How to Create a Social Media Calendar 2023

When you’re managing multiple social media accounts, the constant flow of content can be overwhelming. It’s easy to get lost in the everyday demands of running a social media account. While having a responsive social media presence is great, it’s also important to keep a consistent posting schedule of valuable content. This is where a social media calendar comes in handy. 

A social media calendar is a guideline for your posting schedule. It helps you keep the bigger picture of what your audience consistently wants and demands from you on social media. Creating a social media calendar allows you to track and test different social media marketing strategies to see what works best with your audience. It also helps you build a consistent brand tone of voice that your audience can instantly recognise. 

What is a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is an overview of upcoming social media content. A social media planning calendar can be created within a spreadsheet, Google calendar or interactive dashboard. Each piece of content within the social media calendar will typically include the following information: 

1. The time and date the content will go live
2. The social platform the content will be published
3. An active link to any copy or creative assets 
4. Links and tags to be included in the post
5. The type of post the content will be (e.g. Instagram Story or feed post)

Depending on the scope of your work, your social media calendar may span different types of social media platforms. You could also have a dedicated section for social media trends and reactive content. 

How to make a social media calendar 

So, what are the main steps to creating an effective social media calendar?

Step one: Audit your social media accounts

The first step is to have a clear understanding of your current social media efforts and positioning. This means you will be able to identify the areas to improve on and discover new opportunities. Auditing your accounts is the key to maximising your ROI and fine-tuning your social media strategy. 

Step two: Identify your key social media channels 

Identifying the social media platforms that are most relevant to your brand and audience is vital. While some social platforms may seem like a good fit for your brand, it’s no use putting effort into a platform that your audience isn’t even on. You need to take time to determine exactly where your target audience is most active and create content specifically for that platform. 

Step three: Identify key metrics and data to track 

When creating a social calendar, it’s important to consistently monitor all relevant data and social metrics. This ensures you are always publishing content that is relevant to your audience and will be helping boost your ROI. So, in addition to tracking all the basic details required to publish your content, you should also monitor more in-depth data and metrics to help your content perform as best as possible.

These include: 

1. Platform-specific format (e.g. Reels, Story, live stream, shoppable post, grid post etc.)
2. Geo-targeting (is it for a specific location or global?)
3. Value (is the post an evergreen piece that can be reused, is it a filler post, or can it be repurposed into shorter content?)
4. Paid or organic
5. The approval status 
6. Analytics and results (including impressions, engagement, CTR etc.)

Step four: Create a content asset library

Your visual assets need to be stored in a singular drive that all necessary team members can access. The database needs to be large enough to hold big files, accessible from your phone and computer, easily shareable but has secure privacy features, and offers singular links to each asset. 

Setting up your asset folder is almost as important as your social media calendar. The easier and faster you can find specific assets, the better. 

Step five: Create a consistent workflow

Now you have all the required information and assets to post, you can begin pulling together the structure of your social media calendar. 

You need to consider:

1. How frequently you want to post to each channel
2. The best time to post to each channel (this is based on your analytics) 
3. Who needs to approve posts and how long the approval process is
4. How you brainstorm new ideas for content 
5. How you will create the content 

 Step six: Create your content

Once you have everything outlined, you can get to the fun part: creating the content. As you work through your calendar, you can make any adjustments as you go. You may need to add more detail or even remove some. This is where you can see if your calendar works for you or not—if it doesn’t, time to get editing. 

FAQs

What is the best social media content calendar?

The best social media content calendar is one that clearly outlines every element of upcoming content. This includes date and time of posting, platforms posting to, captions, creative assets, tags and links to be included and post type. 

Why is a social media calendar important?

A social media calendar is important as it helps brands monitor all past and future content. Having a central location of key content helps brands remain consistent with their posting schedules and tone of voice. It also means brands are able to post a variety of content across a period of time, rather than posting similar content in one go. 

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