How to create a social media calendar: Our social team’s POV

Hello! My title is Trish Riswick, I’m a Group Lead on our Social workforce right here at Hootsuite, and I’m right here to inform you precisely how to construct a social media calendar that may assist your targets and maintain you organized.

Our social media calendar is the spine behind all of the content material you see on Hootsuite’s channels. I hate to break the spell of real-time spontaneity, however each put up is meticulously deliberate in our social media content material calendar earlier than it’s even created.

I’d be mendacity if I stated planning a content material calendar for our viewers of over 9 million (!!!) individuals throughout eight social media platforms is simple. But it surely’s vital, and may even be enjoyable.

I’ll take you thru how we plan our content material calendar at Hootsuite and share some suggestions for fulfillment. Our course of isn’t the one manner to make a social calendar, however I hope seeing it conjures up you to create one which works for you.

What’s a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is a strategic plan of all upcoming content material, together with the date and time posts will exit and supporting data, resembling hyperlinks, hashtags, pictures or movies, mentions, Reels audio, or different platform-specific options.

A social media calendar could be a doc, a spreadsheet (we have now a free social media calendar template for you right here!), or a part of your undertaking administration app—no matter works on your workforce.

Why do you want a social media calendar?

Organizes your work

A social media calendar permits you to streamline the visible construction of your content material. At a look, you get a fowl’s eye view to make sure you’re sticking to a constant publishing schedule.

Aligns content material with strategic targets

With out a social media calendar to refer to, you danger creating content material final minute that will not align together with your model or your advertising technique targets.

At Hootsuite, we’re not making content material for the sake of creating content material. We’re making content material that aligns with our technique and is strong but in addition has fluidity with totally different codecs. We’re continuously leveling up to what the corporate is needing from our social media channels.

Identifies gaps

Having all of your social media posts deliberate in a single house permits you to simply spot the place you’re both lacking a put up completely, or simply sure kinds of posts.

This additionally applies to every bit of content material. Do scheduled posts have all of the property they want? Are we lacking any graphics or captions for product launches? Having a social media calendar means you aren’t working round on the final second begging the design workforce for an pressing graphic (or bribing them with iced espresso…).

I’ll go into extra element on how we establish content material gaps within the steps beneath.

How to create a completely streamlined social media calendar

That is our social media calendar course of right here at Hootsuite. Be happy to copy it or adapt components of it as wanted to go well with to your individual social media presence.

1. Begin with a social media technique

The most important lesson I’ve realized as a workforce lead at Hootsuite is figuring out there’s a lot of technique that goes into constructing a actually good content material calendar. Earlier than you may make a calendar, you want a sturdy social media technique that withstands the adjustments of algorithms and developments.

Your social media technique is why you’re on social and your social media calendar is what and while you’re posting.

To create that technique, you’ve gotten to do the much less thrilling issues first—pulling analytics, determining content material pillars, and analyzing put up efficiency—earlier than you are able to do the enjoyable issues: content material creation and testing.

Your social media technique ought to embrace:

S.M.A.R.T. targets.

The precise metrics you’ll use to measure progress towards these targets.

Viewers insights and personas.

Aggressive evaluation.

Which social platforms you’ll use and targets for every.

Content material pillars, a.ok.a. the codecs and matters you’ll put up about. For instance: “entertaining/educational video content,” “promotions,” and “company culture.”

Your posting frequency for every platform.

Approval workflows (e.g. who wants to log out earlier than posts go dwell?).

Analytics reporting and technique replace schedule.

The North Star for a lot of social media managers is crossposting (sharing the identical content material throughout a number of platforms). Nevertheless, we’ve realized over the previous few years it’s not a good technique.

Every social community is so totally different in the way in which it prioritizes content material and folks use these networks otherwise. We realized a lot about this in our client developments report. How we present up on every community wants to be totally different to match the viewers’s expectations.

