How to create a social media calendar - Guide

Creating an social media calendar is a crucial step in organizing and planning your content creation efforts. It helps you stay consistent, relevant, and aligns your content strategy with your overall business goals.

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you create an editorial calendar:

Define Your Content Strategy

Understand your target audience, the goals you want to achieve with your content (e.g., increase website traffic, generate leads, boost engagement), and the types of content you'll be creating (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts).

Choose a Calendar Tool

You can use various tools to create your editorial calendar, such as Google Sheets, Excel, Trello, Asana, or specific editorial calendar software. Select one that suits your needs and preferences.

Here's a free social media calendar template you can use with planners for social media, blog posts and annual content planning. Make sure you create a copy before you begin to edit.

Set a Timeline

Determine the timeframe you want to plan for. It could be monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. Keep in mind that flexibility is essential, as you may need to adjust the calendar based on changing priorities.

Identify Important Dates

Note down any significant events, holidays, or industry-related dates that could influence your content topics or schedule. Here is a list of popular Days/ observances celebrated around the year according to the UN. Each link will navigate you to the relevant page of observances where you could user content and material for inspiration.

Content Ideas and Topics

Brainstorm a list of content ideas and topics that are relevant to your audience and align with your content strategy. Consider the different stages of the buyer's journey and create content that addresses each stage (awareness, consideration, decision).

You can use AI tools such as Chat GPT Tools like HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator, Portent's Content Idea Generator, or AnswerThePublic can prompt you with content ideas based on a keyword or topic you provide. While not all suggestions may be perfect, they can spark your creativity and lead you to unique angles.

If you are trying to connect to content ideas using unique learnings from Facebook, Google or Direct advertising, mind mapping tools like MindMeister, XMind, or Coggle allow you to visually organize your thoughts and ideas. You can start with a central topic and branch out with related sub-topics. This method can help you see connections and discover new angles for content.

My personal favorite is Google Trends. It allows you to explore trending topics and discover what people are currently searching for, which can inspire content ideas, and most importantly seasonal trends in topics and interests.

If you are a brand that keeps looking for international users, Google Trends is an repository of keywords, breakout topics and trends that will help you plan your social media topics well in advance.

Analyzing competitors is also a great method of getting content ideas. Best approach is to analyze your competition with an intention of learning and using that learning to leverage your brand instead of an intention of 'copying' creatives and content.

Keyword Research

If you're focusing on SEO, perform keyword research to identify relevant keywords and phrases to target in your content. Incorporate these keywords into your content planning.

Plan for Promotion

Don't forget to schedule social media promotion, email newsletters, and any other distribution channels you use. Coordinate these promotions with your content publication dates.

Monitor and Review

Regularly review and update your editorial calendar. Analyze the performance of your content to see what works best and adjust your strategy accordingly. Stay agile and adapt to changes or emerging trends.

Consistency is Key

Stick to your editorial calendar as much as possible. Consistency in publishing will help build a loyal audience. Populate content as your month or year progress based on followers reactions and sales.