Steal This Social Media Calendar Template (+ How one can Make Your Personal From Scratch)

When you fail to plan, you propose to fail.

As a brilliant Kind-An individual, that’s a favourite expression of mine. And — having spent a few years managing varied social media platforms in advertising and marketing and media — I’ve realized the laborious manner that that is one space the place you completely can not wing it. Particularly if you happen to’re managing a number of channels. 

You want a social media content material calendar.

A social media calendar is a sport changer when constructing a social media presence, be it as somebody constructing your private model, a creator, or a social media supervisor. 

However you’re studying this text, so I’m preaching to the transformed — so let’s get proper into the meat of it. I’ll stroll you thru the advantages of getting a social media calendar and precisely easy methods to create your individual calendar utilizing Buffer. I’ll additionally share the social media calendar system we use in our Advertising and marketing crew, together with a plug-and-play social media calendar template you need to use immediately. 

We’ve written about why you want a social media calendar in-depth, so I’ll depart you with the important advantages of getting one right here. A social media calendar will assist you to:

1. Keep on prime of a number of social media channels effectively
2. Stick with the content material pillars in your social media advertising and marketing technique
3. Put up constantly
4. Schedule posts upfront and automate processes so that you’re not working across the clock
5. Work with crew members (if you happen to’re on a Advertising and marketing crew or social media crew), collaborators, or stakeholders 
6. Keep on prime of product launches, advertising and marketing campaigns, occasions, and even holidays
7. Streamline a system of approvals earlier than posting
8. Save time with content material batching 
9. Repurpose content material 
10. Hold monitor of content material concepts 

Buffer is a social media scheduling instrument constructed to make it simpler to develop your following on-line. It’s a one-stop-shop for the whole course of — from content material ideation to publishing, proper on to analyzing content material efficiency. 

There are a bunch of different perks to housing your social media calendar proper in Buffer — past the flexibility to plan and schedule in a single instrument:

• A high-level month-to-month view for big-picture planning.
• A extra in-depth weekly view to see all the important thing particulars at a look.
• The flexibility to exclude sure channels from view for further readability and focus.
• Entry it anyplace. Because of Buffer’s cellular app, you may verify or amend your calendar on the go. 
• Extra to come back! The calendar is an enormous focus for us for the time being, and we now have some actually thrilling plans for 2024.

📲 Obtain the Buffer app for iOS right here

📲 Obtain the Buffer app for Android right here

I’m going to stroll you thru precisely easy methods to create yours in Buffer’s free social media calendar, take you past planning, and proper into scheduling. 

1. Outline your social media technique

Earlier than you even open a calendar instrument, a social media technique must be your first port of name. 

When you’re a creator and never a social media supervisor, it is going to be tempting to skip this step. However belief me, content material technique isn’t just for Advertising and marketing groups. They’re an important step in social media success. Random posting = random outcomes. Having clear objectives, understanding your target market, and defining your content material pillars will make your work a lot simpler and extra profitable in the long term. 

Don’t simply take it from me — I like this Reel by @stanforcreators, which outlines simply how essential it’s for creators and their distinctive strategy to creating one.

This doesn’t contain pages and pages — even only a single-page information will assist you to get crystal clear in your objectives and the way you’re going to get there. 

You’ll discover our full social media technique information right here, and it’s properly price working your manner by it if you happen to’re simply beginning (there’s even a template there, too!). Right here’s a high-level overview of your steps:

1. Pinpoint your ‘why.’ Why do that you must be lively on social media? What’s your final objective?
2. Outline your target market. Who’re you making an attempt to achieve together with your content material?
3. Outline your content material pillars. What are you going to share, and why will it resonate?
4. Select your platforms. Which social media websites will you utilize to achieve your viewers? What number of social platforms do you have to select?
5. Set your cadence. Resolve in your posting frequency (which can differ from platform to platform).

2. Join your channels

Congratulations, the hardest half is out of the way in which! Along with your technique in hand, you’re prepared to attach your social media accounts to Buffer. First, be sure to’re logged in to these channels within the browser or on the system you’re utilizing.

Then log in to Buffer, head over to account.buffer.com/channels, and select Join Channel. You possibly can additionally click on in your profile avatar on the prime proper of your dashboard and click on Account, then Channels.

Click on on the kind of channel you would like to attach. (If you have already got channels linked, click on Join New Channel after which click on the channel you would like to attach.)

The method is fairly easy, however we now have an in-depth information to connecting channels in Buffer in our assist middle, plus particular how-tos for every platform if you happen to run into any issues.

3. Create your tagging system

Coloration coding is my organizational love language (it’s best to see my bookshelf), so Buffer’s new function addition, Tags, has modified the sport for me in the case of content material planning. 

