How To Create An Effective Social Media Content Calendar
Workload has been crazy for everyone, so getting things done ahead of time will save us some time. And how do you achieve this? You achieve it by making a content calendar for your brand’s posting, where you add all the details of the post, including the captions and the date when it will be published. Scheduling ahead will save time and make your work life more manageable.
To add extra joy to your life, we have provided you with some free content calendar templates.
First, let’s learn what is meant by a content calendar.
A content calendar is simply a framework that helps you plan and track your social media posts. By providing a place to capture all the information you need to plan and run your social campaigns—including what’s going live, when, and on what platform—you can ensure your posts are diverse and align with your overall social media strategy.
Now that we know the purpose of a content calendar, let’s learn some tips for making one.
1. Conduct a Social Media Audit
Before making a content calendar, you need to conduct a social media audit of your past content to evaluate your online presence. During the audit, you should define your brand’s goals for each account by network and understand your target audience, which posts are high-performing, which posts are low-performing, and where there are opportunities for improvement or experimentation.
If you want more ideas for your calendar, consider conducting a competitive analysis during your audit. Auditing a competitor in your industry can help you identify gaps in your (or their) strategy.
Completing an audit will help you determine how to curate posts for your social media calendar template and what content you should create for your audience. The goal is to develop a strategy that fills each day of your content calendar. If you’re able to identify what’s working well and where there’s room for improvement, you’ll be better positioned to meet your brand’s goals.
2. Use a Social Media Calendar Template
Create a social media content calendar template to stay organized, streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and track metrics. Your social media calendar template should include the following:
- Social media networks and accounts
- Date and time
- Social copy, including hashtags and links
- Media (GIFs, images, video, etc.)
- Approval steps
- Space for collaboration and feedback notes
- Key (a color-coordinated key with labels to organize your content)
At Solsnet, our Content Strategy services help businesses structure and optimize their content calendars to ensure effective engagement with their audience.
3. Select Your Social Media Channels and Content Types
After reviewing your social media and setting up a content calendar, it’s time to pick the best platforms and types of posts. Start by looking at where your audience spends the most time and what kind of content they enjoy. Use your analytics to find patterns and choose themes or categories for your posts.
Once you have some basic ideas, go deeper with research tools like social listening. This helps you understand what your audience wants to see and which hashtags, keywords, and brands they interact with the most. Use this information to create content that connects with them and reaches new people.
Make sure most of your content is helpful to your audience. A good approach is to keep about two-thirds of your posts informative and only one-third or less promotional. Too much sales-focused content can turn people away, so focus on engagement rather than just selling.
Inbound Marketing plays a key role in this stage, as it focuses on creating valuable content that attracts and engages the right audience, increasing brand awareness and customer loyalty.
4. Set Up a Social Media Posting Schedule
Once you know what content you’ll post, you need a schedule to track the best times to share it. Find the right balance based on your audience’s habits. Since social media moves fast, posting too often, too little, or at the wrong time can reduce engagement. Focus on quality over quantity—don’t post just to meet a target if the content isn’t relevant or useful.
Look at the patterns from your audit and competitor research. Check which days and times work best for each platform and note any trends. This will help you plan your posts for maximum visibility.
There are different opinions on how often to post. Some say posting often keeps your brand in people’s minds, while others believe you should only post when you have valuable content to share.
5. Track and Analyze Your Social Media Calendar
Your social media calendar isn’t just for planning—it also helps track your progress. Review your results to see what’s working and improve your strategy over time.
Tagging posts by campaign lets you see which content needs updates or can be reused. If a post performs well, save it and consider reposting it later when you need fresh content.
With Search Optimization (SEO), you can further enhance your social media strategy by incorporating high-ranking keywords into your content, improving its reach and discoverability.
6. Work with Other Teams to Improve Your Social Media Calendar
Social media plays a big role in marketing, so working with different teams can make your content better and help your company reach its goals. Get feedback from your team and key stakeholders to keep improving your calendar as your strategy evolves.
Involving other teams can also give you new content ideas. The product team can share updates about new features or services. HR and PR teams can remind you of company milestones and important dates worth posting about.
See? Creating a content calendar wasn’t a hassle at all!
Now that you know all the necessary steps for it, just go and make one. And if you get stuck somewhere, Solsnet is here to help.
Now for the treat time—check below for the free templates!