What is a Social Media Calendar?
In the age of social media, it’s so important to stay organized and on top of all your digital marketing efforts. It may seem a little overwhelming with all the different platforms to maintain such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Not to mention, each platform has its unique set of features one has to upkeep. This is why most businesses and professionals utilize content calendars.
So exactly what is a social media calendar?
A social media or content calendar is used to plan and schedule posts. It’s typically used on a spreadsheet; however, there are now a lot of platforms that have made user-friendly apps. Social media calendars are ideal for busy teams such as marketing teams, bloggers, small businesses and more. There are multiple benefits of using a social media calendar for your business. Here are a couple:
Overview - Social media is all about storytelling. Having a good overview of your social media campaigns can help your craft and develop your story to better resonate with your audience.
Important Dates - With a content calendar in place, it is super easy to keep track of important holidays, upcoming promotions, brand events and more.
Organization - Social media calendars allow you to track your posts from every social media platform and avoid any possible confusion.
Saves Time - Being organized also means you will be saving time. Planning ahead of time on your content is the key to being efficient in social media marketing.
Deadlines - Managing multiple social media accounts can be time consuming and make it easy for your team to procrastinate. A social media calendar is great for holding teams accountable and setting deadlines.
Let’s Talk About Social Media Management Apps...
Social Media Management apps can have different features such as adding 10 social media profiles, unlimited scheduling, and/or real-time analytics. They range from free plans to paid plans. Definitely recommend looking into them, they can make your life a whole lot easier. Here are a couple of our favorite apps for managing social media content:
How to Use Spreadsheet as Content Calendars...
One of the main differences between using a spreadsheet and a platform like the ones mentioned above is that a platform typically allows you to plan and schedule your already-completed posts. But what happens if you need a place to brainstorm?
This is where spreadsheets come in. At VCM, we have found it extremely productive to have a place where we can brainstorm post ideas. This is also helpful if you are working with clients, as it allows them to approve the content before time is spent creating the content.
Below, we have inserted a screenshot of what our content calendar looks like:
Tips to Maintain Your Content Calendar:
Make sure to arrange the dates for the month that you will be using the calendar.
Schedule all your posts accordingly. Use the “Stories” column for story ideas for each platform.
Make sure to fill in the box with a specific color once you have completed the content. We use a light green to indicate the content has already been completed as posted.
When the month is over, duplicate the spreadsheet and change the dates according to the upcoming month.
Feel free to change and build up the template according to your needs!
If you are looking for an easy to use social media calendar template, sign up with your email address down below so we can send you our template.