Social Media Calendar Template

Before you start posting to your social media accounts, it's handy to have a backlog of ideas so you never run out of things to say.

When brainstorming ideas, it's important to think about the types of content you'd like to make, here are some approaches to consider:

• Product and Service Updates: Share information about new product releases, features, and improvements.
• Promotions and Offers: Announce sales, discounts, and special deals.
• Testimonials and Reviews: Sharing positive feedback from satisfied customers helps build trust and credibility.
• Behind-the-Scenes Content: Offering a glimpse into the company's daily operations, team culture, and work environment can create a more personal brand.
• Educational Content: Provide valuable information and tips related to a product, industry or niche.
• News and Milestones: Celebrate achievements, awards, anniversaries, and other significant milestones.
• User-Generated Content: Consider reposting content created by customers, showcasing how people use the product or service.
• Influencer Collaborations: Collaborating with influencers or brand ambassadors to broaden your audience.
• Contests and Giveaways: Competitions can be used to increase engagement, followers, and brand awareness.
• Industry News and Trends: Posting relevant industry news, trends, or insights can position the company as an authority in its field.
• Interactive Content: Quizzes, polls, and interactive stories encourage audience participation and boost engagement on social media.

Whichever topics you decide to generate ideas around, ensure they're relevant to your industry, your target audience, and most importantly, your marketing strategy.

Remember, there's no such thing as a bad idea, so write down as many as possible. You can always filter some out later.

When you've created a backlog of unique ideas, it's time to plan out the week. You can pick a different topic to post about each day or have a theme for a particular day of the week. For example, you can showcase a customer review every Monday.

You can also re-use posts, so whatever you share on Twitter on Monday can be reposted to your Facebook account on Tuesday. Having a variety of content keeps your social presence fresh and engaging.

When you've planned your posts for the week, note which social platform it's being posted to, what time to post it and whether you need to include anything else like copy, hashtags, imagery or links.

Next, write the copy to go along with each post. Use attention-grabbing headlines, highlight the benefits of your offering, use clear and simple language and it's always good to include a call to action or hashtags if they're relevant.

It's best to communicate to your social media audience like you would a real person, so keep your text short, be conversational and friendly.

As Canadian digital marketing guru Matt Goulart once stated, "Social media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people, and the people will provide for you."

When you're done, include any hashtags relevant to your post. Create something unique to your brand or pick popular tags so your content will be visible to more people.

Social media visuals are a great way to pique people's attention and encourage them to read on.

Research suggests that people recall imagery much more than text, so always try to use visuals to help tell your story. They're also a great way to reinforce your brand identity to customers. So be sure to utilise your brand assets. Consistent use of branding elements helps establish your brand and makes your content easily identifiable.

Make sure you follow the image and video guidelines for each social platform to ensure the greatest impact.

When you've completed both the copy and visuals, you've created your weekly social media content calendar. Invite your team to read over everything and leave any feedback. It's easy to get caught up in the details when creating social media content, so it helps to have someone else examine the words and any imagery.

Here are some things to look out for during the review process:

• A fresh set of eyes can catch typos or grammatical errors.
• Make sure the post is clear and relevant to your audience.
• Ensure the post aligns with your established social media strategy and branding.
• Optimize and review the copy to see if there's a simpler way to explain something.
• Offer new ideas, suggestions, and feedback to enhance the post's overall quality and impact.

A good review process can also streamline the posting process by catching potential issues early on. This avoids the need to backtrack or delete posts and removes the anxiety a lot of people feel before they hit that send button.

It's essential to have a system for marking off posts as you publish them online, especially if you're reusing the same content on different social platforms. So tick them off like a checklist and record the exact time they were posted.

There's no hard and fast rule for when to post, but according to research, the following Eastern Standard Times (EST) have increased engagement:

• Facebook: Weekdays between 10:00 pm and 3:00 pm are generally considered good times to post on Facebook. Thursday and Friday tend to have higher engagement.
• Instagram: Typically, weekdays from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and evenings between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm.
• Twitter: Weekdays from 9:00 am to 3:00 PM are often recommended for Twitter posts. Mondays and Wednesdays, in particular, tend to see higher engagement.
• LinkedIn: Posts on LinkedIn generally perform well on weekdays during business hours, especially on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm.
• Pinterest: Saturday mornings and evenings are popular times for Pinterest users. Fridays also tend to see good engagement.
• TikTok: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm see more engagement.

Try and keep a consistent schedule so you're always visible to your followers and audience.

As a final step, keep a record in a spreadsheet or Google Sheet of your social media engagement so you can evaluate the effectiveness of each post and understand what your audience likes and how they respond.

Did a particular topic get more comments? Does a specific social media platform contain more of your audience segment? Does changing the time you post improve the visibility of your brand?

Analyse this data over time and use it to make changes and improve your social media calendar and content strategy. Before long, you'll notice your engagement increase as well as your follower count.