A social media content calendar: a template and a four week plan
The point of a content calendar is not the spreadsheet. It is that you make the posting decisions once a month, rather than tired, every evening. Here is a template you can copy as it is.
For a small business, one table and five columns is enough: day, type of post, subject, photo and status. Planning it takes about an hour once a month, and that does not yet include writing or shooting the posts. Precision is not the point; having decided in advance is the point.
Why a calendar works even when enthusiasm does not last
Posting falls apart for almost the same reason every time. The decision about what to post is made at the wrong moment: in the evening, tired, when no good idea comes to mind. A calendar moves that decision to a time when you have room to think, and leaves only the doing.
That is also why a calendar is worth making for a month rather than a year. A year long plan is out of date by February. A month is the right length: the plan does not have time to go stale, and the daily deciding still disappears.
Five columns, and no more
Most ready made calendar templates fail because they have twenty columns and filling them in is more work than posting. These five are enough.
- Day. The day the post goes out, not the day you make it.
- Post type. Finished work, a step, a person, an answer, or available now.
- Subject. One sentence about what the post is about. Not the caption yet.
- Photo. Does it exist already, does it need taking, and when will you take it.
- Status. Planned, shot, written, published.
How to fill it in about an hour
Set aside about an hour. This is the plan only: shooting and writing come on top of it. Start by marking the days when something real happens: a season, a new arrival, a holiday, changed opening hours. You cannot move these days, so fit the other posts around them.
Then fill in the post type for every posting day, without thinking about the subject yet. Rotate the post types so that no two of the same land in a row. Write the subjects last. By that point it is easy, because the post type has narrowed the options down to a handful.
Leave one empty slot every week. That is where you put something you could not have planned: a job that went well, a customer's feedback, a cancellation.
What to do when the plan breaks
The calendar will break somewhere every month, and that is normal. The rule is simple: never try to catch up on missed posts. Three posts in two days mostly compete with each other: the same audience sees them back to back, and none of them gets full attention.
Skip what was missed and carry on from the next one. The calendar is useful because you always know where to carry on. Full boxes are not the goal.
A four week template you can copy as it is
Three posts a week, over four weeks. The same post type never comes twice in a row. The subjects are examples, so swap them for your own.
| When | What | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Available now, finished work, an answer to a question | The month opens with what is available and ends the week with something useful. |
| Week 2 | A step, a person behind the business, finished work | Mid month builds trust rather than selling. |
| Week 3 | An answer, available now, a step | Answering a question brings new people in, and they are told straight away what is available. |
| Week 4 | Finished work, a person, a look ahead to next month | The month closes with your best work and what is coming. |
Common questions
What tool should I build a content calendar in?
The one you already use. Google Sheets, Excel or a notebook all work, and the plan does not get better by changing tool. A dedicated tool starts to pay for itself when you want posts to go out on a schedule without you being there, or when more than one person is posting.
How far ahead should the calendar go?
One month at a time. Longer plans go stale before you get to them, and shorter ones mean you are back to deciding every week.
Should captions be written in advance?
Better not. Write the subject in one sentence at the planning stage and the caption itself once the photo exists. The photo almost always changes what is natural to say.
What about seasons and holidays?
Mark them first and start talking about them earlier than feels necessary. Christmas orders get decided in November and summer slots in May, so the post has to come before that moment.
Or let Bobbi keep the calendar for you
If you would rather not keep the calendar yourself, Bobbi keeps it for you: it plans the week, writes the posts in your own voice, suggests photos from what you have already uploaded, and publishes them on schedule. All that is left for you is approving the week, which takes about 15 minutes, or longer if you post every day. The calendar stays current without anyone filling in boxes.
Try Bobbi free