them by brand, industry, and so forth. This makes it easy to see your favorite hashtags at a glance.
- Emojis: If your brand uses emojis, keep them in this tab. Then when you need one, you can simply copy and paste.
- Holidays: List the holidays your brand wants to include and add relevant details.
Bottom Line
Having a social media content calendar helps you be consistent and intentional in engaging with your audience. To get started you will want to define your audience, make a strategy, decide content buckets, pick a tool, and go for it. You’ve got this!
As a former elementary teacher, Marissa Fedorow learned doing too much on your own leads to burnout. Since pivoting from teaching and launching Marissa Fedorow VA Services in 2018, she has focused her creativity and attentiveness to details to help multi-passionate entrepreneurs nurture their audiences with content creation, optimization, and refreshing so they gain time to focus on what gives them joy in their business. It is her core belief together we can do so much.