Take the time to create or evaluation your social technique earlier than leaping into creating a social content material calendar. Get began or revamp your present one with our free social media technique template.

2. Plan your content material schedule

At Hootsuite, we do content material planning weekly. Chances are you’ll determine month-to-month or biweekly works finest on your workforce, however we like weekly as a result of we are able to plan out bigger social media campaigns whereas nonetheless having the ability to shortly soar on developments earlier than their reputation runs out.

We put up a number of occasions a day throughout a number of platforms, however you could have a kind of frequent posting schedule relying in your advertising targets.

Our workforce plans our social calendar in Wrike, however you need to use what works on your workforce, whether or not that’s a undertaking administration app, Hootsuite’s built-in calendar, or (you guessed it!) our free content material calendar template.

We create every put up as a job, together with particulars such because the caption, visuals, hashtags, the sound to use for Reels or TikTok, the publish date, and another data. Creating it in Wrike permits us to assign the duty to the related workforce member at every stage of making the put up, from writing the caption to graphic design.

Some posts are scheduled months prematurely in the event that they’re a part of a giant marketing campaign, resembling our annual Social Developments report releases or promotional webinar content material. However most of our common content material is deliberate week to week.

Planning weekly offers us flexibility to act shortly. For instance, when Instagram launches a new function, we are able to create a carousel put up or video to educate our audience.

Supply: Hootsuite on Instagram

3. Analysis and brainstorm content material

As soon as we’ve discovered what number of posts we want for the week forward and what content material pillar they’ll tie into, we brainstorm concepts.

We use Miro to retailer all our social content material concepts and collaborate collectively remotely. Once more, use whichever instrument works finest on your workforce. It may be so simple as a shared spreadsheet, doc, or a notice in your cellphone.

Right here’s a peek at our Miro board, the place we brainstorm and in addition maintain useful suggestions we collect from social listening:

Social listening is a big a part of our brainstorming course of. It’s so useful to see how individuals are speaking about us, how they use Hootsuite, or how Hootsuite has educated them not directly.

Social listening additionally conjures up subject concepts. For instance, our Reel concerning the “80/20 rule” in content material technique: 80% of your content material ought to be instructional/entertaining and 20% self-promotional. It’s not a new idea however social listening advised us a few of our viewers wasn’t certain what it was. That confirmed us the chance to create extra instructional content material round that.

Supply: Hootsuite on Instagram

Once we’re going to transfer ahead with an thought, I’ll work out if we want our design workforce to create property and if that’s the case, write the transient. Then we’ll broaden the thought and write the script or caption in a separate doc.

If we are able to make the put up ourselves, one among our workforce members will do this. For instance, Paige’s “day in the life of a social media manager” Reel started as an thought in our Miro board after which she filmed the video.

Supply: Hootsuite on Instagram

Personally, I really like brainstorming as a result of there’s no such factor as a unhealthy thought. What to chances are you’ll be a foolish thought can spitball into one among your finest concepts with enter from others.

A part of brainstorming can also be getting impressed. Inspiration sources could be your rivals and even manufacturers you admire in several industries. I personally discover TSA’s humor on Instagram very inspiring.

4. Make the content material

Now the enjoyable half! Our workforce primarily makes use of CapCut and Canva to create high-quality content material, however once more, use whichever instruments work on your workforce and the kinds of content material you’re creating.

There was a delusion circulating that Instagram Reels created with “outside” instruments like CapCut get much less attain vs. in the event you create them in-app with Instagram’s native instruments. Not to fear—we experimented and located Instagram doesn’t penalize Reels made with CapCut (or different apps).

Generally we create and put up content material throughout the similar day to reap the benefits of a social media pattern. Different occasions, we create months prematurely for big campaigns or particular initiatives, like our free instructional webinars.

Eileen Kwok, who handles our TikTok technique amongst different issues, says she prefers to batch her video filming to optimize time. She will movie ten movies inside a few hours, which represents two to three weeks of content material.

