How to create a content calendar

Creating a calendar for your social media activity may not be top of your priority list, but it will save you time in the long run. A content planner provides an overview of your upcoming social media posts, allowing you to plan and schedule content ahead of time. So, you won’t need to scramble around each day looking for something to post.

 

By planning posts in advance, you can check your work and avoid making mistakes. It builds a safety net into your workflow, with time to fact check and get approval from relevant colleagues where needed.

 

If you’re using more than one social media channel, a calendar will help you to keep track of your content. It can help you manage multiple versions of each post and decide what to post on each account.

 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up a content calendar:

 

 

Produce content for your audience

 

Before you build a content calendar, it’s important to spend time thinking about your key audience and who you’re targeting on social media. This will help you to decide what content to post.

 

 

Decide what channels to use

 

Once you’re clear who your audience is, you can work out which social media channels you need to be using.

 

 

Carry out an audit

 

Audit your existing content so you have a baseline of where you started. Asana says to look at metrics such as the types of posts that get the most engagement and your most successful post by channel.

 

 

Choose a format for your calendar

 

There are different tools you can use to build your content calendar. You may want to choose something straightforward to create your planner, like an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet.

 

Or you could use a social media management, scheduling and publishing tool to plot posts on a calendar. Options include Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social.

 

In the content calendar, you should put the following headings to help you plan your posts:

• Date and time to publish
• Social media channel you’re posting on
• Copy – what you want to say in your posts
• Photos and videos
• Links and tags to be included
• Paid or organic content

Hootsuite suggests creating a new tab or section for each month, and then planning your editorial content out week by week.

 

 

Create an image library

 

Build up your image library so you’ve got plenty of photos and videos to use with your posts. A social media calendar will help you decide what visuals you need and you can then source them from across the organisation. There’s nothing worse than hunting around for photos at the last minute.

 

You could also use stock photos from image libraries.

 

 

Decide what content to post

 

You should apply the 80-20 rule to your content: eight in 10 of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain people and two in 10 should be promotional posts. Too many promotional posts can alienate followers.

 

You should include user-generated content, such as stories from the people your charity supports. Supporters like to hear about the difference charities are making from other people – not just staff members.

 

Using curated content – content from other sources that you share to your social media accounts – will help you to remain visible on social media without having to create new posts. Look out for interesting content you can share on your feeds.

 

You could also look out for relevant awareness days and important dates and plan content around these.

 

 

Speak to colleagues

 

Social media shouldn’t be done in silo. Speak to colleagues in different teams to give you more ideas about what to post on your social media accounts. Your colleagues will be able to share news and updates from across the charity. For example, they could share how much was raised in a fundraising event or give you an update on the latest campaigning work they’re doing.

 

 

Review your content

 

It’s important to review the content you’re posting on social media to see how it’s performing with your audiences. You can either use the analytics tools on each social networking channel or scheduling apps such as Hootsuite to monitor your posts.

 

Track your posts as you go along and record the analytics on your calendar. You can use this information to track what works and adapt your content depending on your findings.