Manage and plan your social media content with our easy-to-use calendar template.
Looking to up your social media content game, grow your profile and potentially your business? Our easy-to-use social media content calendar template comes as an Excel document that you can use to simplify your life.
In the dynamic world of social media, staying ahead of the game requires meticulous planning and execution. One indispensable tool in your arsenal is the Social Media Calendar. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll unravel the essence of social media calendars, understand why they are crucial, and equip you with insights to elevate your social media strategy.
- what is a social media calendar?
- Why You Should Use a Social Media Calendar
- who is our template for
- how to use our free social media template
What is a social media calendar?
A social media calendar is a strategic tool that organizes and schedules your social media content across various platforms. It is a roadmap that helps you systematically plan and execute your social media posts. This tool integrates with your overall marketing strategy, ensuring that your content aligns with your business goals and resonates with your audience.
Key Components of a Social Media Calendar
- Content Schedule: A chronological plan outlining when each piece of content will be published.
- Platform Allocation: A breakdown of which content will be posted on specific social media platforms.
- Content Types: Categorization of content into various types.
- Hashtag Strategy: Integration of relevant hashtags to increase discoverability.
- Engagement Plans: Incorporating strategies to engage with your audience, such as responding to comments and messages.
Why You Should Use a Social Media Calendar
1. Consistency is Key
Consistency is the backbone of successful social media strategies. A social media calendar ensures a regular flow of content, preventing lulls in your online presence. Regular posting establishes your brand in the minds of your audience, enhancing brand recall and trust.
2. Improved Time Management
Planning your social media content in advance saves time and reduces the stress of last-minute postings. It allows you to allocate resources more efficiently, whether it’s creating content, designing graphics, or engaging with your audience.
3. Strategic Alignment
A social media calendar lets you align your content with broader marketing strategies. Coordinating social media campaigns with product launches, events, or other marketing efforts ensures a cohesive and synchronized approach across all channels.
4. Audience Engagement
Understanding your audience’s behaviour is crucial for effective social media engagement. By scheduling content at optimal times and analyzing performance metrics, you can tailor your posts to when your audience is most active, maximizing reach and engagement.
5. Frees Up Mental Bandwidth
The constant pressure to create and publish content can be overwhelming. A social media calendar provides a structured approach, freeing up mental bandwidth for creativity and strategic thinking rather than the stress of daily execution.
6. Evaluation and Optimization
Tracking the performance of your social media efforts is essential for growth. Social media calendars facilitate analysis by providing a clear timeline of your content. This allows you to continually identify successful strategies, learn from less successful ones, and refine your approach.
who is our template for
our free social media calendar template is designed for everyone and anyone! The more people that can get use out of this resource the better.
however, we definitely think that this tool is particularly useful for startups and smaller businesses. where trying to keep on top of everything that you need to do can become difficult.
blocking out a few hours each month to plan your content for the upcoming month can become such a life saver. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that growth on social media can take time, so remaining consistent is the key! we find that planning content ahead of time is one of the easiest ways to remain consistent.
how to use our free social media template
strategy
it is important to ensure that you have an overall social media strategy and that everything you post works toward that strategy. it is difficult to see real growth if you are just posting for the sake of posting.
the intention with the strategy tab is to fill it out at the beginning of the year and use it as a guide to ensure that you stay on track throughout the year. That being said, we know that things in business can change, so feel free to revisit your social media strategy throughout the year and make sure that it is aligned with your overall company goals.
creating a social media strategy can be overwhelming at times, so get in touch if you are looking for some friendly advice or direction.
yearly view
make sure you don’t miss out on important dates throughout the year by planning for them in advance. This can be especially effective if you align your campaigns with the right time of year.
the yearly view can also help with making sure that evergreen campaigns are delivered throughout the year to maximise their effectiveness.
monthly view
we find this tab by far the most useful!
start to get to the nitty gritty by breaking down your monthly posts across the different platforms that you are going to use, as well as the different post formats. the monthly view gives you a really good top level to make sure that you are posting consistently and promoting all the campaigns you want to.
weekly view
if you are someone who wants to write out their post content ahead of time, then the weekly view is where you will be able to do this. for us, we use the meta business suite to schedule our posts, so we find that we don’t often need to use the weekly tab.
cornerstone database
The Content database tab of this spreadsheet is designed to house any content that you want to come back to and promote again in the future. it can also be helpful to take a look at your engagement metrics and record any posts that perform well. That way, you can know which posts should be repurposed or recreated.
adjust the template to fit your needs
we have included all the major social media platforms, but feel free to adjust your template to fit your needs. Add or remove any that you don’t need.
a great tip is to duplicate a tab you are using, that way you will always have a blank canvas for the next week or month.