How To Make A Content Calendar For Your Social Media

Before we really dive in, let’s get some things straight:

Thing #1 - Social Media Marketing is a real thing that’s important for your business to consider within your overall marketing strategy.

Thing #2 - There are a lot of layers that make up social media marketing strategies. Creating content, writing copy, strategizing what time you should post and what platforms you should be on, and constantly ensuring you’re catering to your audience all in one post isn’t easy.

Thing #3 - Over half of the world’s population is on social media, so your business should be too!

I make all of these points to hopefully express how critical adding social media marketing efforts to your business strategy is. If you’re serious about your business, you should be serious about this channel of marketing as well.

Since you’ve made it to this blog I know that you ARE serious about it and that you’re ready to learn how you can be the most effective and efficient when promoting your business on social media. I’m excited to share one of my favorite tools that is my saving grace when it comes to keeping Meridiem Marketing’s content organized, posted on time, and promoted on the right platform.

Allow me to introduce you to the content calendar. An all-encompassing spreadsheet that will hold your posting schedule (and life) together. Complete with color-coding, labeling, link holding tabs, and more, this online content planner is sure to keep your posts in check.

Upon first glance this tool can look a little overwhelming, but with some guidance from this blog you’ll be ready to crank out content for months on end!

Let’s get into it!

Step 1: The Customizable Tabs

Along the bottom of the content calendar you can download from us you’ll see a set of example tabs that you can customize.

Typically we like to list the months we’re working on first, followed by the content key tab, (which holds color-coded content labels and categories). The Evergreen Content tab is where your business can list any content that performs well on your pages, and could be reused in the future. Lastly, the UTM Links tab (very important) will help your business keep track of the links you create and insert into your posts to track any KPI’s you may be looking out for.

Step 2: The Outline

Here’s a quick glimpse of what each month’s page will look like. Each sheet is broken into 4 week sections that are further broken down into the platforms your business promotes on.

For each week you can outline what type of content you’ll be posting, the time and date it will be published, the copy you will pair with the graphic you make, and more!

Step 3: The Labels

Inserting these labels alongside your weekly posts will help you stay on top of the type of content you’re posting each month. These will look different for every business, so feel free to change them and adapt the verbiage to what you need!

Three steps down and you’re ready to start scheduling!

If you’re interested in getting your own content calendar started but feel like you still need a little help (or maybe just some content ideas!) feel free to contact us and schedule a consultation. We’re more than happy to walk you through how to use the content calendar, share the type of content we think would be beneficial for your business to post, or even fill out a content calendar for you! Additionally, while you’re working on stepping up your social media marketing game, make sure to check out our favorite free(!!) content creation tools.

Happy scheduling!