There are a bunch of the way to make use of Tags that will likely be extremely helpful in your social media administration system. You possibly can use them to tag posts by:

• Content material pillar (my private favourite)
• Put up standing (concept, draft, able to publish)
• Format or sort of content material (textual content, video, picture, carousel)
• Platform (whilst you’ll be capable of see which social media app your publish is scheduled on within the calendar, this may very well be helpful if you happen to’re additionally saving concepts right here for, say, a weblog)

What’s actually neat about Tags is that they translate over to the Analytics part, too, so you may measure up the efficiency of 1 grouping towards one other. This has been extremely helpful for me as I experiment with my content material pillars to see which resonate probably the most with my viewers.

To create your Tags, click on on Publishing on the prime left of the display screen, then Create simply beneath that. 

Then head over to Handle Tags on the underside left of your display screen and click on Create Tag on the highest proper.

A pop-up will seem the place you may add your tag identify and select a shade to characterize it. (All the colour choices had been particularly chosen as a result of they work properly collectively, so any mixture will likely be aesthetically pleasing if, like me, you’re into that!) 

4. Get your concepts down

Prepared for a mind dump? You probably have a strong concept of the sort of content material you’re creating because of your technique work in Step 1. Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on the precise content material creation. 

That is the place Buffer’s Create house is available in. It’s a flexible system that you need to use in loads of alternative ways, however if you happen to’re engaged on constructing out your calendar, I’d advise you begin through the use of it as a hub for all of your concepts. As a creator, something I share on one in every of my social channels will begin on this house first. 

Prime tip: Don’t fear about making all of your social media posts lovely immediately. Even when all you could have is a half-baked concept or a reminder about an essential product launch, a short observe works simply advantageous right here, too. Simply get it down — you may refine it later.

My posts typically begin out this manner (just like the Create playing cards you’ll see within the screenshot under), which I then flesh out as inspiration strikes and polish up earlier than including them to my calendar to schedule. 

To create an concept, click on Create within the prime left nook, then Create Thought on the highest proper.

Proper right here, you may:

1. Add your copy or caption (or placeholder textual content)
2. Select your Tag/s
3. Add media, like video or photographs
4. Add instantly from Buffer integrations (like Canva, Dropbox, Google Drive, Unsplash, and extra)
5. Get assist from Buffer’s AI Assistant whenever you’re caught

It can save you the concept to maintain it in your Create house by clicking the Save Thought button or scheduling it immediately with the Create Put up button (extra on this under).

5. Arrange your Queue

At Buffer, we consider the posting schedule for each social media platform as a Queue — principally, set time slots each week for posting.

You don’t have to stay to this, after all, nevertheless it’s a very helpful approach to decide to the cadence you specified by your social media technique. As time goes on and also you experiment with totally different timings and frequencies on all of the platforms you’re utilizing, you’ll be capable of pinpoint the slots that work properly on your target market. 

Once you first begin with Buffer, the platform will routinely assign occasions in your Queue. (Don’t fear, this doesn’t imply that one thing will routinely be revealed. Consider these occasions as empty placeholders posting slots that you need to use, tweak, or depart as you see match.)

To arrange your Queue, click on on Publishing on the highest left, then select the channel you wish to tweak within the listing on the left-hand facet. 

On the proper of the window, you’ll see the Queue that Buffer has routinely created for the channel. To alter your Queue occasions, click on on the gear icon subsequent to your chosen time zone. 

Right here within the posting schedule settings, you may:

1. Add a brand new posting time
2. Flip off posting on particular days
3. Take away occasions out of your present schedule (hover over the time, then click on on the arrow that pops up)
4. Clear your Queue fully

You would possibly select to go away these slots as is — you may edit your scheduled occasions within the calendar, in spite of everything — nevertheless it’s a good suggestion to pay attention to the Queue timings for all of your channels (you’ll see why in Step 6 under).

6. Begin planning

Now that you’ve a bunch of nice concepts prepared and ready to be revealed in your social media channels, it’s lastly time to get them on the calendar.

To take action, choose an concept that’s able to go in Create. Then click on on the Create Put up button on the backside of the pop-up.

Subsequent, select which channels you wish to publish the replace on. 

When you’ve chosen a number of platforms, scroll down inside the window to tailor each for the social community it’s happening. Buffer will let you already know if the publish suits into the restrictions (like textual content, or video, or picture dimension and dimensions) for every channel.

Select Add to Queue. This schedules your publish for the subsequent out there slot in your Queue, leaving some other posts you have already got scheduled in place. Don’t fear, you may nonetheless tweak this time slot!

You may as well click on on the dropdown arrow to Share Subsequent (go to the very subsequent spot in your Queue, bumping some other content material already in that slot to the subsequent slot) or Share Now (publish immediately).

After all, you don’t positively have to start out placing your posts collectively in Create — you may create new content material instantly within the Calendar, too. 

Click on on Calendar within the prime left nook, and also you’ll be taken to per week view. (I like to make use of month view once I’m doing a little severe content material planning, which you are able to do by clicking Month on the highest proper nook. All of it comes down to private desire.)

So as to add to the calendar, click on Create Put up on the highest proper.

