How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar

By Danielle Bornowski | August 22, 2022

Social media management can be daunting and overwhelming. If you’ve ever wished someone would just tell you what to do, you’ve come to the right place. At DQB Strategies, we’re here to help you with your social media, whether you want us to do it for you or you just need a little help along the way. If you’re reading this, you likely want to manage it yourself, which is very exciting! Check out our list of other social media management tips at the bottom of this post/email!

If you’re like many businesses, you’re probably wondering how you can make the most of social media in order to grow your brand. While it’s important to be constantly active on your social platforms, it’s also important to plan your posts in advance. This is where a social media content calendar comes in handy.

A social media content calendar is a document that outlines your planned posts for the upcoming month or quarter. This document can help you stay organized, ensure that your social media accounts are consistently active, and that you are publishing content that is both timely and relevant, while also avoiding any overlap or duplication.

There are a variety of ways to create a social media content calendar. One approach is to start by creating a master list of all of your ideas for content. At DQB Strategies, we call this a brain dump document. It is literally a blank page where you drop ideas. This could include a list of topics you want to cover, images or videos you want to promote, or even screenshots of inspiration you’ve seen.

Once you have an idea of the kind of content you want to post, you can then start to organize it by topic, platform, or even time of year. This will help you come up with a content plan that is both well-rounded and cohesive. You can map your content out on a paper calendar or in a digital format (like on a Google Sheet), whichever you prefer.

Social Media Marketing Tips and Successful Social Media Marketing

PLANNING

Creating a social media content calendar is a great way to organize and plan your content ahead of time, giving you confidence in your social media presence and management.

You’ve probably already figured out what platforms you’re going to be on. If you haven’t, check out our Getting Started on Social Media article. Start by filling in the things that need to be posted on a specific day (like a product launch or a sale). Fill in other less time-sensitive content after that. Next, you’ll need to come up with a content plan for each platform. Don’t post the same thing to every social media platform at the same time.

Pro tip: If this is the only way you can post on social media, then do it. But make it a goal to create a plan to change your content up based on platform and time of day!

Your content plan should include a mix of both original content and curated content. Original content is content that you create yourself, while curated content is content that you share from other sources.

In order to create a content calendar that works for you, you’ll need to establish some ground rules. For example, you may want to limit yourself to a certain number of posts per day or week. You may also want to focus on specific types of content, such as blog posts, images, or videos.

ORGANIZING YOUR CALENDAR

One way to create a social media content calendar is to use a spreadsheet. This is a good option if you want to have a lot of control over your content. You can list out each post and its corresponding content type, date, and platform.

Another option is to use a content calendar template. Templates are available online for free or for purchase. They typically allow you to plan out your posts for each platform in advance; some even include built-in editorial calendars.

If you’re looking for something that’s a little more user-friendly, there are a number of social media content calendar tools available. These tools allow you to create and manage your content calendar online. They typically feature drag-and-drop interfaces and allow you to collaborate with other team members.

Once you’ve created your social media content calendar, it’s important to stick to it. This will help you ensure that your social media accounts are always active and that your followers know what to expect.

TOOLS FOR PLANNING SOCIAL MEDIA

Another approach is to use a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Sendible to help you create your calendar. These tools allow you to plan your content in advance and then schedule it to be published automatically. Here are some of the most popular tools for planning and executing a social media strategy:

Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that lets you track all your social media channels in one place. It also has features for scheduling posts, analyzing social media analytics, and more.
Sprout Social. Sprout Social is another social media management platform that lets you manage all your channels, schedule posts, and measure your impact. It also offers a suite of additional tools for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a Twitter-specific tool that lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule tweets, and track Twitter analytics. It’s a great tool for Twitter-focused businesses.
Sendible. Sendible is a social media management platform that lets you manage and track all your platforms in one place. It allows you to respond to messages and comments in the platform and offers many other tools for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Business.
Facebook Insights. Facebook Insights is a built-in analytics tool that lets you track how well your Facebook content is performing. It shows you how many people have seen your content, how many people have interacted with it, and more.

These are just a few of the many social media planning tools available. Choose the one(s) that best fit your needs and get started building a successful social media strategy today! At DQB Strategies, we’ve tried them all but use Sendible to meet our social media scheduling needs.

Conclusion

A social media content calendar can help ensure your brand is posting fresh, engaging content that will keep followers interested and engaged. By planning your content in advance, you can also avoid duplicate or conflicting posts, and make sure you’re hitting all of your target demographics.