Two Weekly Social Media Calendar Templates for Stress-Free Scheduling

Save a few notches on your social stress meter by using these social media calendars to get ahead

Social media is my favorite thing to write about next to recycling content in fun and unusual ways. When you’re launching a new digital magazine, or bringing your existing magazine brand online, there’s a list of to-do’s and one of them is a checkbox that says “social media” but that check box doesn’t begin to cover the tiny little checkboxes that belong underneath it.

Last week we discussed the answer to an ever present question: what is SMO (social media optimization)? I’d recommend starting there, so that you begin with the first eight steps for creating a social media strategy. Once that strategy is in place, the next step is to create the structure for each step in the process. Fly by night social media just leads to chaos and your articles getting promoted less and less. In order to organize that chaos, create a social media calendar for all of your social networks.

The basic rules of creating a social media calendar go like this:

• Editorial posts get posted on the same day they’re published (plus scheduled out into the future)
• Promotional posts get posted on the same day they’re emailed out to your email list
• Branded posts will get posts on the days you determine
• Ad posts will also get posted on the days you determine

From there, you’re welcome to tweak and twist to accommodate your publishing schedule. The social media calendars below represent what a publisher might post if they publish one article a day.

A sample Facebook/LinkedIn/G+ social media calendar

Create a Facebook editorial calendar that aligns with your email editorial calendar. Inject Facebook-friendly posts and goals that match your business goals. For example…

• Drive Traffic: Link posts to blog
• Boost Likes / Shares / Visibility: Photo Posts (funny, quotes, memes) work well. Some publishers do well with question posts and fill in the blank posts about interesting topics in their niche.
• Boost Visibility: Link posts to 3^rd party that tag the source of the content, or links to your own content that tag the businesses mentioned in your article
• Feature a product: Links to paid products on your website
• Build email circulation: Links to a free product on your website
• Recycle content: Link to an old blockbuster post to refresh the SEO on the post and drive traffic

Below is a sample editorial calendar for a publisher who posts one new article per day, Monday – Friday. Weekends can be used to recycle old posts and build visibility with fun photo posts that drive engagement, which leads to higher visibility over time. Adjust according to your email editorial calendar and add more posts per day as needed.

Monday:

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Photo post (boost likes/shares/visibility)

Tuesday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)

Wednesday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Product feature (drive revenue)

 Thursday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• 3^rd Party Post Link (boost visibility or satisfy advertiser)

Friday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Freebie Feature (build email circulation)

Saturday

• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)
• Photo post (boost likes/shares/visibility)

Sunday

• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)
• Product feature (drive revenue)

Note: The more active your audience (comments, likes, shares) the more you can post. Posting too much with no engagement will result in decreased post visibility. Learn what your fans like and comment on, and do more of that.

A sample Twitter social media calendar

Beyond editorial, there are many different types of Tweets you can populate your feed with. If you’re employing the 12x12x12 strategy we teach, you’ll be publishing much more than this on Twitter, but that only covers editorial and content marketing. This expanded calendar covers promotion, increasing visibility, and community building. Again, we’re using the example of a publisher who posts one new article per day.

• Traffic / Blog posts: These are your daily blog posts, use this strategy for promoting them.
• Marketing posts: Only one in five (or less) of your Tweets per day should directly promote anything that you sell. Align these promotions with your promotional email calendar and it will be easier to organize and remember.
• Visibility / Hashtag posts: The goal of these posts is to find a hashtag related to your audience and find something to Tweet about it. Maybe it’s a quote, or a question, or a statement with the goal of getting retweeted.
• Conversation / Topic posts: These are Tweets about articles on external or partner websites that are related to the topics you cover on your website.
• #FollowFriday / #ThrowbackThursday: Scheduling ahead gives you a chance to use #FollowFriday to send some shout-outs to other leaders / writers / experts in your industry or pick old issues of your magazine covers to show off for #ThrowbackThursday.

 

