11 Free Templates + How to Make Your Own

I gained’t bore you with a lecture about why you want a social media content material calendar. You understand you do.

You doubtless landed right here since you’re on the lookout for a content material calendar template, a fast place to begin for mapping out your content material plan for the approaching weeks or months.

I’ve labored as each a social media supervisor and content material creator and stay by my social media content material calendar.

My present favourite device is (in fact) Buffer, however there are a great deal of different choices on the market. Should you’re on the lookout for one thing lo-fi to get began, I’ve bought you.

This is a listing of 13 calendar templates that can assist you be extra environment friendly, plus learn how to construct your personal if none of them match.

The short model

A social media calendar template is a ready-made construction for planning what you will submit, the place, and when, so you are not gazing a clean display each week.

The quickest approach to begin: Choose a format that matches the way you wish to work (a spreadsheet like Google Sheets, a visible device like Canva, a versatile workspace like Notion, or a scheduler like Buffer that additionally publishes for you), seize one of many 13 free templates beneath, and block half-hour to map out your subsequent two weeks.

If you wish to construct one from scratch as an alternative, skip to learn how to create a social media calendar.

This isn’t a downloadable template, per se, however Buffer is really easy to plug and play, it’d as properly be.

I am positively biased right here, however take it from somebody who has tried each device and template on the block. I genuinely, wholeheartedly consider Buffer has the very best social media calendar on the market.

This is an outline of simply a number of the cool issues you are able to do.

Let’s begin with the fundamentals: Buffer’s content material calendar contains a weekly and month-to-month calendar view. You’ll be able to drag and drop posts to simply change publish dates and instances in actual time.

These views might be filtered by platform, so you’ll be able to see all of your posts in a listing in case you choose. You’ll be able to even optimize your posting schedule in line with the finest time to submit on every platform (extra on this beneath).

The Tags function permits for customized social content material classes and colour coding (my private favourite function). You’ll be able to manage your posts by standing, content material technique pillars, target market, advertising and marketing targets, or kind of content material, no matter works finest to your content material technique.

The advantages of mapping out your content material in Buffer go method past simply planning. Buffer is a social media scheduling device, not only a social media planning device.

This calendar is the one one on this listing that can publish the posts for you.

Buffer can robotically schedule your social media posts (whether or not they’re textual content, photographs, or movies) on all main platforms to go stay at exactly the time you need them to.  Should you’re juggling a number of accounts, it additionally makes it far simpler to handle a number of social media accounts from one calendar.

It is a wonderful possibility for each solo creators and social media groups, too, with helpful collaboration options like approval workflows and sensible permissions.

Not like the remainder of the calendars on this listing, there’s no have to cross-reference a number of instruments or methods or manually submit each single content material piece on totally different platforms.

Buffer connects with Fb, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Enterprise, and extra.

Should you’re sharing the identical posts on a number of social media platforms, you’ll be able to schedule the posts in a single go (and make minor tweaks to every platform if want be). I can’t even start to let you know how a lot of a time-saver that is.

Exterior the calendar, there’s the Create House that can assist you brainstorm and manage your concepts, engagement instruments that can assist you handle replies to feedback, and the analytics instruments to test in on metrics at a look.

How you can use this calendar

1. Click on on the Get began with Buffer’s calendar hyperlink beneath.
2. Create your Buffer account in case you do not have already got one (it is free).
3. Click on Join Channels (you’ll be able to join as much as three on our forever-free plan).
4. Select the platform you need to begin with and observe the steps.
5. Click on on the Publish tab on the highest left.
6. Welcome to your social media content material calendar. Click on New Submit on the highest proper to begin scheduling posts.

2. Social media calendar template with the very best instances to submit

Timing your submit excellent can have a constructive affect on each your attain and engagement in social media advertising and marketing, which is why we dove into the information from hundreds of thousands of social media posts in Buffer to uncover precisely that.

Because of this evaluation, we’ve pinpointed a number of posting instances for every social media platform throughout which posts get extra engagement or views. I’ve highlighted these instances for Fb, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter/X on this downloadable PDF calendar.

