Posting high-quality content to social media platforms is not as easy as it may seem for those who ‘play’ on social media. While the job of social media manager might seem glamorous to the outside world, social media managers and other content creators work hard to create the right post for the right platform to post at the right time.
Creating social media posts takes time and effort. In order to keep assets for each post and each platform in one place, it is imperative a content calendar is used.
In this article, you will learn
What a content calendar is
Who needs a content calendar
Why content creators use content calendars
How to create a content calendar
What should be included on a content calendar
What is a content calendar?
A content calendar organizes each newly created piece of content for content creators. Some calendars are color-coded, some are visual, and other content calendar templates work like spreadsheets; all give the content creator an overview of what’s being posted in the next week and month and on what platform. Whether you write blog posts, social media posts, ad copy, or a combination of all of these, creating a calendar will help you do the following all in one place:
Lays out the type of content per social media platform
Combines assets (video, image, graphic) with copy
Lists a preferred publishing schedule
In other words, a content calendar helps content creators plan and organize their soon-to-be-published content.
Who Needs a Content Calendar?
Content creators need content calendars. That includes jobs like:
Social media manager
Community manager
Copywriter
Videographer
Photographer
Blogger
Graphic Designer
Creative Director
Event Organizer
Podcaster
Chief Marketing Officer
And more!
If you are someone who regularly creates content, and maybe someone who creates content for multiple clients, a content calendar will help you with the overall project managing aspect of working with clients.
Why content creators use content calendars
Marketing teams use content calendars to keep each other informed about content planning as content calendars help teams keep track of important dates, content ideas, and the overall content creation process.
The use of content calendar saves
Time
Effort
Money
Content calendars can be used by creatives to
Request post-approval from clients prior to posting the content
Schedule content/save time/bulk upload content
Create a pleasing grid
Post a wide variety of content and keep it organized
How to create a content calendar
Calendars are created in many different forms. Some of the tools used to create calendars include:
Trello
Canva
Asana
Basecamp
Airtable
Post schedulers with team functionality like Buffer, Hootsuite and AgoraPulse
What should be included on a content calendar?
Include:
Events
Promos
Products
Curated content
Blogs
Videos
Quotes
Memes
Infographics
Sales
Contests
For each post, add:
Platform
Copy
Asset (link, image, video)
People/businesses to be tagged
Hashtags to be included
Best time to post
Last Words of Wisdom
As far as your content marketing strategy, using a content calendar is smart business. Social media marketing can be semi-automated and certain tasks can be streamlined.
I highly recommend you create and use a content calendar to layout your monthly posts to serve up the best content to your online audience!
Before you create your own calendar, please note the following.
Never:
Post the same content at the same time to multiple platforms
Auto-share from one platform to another
Use the same copy for all platforms
Overuse hashtags on the wrong platforms
Tag unrelated people or businesses
Use the wrong image size for the platform
Much success to you as you move to an even better content creation process.
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