DAY/TIME	GOAL	TOPIC	TWEET COPY	LINK
MONDAY 9:00	TRAFFIC	BLOG OF THE DAY	10 Something #Somethings About Something Your Audience Loves	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
MONDAY 11:00	VISIBILITY	HASHTAG: #ALZHEIMERS	Half of #Alzheimers patients attributable to #smoking, #depression, #diabetes, #obesity & inactivity	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
MONDAY 13:00	MARKETING	PARTNER/ADVERTISER SHOUT-OUT	Have you heard about #ADVERTISERSHASHTAG from @YOURPARTNER? It’s a great online learning resource! #ad	http://youradvertiserswebsite.com
MONDAY 14:00	CONVERSATION	TOPIC: PET HEALTH	If anybody has a #diabetic pooch, here’s a great recipe for dog treats on @AllRecipes –	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
MONDAY 15:00	TRAFFIC	OLD BLOG POST (RECYCLE)	20 Something #Somethings We Posted About Two Weeks Ago	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
TUESDAY 9:00	TRAFFIC	BLOG OF THE DAY	10 Something #Somethings About Something Your Audience Loves	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
TUESDAY 11:00	VISIBILITY	HASHTAG: #DIABETES	YUM! Mini Burgers with Caramelized Onion from @AmDiabetesAssn website #diabetes	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
TUESDAY 13:00	MARKETING	PRODUCT SHOUT-OUT	Have you read Chapter 10 of our VERY AWESOME BOOK?	http://yourlandingpage.com
TUESDAY 14:00	CONVERSATION	TOPIC: DIGITAL DOCTORS	Loved this video that @SomeDoctor shared – “The #Doctor is Online”	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
TUESDAY 15:00	TRAFFIC	OLD BLOG POST (RECYCLE)	20 Something #Somethings We Posted About Two Weeks Ago	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
WEDNESDAY 9:00	TRAFFIC	BLOG OF THE DAY	10 Something #Somethings About Something Your Audience Loves	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
WEDNESDAY 11:00	VISIBILITY	HASHTAG: ANXIETY	Useful for both patients AND health care providers: 4 Ways to Calm Down using Water and Ice #anxiety	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
WEDNESDAY 13:00	MARKETING	PARTNER/ADVERTISER SHOUT-OUT	Have you heard about #ADVERTISERSHASHTAG from @YOURPARTNER? It’s a great online learning resource! #ad	http://youradvertiserswebsite.com
WEDNESDAY 14:00	CONVERSATION	TOPIC: GLUTEN HEALTH	A great recipe to pass on to your #gluten sensitive patients – Spaghetti Alla Pescatora	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
WEDNESDAY 15:00	TRAFFIC	OLD BLOG POST (RECYCLE)	20 Something #Somethings We Posted About Two Weeks Ago	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
THURSDAY 9:00	TRAFFIC	BLOG OF THE DAY	10 Something #Somethings About Something Your Audience Loves	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
THURSDAY 11:00	VISIBILITY	HASHTAG: #HIGHFIBER	Ooh, @MayoClinic has a great collection of #highfiber recipes to pass along to patients!	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
THURSDAY 13:00	MARKETING	PRODUCT SHOUT-OUT	Have you read Chapter 10 of our VERY AWESOME BOOK?	http://yourlandingpage.com
THURSDAY 14:00	CONVERSATION	TOPIC: PROSTATE	Wow, this infographic from @mikewirthhart shows “The Prostate Cancer Conversation”.	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
THURSDAY 15:00	TRAFFIC	OLD BLOG POST (RECYCLE)	20 Something #Somethings We Posted About Two Weeks Ago	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
FRIDAY 9:00	TRAFFIC	BLOG OF THE DAY	10 Something #Somethings About Something Your Audience Loves	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html
FRIDAY 11:00	KARMA	FOLLOW FRIDAY	#FF Shoutout to a few of our partners! @YOURPARNER @YOURPARTNER @YOURPARTNER
FRIDAY 13:00	MARKETING	PARTNER/ADVERTISER SHOUT-OUT	Have you heard about #ADVERTISERSHASHTAG from @YOURPARTNER? It’s a great online learning resource! #ad	http://youradvertiserswebsite.com
FRIDAY 14:00	VISIBILITY	HASHTAG: #HEALTHY	Yummy-looking (and #healthy) Stuffed Veggies #recipe from @MarthaRShulman on @NYTimes	http://www.theirwebsite.com/theirblogpost.html
FRIDAY 15:00	TRAFFIC	OLD BLOG POST (RECYCLE)	20 Something #Somethings We Posted About Two Weeks Ago	http://yourblog.com/your-blog-post.html

Things you’ll notice from the above are as follows:

• Every day, five posts are scheduled. This doesn’t mean this is all you send out, it just means that the basics are covered and if you get swamped, your feed will be just fine. You can adjust as needed, according to your editorial calendar.
• Out of every five posts, there is only one real marketing tweet, two traffic-driving posts and the rest are helpful community posts that still leverage some marketing strategies like @-ing people who you link to and hashtagging popular topics to your audience.
• Two traffic-driving posts per day come from your main blog post (or posts) and one that recycles an old post and makes it new again.

You can do more, but try not to do less. If you have a huge audience, you can get away with the basics, but if you have a new magazine with the goal of building up new followers and engagement, then get ready for some elbow grease.

Based on your experience, what else would you add?