It is important for all social media managers to plan for their weekly, monthly and even yearly posts and social media campaigns. Since the year 2017 is already approaching, I created a simple to use template that I am going to use for the social media I manage. To download my free social media content calendar template click here and follow my instructions below:

How To Download The Annual Social Media Content Calendar Template

Once you click on the link you will access the file with Viewing options on Google Drive. To download it click on “File” -> “Download as” like shown below:

Annual Social Media Content Calendar Template For 2017 – What is inside?

Here is what is inside the SM content calendar template:

• One summary sheet, where you can list:
  • The planned campaigns and promotions you would like to run in 2017;
  • Post categories/topics that you would like to publish on your social media in 2017;
• 12 sheets for each month of the year, where you will find:
  • A calendar with days of the week, post timing, week numbers and dates;
  • The current template has slots for 3 posts per day. However, it is completely customizable. If you post 5 times a day you can insert two more rolls for each week of the month;
  • The most important federal and national holidays (for US) are already included in this template.
  • Additional column for notes;

Social Media Content Calendar Template – Instructions

Now that you have it on your device, I would like to advise you to list all the typical post categories you publish on your social media in sheet one.

For example, I like to distinguish product and servise promotion posts from the rest and keep the self promotion to 20/80 or 40/60. That is why I have them as a separate category and can easily track that. On the same sheet you can list the planned promotions and campiagns – like giveaways, discount weeks, games – and their duration.

Then comes the fun part. Filling in the calendar itself.

You will see that I have already filled in some slots for the main national US holidays. I love to do this in advance in order not to forget to publish a post or artwork on the topic.

You can decide to fill in your social media content calendar one or more months in advance.

How I do it is:

• I copy the post types/categories I would like to publish during the month in the Notes column in the spredsheet for the month;
• I color code them to make it easier to see if I am diversifying the ocntent good enough;
• Then I simply start with the first post type and distribute it throughout the month with copying and pasting in the cells (like shown in the gif below);
• I try to post the same type of post during different times and days of the week, in order to reach more and different people.

I do this on a monthly basis, at least one week before the beginning of each month.

Unfortunately, these types of templates are not always sufficient. Besides this big social media content calendar template, I usually use a daily social media contact calendar template.

I hope you would find good use of the annual free social media content calendar template I created and you are going to ace the new year!

I don’t ask anything from you. But if you share the free social media content calendar template with other people or in your blog, please don’t forget to mention this article. 

Let me know what you think and if you would like me to share with you my daily social media content calendar template? 

And don’t forget that you can subscribe for my monthly updates in the subscription box in the sidebar.
Here is the link to the free social media calendar template google docs file again.

Also, don’t forget to check out my previous post: Social Media Marketing News & Updates – November 2016 Recap

Cheers,

Dora