How you can use this calendar

1. Obtain the ‘Finest Time to Submit’ calendar template.
2. As soon as downloaded, right-click on the file and open it with Adobe Reader or one other PDF reader.
3. Click on Fill & Signal.
4. Click on throughout the time slot you need to use to begin typing.
5. Alternatively, you’ll be able to at all times print these pages and fill them out with old school pen and paper.
6. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

⏰ Get ‘Finest Time to Submit’ calendar template

There’s a complete lot extra nuance in determining the very best time to submit to your viewers. I’d advocate trying out these assets:

This free content material calendar template options the identical structure because the one above, with publishing schedule time slots from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., simply with out highlights for the very best instances to submit on every platform.

How you can use this calendar

1. Get the straightforward weekly calendar.
2. Open with Adobe Reader.
3. Click on Fill & Signal.
4. Click on throughout the time slot you need to use to begin typing.
5. Alternatively, you’ll be able to at all times print these pages and use pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

🗓️ Get the straightforward weekly calendar

If you wish to map out a complete month at a look, this content material calendar template is for you. Consider this calendar as your big-picture view. It may be useful to map out the month in broad strokes by publish date utilizing a structure like this one, that can assist you prioritize duties.

How you can use this calendar

1. Get the straightforward month-to-month social media calendar.
2. Open with Adobe Reader.
3. Click on Fill & Signal.
4. Click on throughout the time slot you need to use to begin typing.
5. Alternatively, you’ll be able to at all times print these pages and use ol’ pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

📅 Get the straightforward month-to-month social media calendar

Should you’d wish to customise the straightforward calendars above to higher go well with you, listed below are the editable variations in Canva. You’ll want a free Canva account to tweak them.

How you can use this calendar

1. Click on on one of many Get calendar hyperlinks beneath. A preview will open in Canva.
2. Click on the View template button, then Open in Editor.
3. An editable model will seem in your Canva workspace.
4. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

⏰ Get the very best instances to submit calendar

🗓️ Get the straightforward weekly calendar

📅 Get the straightforward month-to-month calendar

Notion is a versatile venture administration device, the place, not like a number of the easy content material calendar templates above, you’ll be able to simply retailer the textual content, captions, and media you propose to make use of for every submit within the calendar itself.

You can too view all of your posts in numerous views, like a listing, desk, Kanban board, or Gantt chart, which might be helpful in planning. It’s a terrific alternative for a content material advertising and marketing or editorial calendar template too, as you’ll be able to map out newsletters, weblog posts, and different digital advertising and marketing campaigns.

How you can use this calendar

1. Get the Notion template.
2. Click on on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) within the prime proper nook
3. Create a free Notion account in case you don’t have one already
4. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

🤖 Get Notion template

If a spreadsheet is your joyful place, a Google Sheets social media calendar template is tough to beat — it is free, it lives within the cloud, and you may customise it endlessly with out studying a brand new device.

I’ve by no means been an enormous fan of utilizing Sheets for something exterior information wrangling. However now that Google’s added a dropdown listing function, Sheets is rising on me as a company and planning device. It makes for a terrific social media planning calendar, too.

I significantly like the way you’re in a position to make use of particular customized colours for the listing choices, too. I like my content material calendars to be fairly.

This free content material calendar template is, together with Buffer and Notion, one of the customizable on this listing. It is also appropriate for storing complete posts and captions, moderately than simply making notes, as you’d have completed within the easy calendar templates above. If Microsoft Excel is extra your velocity, you’ll be able to convert it in a few clicks (I’ve coated that within the steps beneath).

How you can use this calendar

1. Make a replica of the Google Sheets template.
2. Learn the directions on the Begin right here sheet. If Microsoft Excel is your spreadsheet device of alternative, click on File > Obtain > Microsoft Excel.
3. The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

📊 Get the Google Sheets template

Social media calendars are fairly private, and what works for one marketer, creator, or entrepreneur may not work for one more.

With that in thoughts, I turned to our neighborhood, which graciously shared their real-life calendars, and even turned them into templates that you need to use and obtain.

8. Simon Heaton’s kanban calendar

Buffer’s Director of Progress Advertising and marketing, Simon Heaton, leans on Buffer’s Create House to plan his content material and the calendar to schedule it.

He’s organized the Create House kanban columns into content material standing like progress (there’s an enormous distinction between ‘In progress’ and ‘Precise in progress,’ he advised me).

Simon used Tags as one other layer of group in his Buffer social media planning calendar, with every color-coded tag akin to one in every of his content material pillars (be aware the coloured bars on his publish calendar above).

As a part of his social media technique, Simon has outlined Buffer Promo, Normal Progress Suggestions, Progress @ Buffer, Distant Job Postings, Posts with Information, and Posts about Social Media as his content material pillars.