You’ll be taken to the same pop-up window as talked about within the Create Put up part of Create the place you may add textual content and media, get assist from Buffer’s AI assistant, and extra. When the publish is able to go, hit Add to Queue, Share Subsequent, or Share Now, as above. 

You even have the choice to save lots of the publish as a draft if you happen to’re not fairly able to schedule or if you happen to want approvals from one other crew member or supervisor.

Discovering your saved drafts is very easy — simply click on on the channel you saved the publish for, then Drafts on the prime of the display screen.

6. High quality-tune your calendar

Along with your content material prepared and raring to go, mess around together with your calendar to seek out the proper combine for every day, week, and month. So long as the publish hasn’t been revealed, you may tweak the whole lot to your coronary heart’s content material. 

To see the main points of every publish in your calendar, hover over the cardboard. Hit Delete to take away the publish completely, or Share Now to publish it instantly. 

To make adjustments to the publish, click on Edit. Right here, you may change the whole lot from the publish date to the content material itself. 

Within the month-to-month calendar view, it’s also possible to drag and drop playing cards on totally different days to have them go dwell on the identical time on that new date. Within the week view, you are able to do the identical however drag it into a brand new time slot to alter that, too. 

Test in together with your calendar originally of every day to see what you could have scheduled and refine your content material if want be.

As a lot because it pays to be proactive together with your calendar and schedule the whole lot upfront, social media typically wants reactive work, too. There is likely to be a brand new trending TikTok sound that you must leap on immediately. On the flip facet, world occasions would possibly imply you must tweak your messaging, curate your content material, or overhaul your plan fully.

💡

Streamline your workflow by creating Hashtag Teams to save lots of you time in the case of posting. To take action, click on the hashtag image on the backside of the publish creation window, then on the right-hand facet, Create Hashtag group.

At Buffer, we now have X/Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Fb, YouTube, Threads, and Mastodon accounts. We’re most lively on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. We’re a small crew, so we’re prioritizing the social networks our target market is most lively on — nevertheless it’s nonetheless quite a bit to handle.

Enter: Our super-efficient content material calendar system. Now we have a dual-tool system, as we log every bit of content material we share — whether or not it’s a social media publish, weblog article, or new advertising and marketing launch in the identical content material calendar in Notion. From there, our social media posts are moved into Buffer to be scheduled. 

As a instruments junkie, I’ve tried out a bunch of techniques in my profession, however once I began at Buffer in August 2023, I used to be blown away by the content material workflow. Whereas it’d look sophisticated, it’s very easy to become familiar with and can give everybody on the firm a hen’s-eye view of the content material panorama at any given second. 

Right here’s how that works:

1. Our Social Media Supervisor, Mitra Mehvar, pulls sources from our weblog content material calendar and our advertising and marketing launch plan to share on social. She fills within the gaps along with her personal sensible content material concepts, typically associated to distant work, life at Buffer, or life as a Social Media Supervisor, small enterprise proprietor, or content material creator.
2. She creates playing cards for every publish in our content material calendar in Notion, tagging them with the social channels she plans to publish them to. 
3. She’ll draft all of the required copy, and, if mandatory, report a video. The copy and video hyperlink will go proper within the related Notion card.
4. Mitra will let our Head of Content material and Communications, Hailley Griffis, know when the posts are prepared for checking. Hailley normally provides her the thumbs up right away. 
5. Mitra copies the content material into Buffer to schedule the posts and transfer them round if want be.
6. Lastly, she checks again in typically to watch the content material efficiency metrics proper in Buffer’s analytics dashboard.

Technically, our social media calendar is a filtered view of our content material calendar, the place solely posts tagged with a social media platform within the ‘channel’ area will likely be seen. This free template is molded after that view and is totally customizable. 

Social media calendar template

How one can use this social media calendar template

1. Click on over to the template
2. Click on on Duplicate within the prime proper nook
3. Create a free Notion account if you happen to don’t have one already
4. Get content material creating! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

After I first began out as a Social Media Supervisor, I hacked collectively a social media planning system and editorial calendar in a desk in Microsoft Phrase (I don’t wish to speak about it). Fortunately, occasions have modified an entire lot since then — there are a bunch of sensible instruments on the market you need to use on your social media calendar.

I could also be biased, however Buffer is undoubtedly the best choice if you happen to’re on the lookout for an all-in-one planning, scheduling, and analytics social media administration instrument. Notion is sensible if you happen to’re mapping out content material outdoors social media platforms. Then there’s Asana, Trello, Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and even Google Calendar. 

My level is: Work out what feels best for you. Whereas deciding on a system would possibly really feel like a make-or-break in your course of, strive to not overthink it an excessive amount of. There’s no possible way you may know whether or not it should be just right for you till you strive it. 

When you strive one and it’s not figuring out, migrating to a brand new instrument received’t be the tip of the world. Don’t be afraid to experiment — so long as you could have a social media calendar that works for you, you’re properly in your approach to success.