When creating, it helps to keep in mind which pillar the piece of content material you’re making belongs to. This ensures that the whole lot from the primary draft to the ultimate put up aligns with the targets of that pillar.

For instance, right here’s what our content material pillars seemed like during the last 12 months:

5. Schedule content material

Each Friday, our social media workforce meets to undergo the content material calendar for the week forward and schedule the whole lot. We could reorganize beforehand deliberate content material if a new pattern pops off. Social adjustments quick so you’ve gotten to be prepared to soar on alternatives.

A giant a part of scheduling content material is ensuring we not solely have sufficient posts for the week, however sufficient of the correct kinds of posts. In different phrases, sufficient of every of our pillars: consciousness, consideration, and retention/conversion.

Once we plan our social media content material calendar in Wrike, we shade code the put up one among three colours to align with these three pillars. That manner, we are able to simply see at a look if we have now a good mixture of content material varieties for the upcoming week.

Moreover, taking a look at all our posts for the week forward can establish gaps or alternatives to diversify our content material. For instance, we’d discover we solely have a few movies deliberate and select to create extra, or add a PDF obtain or one thing instructional if we’re missing within the consideration pillar.

As soon as we work out what we want, our workforce both brainstorms collectively or works independently to end up any final particulars earlier than we schedule every put up in (clearly) Hootsuite!

With Hootsuite, you’ll be able to schedule content material throughout all of your social platforms in a single place, and…

Routinely put up at one of the best occasions on your viewers to see your content material.

Save time with AI put up creation and automations.

Reply to messages and feedback in a single inbox for all social media profiles.

Monitor your social media ROI with easy-to-understand insights.

Know what your viewers needs with built-in social listening.

Handle paid advert campaigns alongside natural content material.

Plus worker advocacy applications, evaluations, influencer administration, approval workflows, and extra.

Save over 130 hours per 12 months (and your sanity as a social media supervisor) with Hootsuite. Seize a free trial and check out it for your self.

Need to see the whole lot Hootsuite can do tremendous fast? See it in motion in below 2 minutes:

6. Analyze efficiency

Monitoring your efficiency is greater than charting views, followers, or engagement charges for vainness causes. Analytics inform you what kinds of content material your viewers needs so you are able to do extra of that, and fewer of what isn’t working. (And it permits you to replace your supervisor and different stakeholders on what’s working.)

For instance, we not too long ago experimented with movies on LinkedIn—a rising pattern. We realized our LinkedIn viewers loves instructional movies, however most of our “TikTok-style” meme movies didn’t carry out effectively on LinkedIn.

The other was true on TikTok: humorous, relatable movies utilizing trending sounds have been the most well-liked, whereas our instructional or product movies have been the least standard. Analytics additionally advised us each kinds of movies carried out effectively on Instagram.

With out analytics reviews, we could have guessed this data, however we wouldn’t have recognized for certain or been ready to measure the distinction attempting new methods made.

My favourite function in Hootsuite Analytics is the power to tag every put up with a customized label. We tag our posts in accordance to which of our three pillars they belong to, then pull analytics reviews for every of these tags. That permits us to observe efficiency by pillar and aim, in addition to all the general, built-in reviews in Hootsuite Analytics.

I maintain observe of our metrics in a spreadsheet so your complete workforce can simply see how new methods are impacting outcomes.

Need this spreadsheet? Obtain our free social media audit template.

When you’re not seeing measurable outcomes from social media planning but, don’t fear. As my colleague Eileen Kwok factors out:

7. Usually replace your content material technique

Whereas this will likely sound like extra of the “boring” stuff I discussed earlier, setting a common schedule for auditing your social media accounts is so essential.

With out these insights, you gained’t know what to check subsequent, or what might be your subsequent “go viral” second.

Final 12 months, we accomplished a detailed, per-post evaluation which was effectively well worth the time spent. We realized what works and what doesn’t by sorting posts into low, mid, and excessive performing classes. From there we have been ready to decide that for us animated infographics have been a prime performer, whereas animated product movies weren’t, amongst different insights.