“I double them up generally as issues can overlap,” he says. “For instance, ‘Posts with Information’ overlaps with ‘Progress @ Buffer’ quite a bit.”

How you can arrange your Buffer like Simon

1. Click on on the Get began with Buffer hyperlink.
2. Create your Buffer account in case you don’t have already got one, and click on Join Channels (you’ll be able to join as much as three without cost). Select the platform you need to begin with and observe the steps.
3. Click on on Create on the menu on the highest left to navigate to the Create House.
4. Toggle on ‘board view’ on the highest proper. Select + New Group on the precise to begin a brand new column, and select your required column names.
5. Click on on Tags (additionally prime proper) and the settings cog image to create your tags.

🌱 Get began with Buffer

9. Aiza Coronado’s e mail x ChatGPT calendar

Aiza Coronado, Marketer and founding father of The Glimmer Code, has a very distinctive method to her social media content material planner. She has it despatched straight to her e mail.

Bonus: It doesn’t simply assist her plan when to share the content material; it additionally helps her plan what the content material can be.

She prompted her AI device of alternative, ChatGPT, to generate concepts for her, then arrange a ChatGPT job to have them despatched straight to her e mail inbox.

“The immediate is tremendous easy,” she says. “I used one thing like, ‘From our previous conversations, discover and listing e mail advertising and marketing insights, attainable content material concepts, and Substack subjects I wished to put in writing about’.”

“The titles are tacky, however it works as concept sparks,” she says. “I simply want to recollect what I did. And ask AI to uncover hidden insights I may need missed.”

How you can create this technique

1. When you’ve landed on an output you’re pleased with, you’ll be able to create a job in ChatGPT at a cadence that fits you. Immediate in the identical chat: “Ship me one in every of these content material concepts each morning,” or comparable. Right here’s extra data on learn how to create a job in ChatGPT.
2. You’ll obtain the duties in your e mail inbox. Click on on them to return to ChatGPT and make adjustments earlier than posting by way of the platform or social media scheduling device.

I’ve created a extra generic immediate you would use for a similar function.

In ChatGPT, use a immediate like this one to begin the dialog: “I’m a [job title/creator] who creates content material about [X,Y,Z]. My target market is [demographic]. I create [X] posts per week on [platform/s]. Discover attainable content material concepts for me.”

Right here’s a number of the output it generates:

10. My easy calendar for TikTok consistency

Like Sabreen, I depend on predetermined time slots and targets to remain constant on TikTok.

Utilizing the information from our greatest time to submit on TikTok research and analyzing my very own video efficiency, I’ve pinpointed the very best instances for me to share a video on TikTok on daily basis.

My posting purpose is 3 times per week, however I’ve slots arrange for on daily basis to present me flexibility.

I’ve arrange my Buffer content material calendar to mirror these high-performing timeslots, so when the time involves schedule social posts, I do not even have to consider it. Eradicating that late-stage friction has been a game-changer for serving to to remain constant.

Bonus: This works for any social channels, not simply TikTok.

How you can arrange your Buffer like me

1. Get began with Buffer
2. Create your Buffer account in case you don’t have already got one, and click on Join Channels (you’ll be able to join as much as three without cost).
3. Select the platform you need to begin with and observe the steps. If you join a brand new channel, you’ll be prompted to create a posting purpose.
4. If you wish to create a posting purpose for a channel you’ve already linked, select your channel from the channels listing on the left-hand facet, then click on on + Set a posting purpose proper beneath the channel title.
5. To set posting instances to seem in your calendar, click on on the cog icon subsequent to the channel identify (additionally seen within the picture above). Scroll right down to Posting slots so as to add or take away slots to your calendar.

✨ Get began with Buffer

11. Kiran Shahid’s calendar for private brand-building

Kiran Shahid has constructed a formidable private model on LinkedIn, and he or she’s trying to department out to Instagram, too.

Because of the sturdy system she created on Notion whereas rising on LinkedIn, she’s discovering her new Instagram venture a complete lot smoother.

“I’ve these methods in place, I’m discovering it really easy to begin and have a content material financial institution prepared earlier than I launch,” she explains. “If an concept pops into my head, I can be aware it down on Notion and develop it later after I sit right down to plan my weekly content material.”

The system is nice for anybody who needs to be intentional about constructing a private model, she provides.

