How To Create A Content Calendar for Social Media

Introduction

A content calendar is a planning document that helps you organize and track your content. It’s a simple way to keep track of what you’re creating over time, as well as how it fits into your overall strategy. A good content calendar also has room for you to record other important information like ideas, research, and audience feedback.
A lot of people create them using Excel or Google Sheets. I prefer Notion because it’s easy to use and free (I highly recommend their premium plan though). Let’s get started…

What is a content calendar?

Content calendars are a planning tool that allows you to plan content for the entire year. They can help you stay focused and avoid getting overwhelmed, and they also help your team create a workflow.
A content calendar is simply a spreadsheet where you list all your ideas for blog posts, podcasts, videos and other types of content. It’s easy to create with Excel or Google Sheets – just set up columns for the topic or campaign name, target dates (when do you want it published?), title, description and any other notes about each piece of content like keywords or who it’s aimed at. You can then add new rows as needed as more ideas come up throughout the year.

Benefits of creating a content calendar

Creating a content calendar is not just about saving time, but also about saving money. You can save money by:

Having a plan for how you’re going to spend your budget (time and dollars)
Being able to avoid paying for additional design services and development if the topic of your blog post is already covered by something else in your market. For example, if you are writing on the topic of “How to Grow an Instagram Following” and have already done research on this topic beforehand, then you don’t need to pay someone else to come up with graphics or illustrations that illustrate each step they recommend taking when growing an Instagram following.
Saving time by being able to focus on what needs attention first instead of spending all day trying to figure out where best place starts next.

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How to get started with your content calendar

Start with a blank calendar. This could be a physical one or an online calendar like Google Calendar, Trello, or Notion.
Map out your content for the next year. From this point forward, you’ll be keeping track of each item on your list as it’s published and making sure it gets promoted properly in other channels. This way you can do that without having to go back and try to remember when certain pieces were posted or how they performed over time.
List all of your ideas for future posts on the calendar now–even if they’re not yet scheduled but might be in the future–so that when it’s time to publish them later down the line, there will already be a place set aside where they should go!

Define your key goals

Define your key goals.
Know your target audience and understand them.
Know your brand and what’s unique to you, compared to other businesses in the same field.
Know what your competitors are doing, their strengths and weaknesses, so you can do better than them!
Think about what makes a good content calendar for your business, based on these criteria:
What content do you need? And how often will it be updated?
What kind of content does your website need? Weekly blog posts or monthly newsletters? How long should each piece be? Should it be written by someone else or yourself? The more specific the answer is for these questions, the easier it will be for whoever manages the calendar later on down the road – including yourself!

Map out your target customer journey

Identify your target customer.
Map out the journey they go through from discovery to conversion.
Use a customer journey map to help you plan content.
Use a customer persona to help you plan content.

Identify the types of content you’ll create

Before you can create a content calendar, it’s important to know what types of content you’ll be creating. This will help you identify how much time and effort each type requires so that you’re able to set realistic goals for yourself.

There are many different types of content that fall into three main categories:

Blog posts (written)
Video (recorded)
Short form video (recorded)

In addition to these three major categories, there are also several smaller ones: podcasts, images for social media and emails, etc.

Content formats for different platforms

As you create your content calendar, it’s important to remember that the format of your content can vary depending on the platform. For example, if you were creating a Facebook Ad, the image should be square and at least 1,200 x 628 pixels. But if you were creating a weekly blog post for your website or blog page, then it would be best to use images with higher resolutions (like 2,000 x 1,500).
You may also need to consider what style of images would work well with each type of media outlet. For example:

Instagram – If an individual or brand has an active presence on Instagram (and wants to grow their following), then they should consider posting visual content that is easily digestible and engaging while still being authentic and true-to-brand.*

For example: The above image from our USO tour was posted on our Instagram page back in 2018. It shows
one of our staff members getting ready before we head out for another day with our troops!

Video content

Video content can be a great way to reach your audience and help you tell your story. Video content is more engaging than text and images, so it’s a great way to keep people engaged on your website. You can use video to teach, inform, entertain and inspire your audience – not just sell them something.
You can also use video to help you tell your story in an authentic way. Video gives you the opportunity to share behind-the-scenes footage that might not be suitable for other mediums like print or social media advertising campaigns (e.g., videos of employees talking about what they do).

Next steps for creating your content calendar

Be sure to identify your target audience. If you’re a content marketer, it’s important to know who you’re targeting with each piece of content. This helps ensure that the right people are seeing the right content at the right time and in the right place — and that they’ll want more of what they see.
Nail down your goals and objectives for each piece of content. What do you want your audience to take away from this post? Does it need to be educational? Informative? Entertaining? Emotional? How many times should someone read or watch it before feeling satisfied with their learning experience (or entertainment experience)?
Map out the customer journey for each piece of content—where does it lead them, or does it lead anywhere at all? Are there gaps in between pieces where people could get lost if they don’t know where else they can go next? Or do all of your pieces link together seamlessly from start to finish so as not leave readers hanging until their next interaction with your brand occurs within an appropriate timeframe (i.e., after receiving an email newsletter).

Conclusion

And that’s it! You should now have a plan in place for your social media, videos, blog posts, and podcasts. The next step is to start putting it into practice. Remember that creating a content calendar is not just about creating content but also planning out when you will post it online so that people can see what you’re up to and follow along with your journey towards success.