This deep dive helped us take a have a look at what we have been doing final 12 months and tweak our technique for the 12 months forward.

To make this simpler, I like to recommend monitoring key posts weekly or month-to-month quite than having to pull analytics for a complete 12 months’s value of content material without delay.

The weather to evaluation to replace your social media technique embrace:

Analyzing low, mid, and prime performing content material for patterns and developments.

Analytics reviews per platform and total.

Outcomes of content material checks.

Social listening knowledge, together with what individuals are saying about you, model sentiment over time, and what your rivals are doing.

Feedback and direct suggestions on posts out of your viewers.

It’s all a cycle: put up content material, see the way it performs, check new concepts, analyze some extra, tweak, and repeat.

Free social media content material calendar template

Get your social calendar began as we speak with our free template.

7 stats that may enable you to plan your social media calendar

You need to put up at the very least twice per week on every platform

You don’t want to put up every single day. Whereas engagement vs. frequency varies by business, organizations who put up twice weekly had the best total engagement fee (3.5%) on Fb:

Our Instagram analysis had related findings, with an extra engagement spike at 15 posts per week.

LinkedIn and X additionally confirmed the best engagement with two posts per week. The outlier is TikTok the place for the best engagement fee, you need to put up 5 occasions per week.

Finest time to put up on Fb

Our analysis reveals total the optimum time to put up on Fb is between 5am-7am Tuesday by means of Friday.

Finest time to put up on Instagram

For non-video posts, our analysis reveals one of the best time to put up on Instagram is 5am on Wednesdays.

Finest time to put up Instagram Reels

When it comes to video, one of the best time to put up Instagram Reels is… mainly on a regular basis. In seriousness, between typical 9am-5pm enterprise hours through the week, with a sizzling spot additionally at 10pm on Thursdays and Fridays.

Finest time to put up on LinkedIn

Our analysis reveals one of the best time to put up on LinkedIn is between 2-4pm or 4pm on Sundays.

Finest time to put up on TikTok

Our analysis has discovered one of the best time to put up on TikTok is 3pm on Thursdays. Fridays at 12pm and Tuesdays between 3pm-5pm are the subsequent finest choices.

Finest time to put up on X (Twitter)

Our analysis discovered X posts get essentially the most engagement throughout enterprise hours, with a peak between 10am-1pm on weekdays.

Social media calendar instruments for 2025

You don’t want as many social media administration instruments as you assume. Copy our stack beneath, or take a look at different social media calendar instruments we advocate.

Hootsuite

Yep, after all the Hootsuite workforce makes use of Hootsuite for social media administration. I lined how we use it and what it may well do for you above, however mainly, you are able to do the whole lot you want to do for social media advertising for all of your platforms, together with:

Planning, creating, and scheduling social media content material, with a simple calendar view that features all of your channels.

Answering DMs and feedback from one unified inbox for all of your profiles.

Detailed analytics that present your precise social ROI, together with for paid and natural content material collectively.

The world’s finest social listening instruments built-in to all plans.

AI automations to save time with put up drafting, inspiration, and extra.

100+ integrations with all of your different favourite instruments.

Google Sheets

We use Google Sheets to audit and observe our efficiency. Bonus: a lot of our free social media templates are arrange for you in Google Sheets!

Wrike

We plan our social media content material calendar in Wrike earlier than scheduling posts in Hootsuite. Utilizing a devoted undertaking administration instrument for that is useful in the event you already use one to handle different work in your group.

Miro

I really like Miro’s open canvases for brainstorming and having the ability to join with my workforce from wherever.

CapCut

In my view, CapCut is among the finest video modifying apps. We use it for TikTok modifying and all our different social video content material.

When you’re prepared to implement your social calendar, use Hootsuite for social media scheduling, viewers engagement, best-in-class social listening, and significant analytics. Get your free trial as we speak.