How to Plan a Social Media Content Calendar That Is Actually Manageable

A content calendar should make publishing easier.

Start with a realistic frequency

Consider available people, production time, approval processes, and assets. Consistency is more useful than an unrealistic schedule.

Create recurring categories

Recurring categories reduce the need to invent a completely new concept every day.

Separate ideas from production

Keep an idea bank separate from the actual publishing calendar.

Include production status

Useful statuses include idea, planned, writing, design, review, scheduled, and published.

Reuse strong ideas

One topic can become a carousel, short video, blog article, email, or infographic.

Review performance

Record useful observations about saves, clicks, shares, and conversations and use them for future planning.

Conclusion

A good content calendar is a simple operating system for deciding what to publish, when to publish it, and what needs to happen before publication.