What is a Social Media Calendar?

The purpose of a social media calendar is to provide a framework for sharing content that resonates with your audience and also sells your business. Before creating your calendar, plan content around specific campaigns and goals.

Once you’ve chosen your categories, create a separate spreadsheet to use as a working library so you can plan and gather the original content, products, events, and promotions you plan to share. It’s helpful to color-code each content type so you can easily differentiate them on the calendar.

CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA CALENDAR

You can either create your calendar manually or download a social media calendar template to start using it right away (navigate using the tabs at the bottom of the sheet). To create your calendar manually, log into Google Drive and click New to create a new spreadsheet. Then click the title to rename it.

Now you’re ready to customize the spreadsheet and create your calendar template. Because you’ll be working with seven columns (for the seven days of the week), delete columns H-Z. Then select columns A-G and drag the right edge of the selection until the columns fill the screen.

Next, highlight the cells in the first row and select Format > Merge Cells > Merge All. Enter “Month” as a placeholder on your template. Customize the font style and center the text.

In the second row, enter the days of the week, beginning with Sunday. If you want, you can freeze these two rows so they remain in view at all times. To do so, highlight the two rows and select View > Freeze > 2 Rows.

In the next row, enter calendar dates. Then select the top three rows and use the border tool (from the top toolbar) to add a bottom border. Next, add your social media profiles to each date; leave one or two rows between each profile to accommodate your posting frequency. Then select each column and add a right border.

Leave a few extra rows, and add a bottom border to the last row in week one. Then copy week one, change the dates, and complete the calendar template.

ADD CONTENT TO YOUR CALENDAR

Now that you’ve created your calendar framework, choose the specific days to share each piece of content. Using your same color-coding scheme, add the content from your working library.

Customize the calendar to suit your posting frequency. For instance, you may want to include specific times you plan to share each post, or add email and other distribution channels. You might use the additional rows for each day to highlight important events and promotion dates. If you regularly share the same content on each profile, you may find it helpful to use a simple color-blocked version of your calendar so you can quickly see what pieces of content you plan to share each day.

If you publish a large volume of content each month, it may be helpful to create separate calendars for each social media profile.

Now that you’ve planned the content you want to share each day, it’s important to follow through and ensure that you share it.

Use a spreadsheet to track when and where you’ve shared content on each social media channel. The tracking sheet will also help coordinate content promotion with your team. Use notes to add tweet text and descriptions for each post.

The promotion spreadsheet is also helpful to keep track of older posts that you’d like to share with any new social accounts.

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