If you ever watch those home improvement shows on TLC or watch Marie Kondo organize the hell out of someone else’s mess then you have a good idea as to why creating a content calendar is the way to go. As a content creator, whether you’re in social media, copywriter, blogger etc, creating a content calendar is amazing for knowing what to post and when. A content calendar will keep you organized and better yet, it gives you a piece of mind that you’ll always have content to send out.
Planning Ahead
Creating a content calendar is a great way to lay out how all your content will be posted for the month. Instead of worrying about the day of what you should post, your content calendar already says this blog post this day, this tweet that day and so on and so on. Planning ahead of time your content is one, time efficient and two, saves your from worrying for no reason.
Another benefit of planning your content out ahead of time is you can, for instance, plan your content around holidays and special days like Star Wars Day, which is a national holiday in my house. A content calendar gives your more freedom to be creative and it gives you time to figure out plan out what type of content you’ll come up with for that day.
And with planning ahead I can schedule a blog post or tweet to go out later on in the month and not have to worry about if I posted that day or not. I like to use Hootsuite for my content automation. If I have to content all ready to go, I just schedule and verify it goes out on the day and time it is supposed to.
Creating a Content Calendar
Creating a content calendar is easier than creating the actual content. The easiest way I create one is with Microsoft Excel. Microsoft even offers content calendar templates if that is even easier for you. I have four columns in my calendar, Name, Date, Type of Content and Platform. Name is self evident as to what it is. The Date column is where I put the date and time of when I’ll post that content. The Type of Content is either a blog post, Instagram post, LinkedIn update etc. and the Platform is where I’ll post it.
When using the Date column of your content calendar it’s also beneficial to not only to post what day that content is going out, but what time as well. This is where all your data and analytics come into play. You know what is the best time to post on Instagram to get the most engagement or what day of the week your blog gets the most visitors. Using that information will help you get the most engagement for your content and what content creator doesn’t love high engagement on their content?
Sharing Your Content Calendar
If you’re working with different teams across numerous departments then sharing your content calendar is a great way for everyone to know what is going out and when. Having it in one location for anyone to see helps the graphics team know what to work on or what post the copywriter should be writing for. It eliminates confusion as to what is supposed to be worked on for the week and when it should go out.
I have my content calendar posted right above my monitor so when I sit down I see what is going out that day or what is upcoming that I need to create. You can have your calendar anywhere, but I feel printing it out and physically seeing it helps me stay on point when it comes to my content.
Creating a content calendar is a great little way to add some Marie Kondo or Joana Gaines into your content creation life. It eliminates the unnecessary stress and pressure of trying to figure out what to post on what day. The best part for me in creating a content calendar is that it gives me time back that I could have wasted trying to come up with content and when and where to publish it.