“Other than ensuring I by no means run out of concepts, having them multi function place makes repurposing a breeze, too. On days I’m feeling a bit lazy, I can merely copy-paste an previous concept to verify there isn’t an enormous hole in my scheduling.”

How you can use this calendar

1. Get the Notion template.
2. Click on on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) within the prime proper nook.
3. Create a free Notion account in case you don’t have one already.
4. Kiran’s social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match (use the tabs to see totally different sections and views).

🚀 Get the Notion template

Templates are the quick lane, but when none of them fairly match, constructing your personal calendar from scratch is not onerous. This is the eight-step course of I’ve used as each a social media supervisor and a creator.

1. Begin along with your technique

Earlier than you open any calendar device, get clear on the fundamentals: why you are posting, who you are making an attempt to achieve, and what you will really submit about. Random posting will get you random outcomes. Having clear targets, understanding your target market, and defining your content material pillars will make your advertising and marketing efforts a lot simpler and extra profitable in the long term

Even a single-page social media technique — along with your targets, your viewers, and your content material pillars — will make each choice after this simpler.

2. Choose your device and format

Select the house to your calendar based mostly on the way you really wish to work, not what appears most spectacular. A spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel), a versatile workspace (Notion), or a scheduler that additionally publishes for you (Buffer) are all stable beginning factors. The perfect system is the one you will really preserve utilizing, so attempt to not overthink it. You’ll be able to at all times migrate later.

It could be remiss of me to not level out that there are a number of perks to housing your social media calendar in Buffer past the flexibility to plan and schedule in a single device:

• 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 power to exclude sure channels from view for further readability and focus.
• Entry it wherever. Because of Buffer’s cellular app, you’ll be able to test or amend your calendar on the go. 

📲 Obtain the Buffer app for iOS right here

📲 Obtain the Buffer app for Android right here

3. Set your cadence

Determine how typically you will submit on every platform, and be life like. Three posts per week you’ll be able to maintain beats seven you will abandon by Thursday. Consistency is the one piece of recommendation that survives each algorithm replace, so construct your calendar round a rhythm you’ll be able to preserve.

4. Construct the skeleton

Map out your posting slots (the times and instances you will publish). Should you’re undecided when to submit, our finest time to submit analysis, drawn from hundreds of thousands of posts analyzed in Buffer, is a helpful place to begin earlier than you layer in your personal efficiency information.

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, in fact, however 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 to your target market. 

To arrange your Queue, click on in your chosen channel, then click on on the cog icon subsequent to your identify and profile image. Right here you will discover the choices to your posting slots, which you’ll edit in line with your technique.

5. Get your content material concepts down

Prepared for a mind dump? You doubtless have a stable concept of the sort of content material you’re creating due to 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 in case you’re engaged on constructing out your calendar, I’d advise you to begin by utilizing it as a hub for all of your concepts.

You’ll be able to view every part in a gallery or manage your concepts into boards.

6. Manage in a method that is sensible to you

Colour coding is my organizational love language (it is best to see my bookshelf). Colour-coding or tagging by content material pillar, standing, or format makes a busy calendar legible at a look. It additionally makes it far simpler to identify gaps like three promo posts in a row, or per week with no video.

There are a number of how to make use of Buffer’s Tags that can be extremely helpful in your social media administration system. You could possibly use them to tag posts by:

• Content material pillar (my private favourite)
• Submit standing (concept, draft, able to publish)
• Format or kind of content material (textual content, video, photograph, carousel)
• Platform (when you’ll be capable of see which social media app your submit is scheduled on within the calendar, this might be helpful in case you’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’ll be able to measure the efficiency of 1 grouping in opposition to 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.

This is learn how to create and handle Tags on Buffer:

7. Begin planning

Now comes the enjoyable half: slot your concepts into the calendar. Now that you’ve got a number of nice concepts prepared and ready to be printed in your social media channels, it’s 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 Submit button on the backside of the pop-up.

Subsequent, select which channels you need to submit the replace on. 

Tailor your submit to every platform, then select if you wish to schedule, queue, or submit instantly.

To schedule straight to your calendar, click on the +New Submit button on the prime proper, add your content material, and schedule to the related platforms.

8. Overview and regulate

A calendar is not set in stone. Along with your content material prepared and raring to go, mess around along with your calendar to seek out the right combine for every day, week, and month. So long as the submit hasn’t been printed, you’ll be able to tweak every part to your coronary heart’s content material. 

