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SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT CALENDAR TEMPLATE FOR GOOGLE SHEETS AND EXCEL (FREE DOWNLOAD)

Forge more robust connections and strategize social campaigns in advance.

Consistently posting on social media and keeping track of deadlines can be challenging. That’s why we’ve developed a social media content calendar. It’s designed to assist you in planning your content sharing, managing marketing campaigns, monitoring deadlines, and ultimately fostering stronger relationships.

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Enhance organization, foresight, and relationship-building through the use of a social content calendar. But what exactly is a social media content calendar?

Social media content calendars, whether in spreadsheet form or as applications, aid in maintaining organization by managing deadlines and social media marketing campaigns. They provide you and your team with a visual representation of your business's social schedule. Additionally, they assist in predefining your social media strategy and guaranteeing consistent posting across all social channels.

What makes a social media content calendar essential?

A social media editorial calendar is vital for the organization, efficiency, and overall communication within a marketing team's social media efforts.

Let's delve into several additional reasons why business owners, content creators, and social media managers should dedicate time to crafting a publishing schedule in advance.

Plan around industry events.

A social media editorial calendar is essential for ensuring organization, efficiency, and effective communication within a marketing team's social media endeavors.

Now, let's explore several more reasons why business owners, content creators, and social media managers should prioritize the creation of a publishing schedule ahead of time.

Critical that your business is involved in these. Ideally, your business will have social messaging or an entire marketing campaign around these industry events to get in front of your audience.

Establish yourself as a leading authority in your field.

Regardless of your industry, it's important to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Engaging your audience with innovative ideas and motivating them to take action can build trust over time. As your audience begins to trust your insights, they'll naturally seek out your business's content.

Maintaining organization is key to efficiently managing your social media presence. With a social media calendar, you can easily oversee all your scheduled posts in one place. This streamlined approach not only saves time but also allows you to allocate your resources more effectively.

Save time and plan your posts ahead of time.

Planning ahead ensures you avoid writer's block, especially when preparing for significant events. Moreover, it provides the opportunity to review and ensure consistency in tone and content across various social networks.

Consistently engage with your
audience and community.

Ideally, your audience can rely on your business for regular posting. This consistency fosters increased engagement and aids in building relationships for your brand across various networks.

Visualize your social media schedule.

Not every social calendar is identical. What you seek is a visualization of your social schedule. This enables you to easily glance at your social calendar and discern what's happening and when. Without this visualization, you'll find yourself sifting through your spreadsheet to locate individual posts.

Keep your team informed about upcoming social media posts.

If you have employees, it's crucial to keep them informed. In addition to fostering relationships, social media marketing is primarily about amplifying your business's brand. Your team serves as a valuable resource to help amplify all your social media posts.

How to create a social media calendar?

Alright, it's evident why you need one of these tools.

But there's one question remaining: What should be included in a social media content calendar? Follow these 8 steps to meticulously plan your content.

1. Audit your existing social media efforts

Begin by conducting an audit of your existing social media campaigns.

Make a record of:

  • Posting schedules
  • Distributed content
  • Content types garnering the highest engagement (and the reasons behind it)
  • Opportunities for reusing or repurposing content

2. Determine the social channels and content
mix you’ll use

This actually encompasses two steps.

Firstly, identify which of the various social channels you intend to utilize:

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Snapchat

 

Since not all of them may be pertinent to your audience, begin by pinpointing their presence and then contemplate narrowing down to focus on just 2 or 3 channels (it's preferable to be impactful rather than spread too thin).

Next, define your content mix. For instance, determine the distribution between video, image, and text-only posts.

3. Spot opportunities for partnerships or sponsored content.

Leveraging someone else's audience is always a strategic move.

Explore opportunities to collaborate with:

  • Other companies in your industry
  • Industry experts and thought leaders
  • Influencers

These opportunities could entail content collaboration or simply sharing each other's social media posts for mutual gain.

4. Strategize content tailored for individual channels.

Now we're diving into the specifics.

Let's assume you've decided to utilize Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, aiming for a split of 20% video, 50% image, and 30% text-only posts.

The subsequent step involves planning the precise content to be posted on each channel.

For instance, perhaps you intend to produce one long-form video each month, to be published on YouTube, and subsequently repurpose it for Instagram reels.

What will this video entail in January, February, and so forth?

5. Arrange publishing according to dates.

Now, input all the content types you've chosen into the calendar and arrange your publishing dates.

For instance, consider the video scheduled for May. Will you publish it on YouTube on May 1st or May 15th? And what about the Instagram reel?

6. Allocate responsibilities.

A well-structured calendar should clearly designate responsibilities and timelines.

So, who is responsible for:

  • Content production
  • Content editing and approval
  • Publishing and scheduling

7. Have your team provide feedback
on the calendar

Before initiating and executing a social media campaign, seek input from your team.

They might offer insights into improving workflow or express concerns regarding publishing dates. Presenting the social media calendar to your team not only solicits valuable advice but also fosters their buy-in.

8. Decide on a review cadence

Lastly, before diving in, establish how and when you'll evaluate the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

How frequently will you report, and who is accountable for this task? When is the appropriate time to make adjustments to the calendar?

Now, you're prepared to commence!

Oh, haven't created a calendar yet? No worries! You can swiftly get started with our free template!

How to optimize our social calendar

The Marketing Titan social media content calendar template is crafted to ensure your business can:

  • Maintain a consistent posting schedule across social channels
  • Establish your business as a thought leader and stay on top of holidays or events
  • Provide your audience with a diverse range of content
  • Enhance communication within your team
  • Stay organized, plan ahead, and streamline your workflow

 

Features included in the SalesTitan social media content calendar template are:

  • Twitter character counter
  • Pinterest character counter
  • Recommendations for social image sizes
  • Planning messages across 5 platforms—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest
  • An overview tab for a comprehensive view of all social posts, campaigns, and messaging
  • Automatic transfer of inputs from the overview tab to the individual social platform tabs

 

The calendar is customizable to suit your business's requirements. For instance, you can add a section for Snapchat if your target audience falls between the ages of 18 and 24.

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