• Examine in in the beginning of every week, transfer issues round, and go away room for reactive posts, like a trending TikTok sound or a well timed second value leaping on.
• Examine in along with your calendar at first of every day to see what you’ve scheduled and refine your content material if want be.
• World occasions would possibly imply you must tweak your messaging, curate your content material, or overhaul your plan fully.
• Over time, your personal analytics will let you know what’s working, and you will repurpose your best-performing posts.

Vikki Tokarz, Head of Group at Scribe, finds calendars important for something greater than a day or two: “Write well timed, viral content material when you’ve it, and schedule your ‘bread and butter’ (evergreen) content material to domesticate a persistent, relatable social presence.”

ICYMI, calendars for the win!

As a content material author at Buffer, I spend chunk of my time poring over the (typically cryptic) algorithm updates from the varied social media platforms. We have now a great deal of nice weblog articles (if I do say so myself) breaking down the algorithm for each single platform, which we replace repeatedly.

Whereas plenty of the steerage for social media success adjustments in these assets fairly typically, there’s one tip that at all times, at all times stays in them: be constant. Whether or not you’re a content material creator, social media marketer, or small enterprise proprietor, be as lively in your social community of alternative as attainable. It’s the very best path to success on any given platform, whether or not you’re posting to Instagram, TikTok, Fb, YouTube, Mastodon, you identify it.

And what’s one of the simplest ways to make sure you are persistently posting on these networks? A social media content material calendar! Bought your template? Congratulations. You’re on the street to success.

Social media content material calendar FAQs

Should you’re new to utilizing social media calendar templates (or simply making a social media content material planner on the whole), this is some helpful steerage from somebody who lives by them.

Why do I would like to make use of a social media content material calendar?

If you’re on the fence about organising a social media calendar (with a template or from scratch), this is a fast overview of the advantages.

A social media calendar is a key a part of constructing your social media technique. It’ll allow you to:

1. Keep on prime of a number of social channels.
2. Sustain with the content material pillars in your social media advertising and marketing technique.
3. Stick with a constant posting schedule.
4. Schedule posts upfront and automate your content material creation workflows.
5. Work with group members (in case you’re on a advertising and marketing group or social media groups), 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. Maintain monitor of content material concepts.

Why do I would like to make use of a social media calendar template?

A template takes the guesswork out of getting began. As an alternative of gazing a clean display questioning learn how to manage your content material, you’ve bought a ready-made construction to plug your concepts into.

It’s particularly useful in case you’re brief on time or juggling a number of platforms. All of the heavy lifting of formatting is finished for you, so you’ll be able to deal with the content material itself. Templates additionally make it simpler to identify gaps, batch-create posts, and keep aligned along with your broader social media technique.

What ought to I embrace in my social media calendar?

Your calendar doesn’t should be fancy; it simply must work for you. Right here are some things most calendars embrace:

• Posting dates and instances
• Platform and submit format (Reel, Story, textual content submit, and so on.)
• Captions and visuals (or not less than notes)
• Content material pillar or class
• Standing (drafted, scheduled, printed)

Some individuals go all in with hashtags, CTAs, social media marketing campaign labels, viewers segments, and all the mandatory particulars on their advertising and marketing calendar, but when that feels overwhelming, begin with a easy social media planner and construct from there.

How do I create a social media calendar?

Choose a device, choose a format, and block a while to plan. You can begin with a template (like those above) or construct your personal within the device of your alternative — Notion, Google Sheets, Buffer, no matter you’re most definitely to truly use. Then set a recurring time every week or month to map out your content material.

Even simply planning three social posts upfront could make an enormous distinction in your workflow.

How do I make a social media calendar template work for me?

The key phrase right here is template. It’s a place to begin, not a strict algorithm. Tweak the structure, add colour coding, rename columns, or delete sections you don’t want. Should you’re not a morning poster, shift your recommended instances. Should you submit extra on TikTok than LinkedIn, prioritize that.

It’s your calendar. Make it mirror your social technique or advertising and marketing technique, targets, viewers, and precise capability.

What options must you search for in a social media content material calendar template?

Search for flexibility and readability. An incredible template must be:

• Simple to navigate
• Suitable along with your planning fashion (visible? list-based? Kanban?)
• Customizable to suit your social or advertising and marketing technique
• Shareable (in case you work with a group or purchasers)

Bonus factors in case you can filter by platform, monitor submit standing, or embrace media information and notes instantly within the calendar.