
Create your personal social media calendar with a step-by-step information, or use this free calendar template to get planning immediately.
I received’t bore you with a lecture about why you want a social media content material calendar. You understand you do.
You seemingly 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 dwell by my social media content material calendar.
My present favourite software is (clearly) Buffer, however there are a great deal of fast and soiled choices. If you happen to’re on the lookout for one thing lo-fi to get began, I acquired you.
This is an inventory of 13 calendar templates that can assist you get extra environment friendly, plus how one can use them.
This isn’t a downloadable template, per se, however Buffer is very easy to plug and play, it would as effectively be.

I am positively biased right here, however take it from somebody who has tried each software and template on the block — I genuinely, wholeheartedly imagine Buffer has the most effective social media calendar out. 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 includes 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 will be filtered by platform, so you may see all of your posts in an inventory in the event you choose. You’ll be able to even optimize your posting schedule (or queue) in line with the finest time to publish on every platform (extra on this beneath).
The tags function permits for customized social content material classes and shade coding (my private favourite function). You’ll be able to manage your posts by standing, content material technique pillars, audience, advertising and marketing targets, or sort of content material — no matter works finest in your content material technique.
The advantages of mapping out your content material in Buffer go means past simply planning — Buffer is a social media scheduling software, not simply social media planning software.
Buffer can mechanically schedule your social media posts, pictures, and movies to go dwell at exactly the time you need them to.
It is a wonderful choice for each solo creators and social media groups, with helpful collaboration options like approval workflows and sensible permissions.
In contrast to the remainder of the calendars on this record, there’s no have to cross-reference a number of instruments or techniques or manually publish each single content material piece on a number of platforms.
Buffer connects with Fb, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Pinterest, Mastodon, and extra.
If you happen to’re sharing the identical posts on a number of social media platforms, you may schedule the posts in a single go (and make minor tweaks to every platform if want be). I can’t even start to inform you how a lot of a time-saver that is.
Outdoors 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 analyze instruments to verify in on metrics at a look.

Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get began with Buffer’s calendar hyperlink beneath.
- Create your Buffer account.
- Click on Join Channels (you may join as much as three free of charge).
- Select the platform you wish to begin with and comply with the steps.
- Click on on Publish on the highest left.
- Welcome to your social media content material calendar! Click on New Put up on the highest proper to start out scheduling posts or New Channel on the underside left so as to add one other social platform.
⚡️ Get began with Buffer’s calendar
2. Social media calendar template with the most effective instances to publish

Timing your publish good can have a constructive impression on each your attain and engagement in social media advertising and marketing — which is why we dove into the information from tens of millions 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.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get the ‘Greatest Time to Put up’ calendar template button beneath.
- As soon as downloaded, proper click on on the file and open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- Click on Fill & Signal.
- Click on inside the time slot you wish to use to start out typing.
- Alternatively, you may at all times print these pages and use good old style pen and paper to fill yours out.
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
⏰ Get ‘Greatest Time to Put up’ calendar template
There’s an entire lot extra nuance in determining the most effective time to publish in your viewers. I’d advocate testing 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 most effective instances to publish on every platform.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get the straightforward weekly calendar button beneath.
- Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- Click on Fill & Signal.
- Click on inside the time slot you wish to use to start out typing.
- Alternatively, you may at all times print these pages and use good old style pen and paper to fill yours out.
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

If you wish to map out a whole 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.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get the straightforward month-to-month social media calendar button beneath.
- Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- Click on Fill & Signal.
- Click on inside the time slot you wish to use to start out typing.
- Alternatively, you may at all times print these pages and use good old style pen and paper to fill yours out.
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
📅 Get easy month-to-month social media calendar
If you happen to’d wish to customise the ‘easy calendars’ above to raised swimsuit you, listed below are the editable variations in Canva. You’ll want a free Canva account to tweak them.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on one of many Get calendar hyperlinks beneath. A preview will open in Canva.
- Click on the Use template button. An editable model will seem in your Canva workspace.
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
⏰ Get finest instances to publish calendar
📅 Get easy month-to-month calendar

Notion is a splendidly versatile venture administration software, the place, not like a number of the easy content material calendar templates above, you may simply retailer the textual content, captions, and media you intend to make use of for every publish within the calendar itself.
You can even view all of your posts in several views, like an inventory, desk, Kanban board, or Ghant chart, which will be helpful in planning. It’s an excellent selection for a content material advertising and marketing or editorial calendar template too, as you may map out newsletters, weblog posts, and different digital advertising and marketing campaigns.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get Notion template hyperlink beneath
- Click on on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) within the high proper nook
- Create a free Notion account in the event you don’t have one already
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.

I’ve by no means been an enormous fan of utilizing Sheets for something outdoors knowledge wrangling. However now that Google’s added a dropdown lists function, Sheets is rising on me as a company and planning software. It makes for an excellent social media planning calendar, too.
I significantly like the way you’re ready to make use of particular customized colours for the record 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 crucial customizable on this record. It’s additionally appropriate for storing total posts and captions, relatively than simply making notes, as you’d have carried out within the easy calendar templates above.
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get Google Sheets template hyperlink beneath.
- Click on Make a duplicate.
- Learn the directions on the ‘Begin right here’ sheet. If Microsoft Excel is your spreadsheet software of selection, click on File > Obtain > Microsoft Excel.
- Get planning! The social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
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 turned their real-life calendars into templates you should use and obtain.
8. Simon Heaton’s kanban calendar

Buffer’s Director of Development 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 a giant distinction between ‘In progress’ and ‘Precise in progress,’ he says).

Simon used Tags as one other layer of group in his social media planning calendar, with every color-coded tag comparable to certainly one of his content material pillars (word the coloured bars on his publish calendar above.)
As a part of his social media technique, Simon has outlined Buffer Promo, Normal Development Ideas, Development @ Buffer, Distant Job Postings, Posts with Knowledge, and Posts about Social Media as his content material pillars.
“I double them up some instances as issues can overlap,” he says. “For instance, ‘Posts with Knowledge’ overlaps with ‘Development @ Buffer’ quite a bit.”
Easy methods to arrange your Buffer like Simon
- Click on on the Get began with Buffer hyperlink beneath.
- Create your Buffer account in the event you don’t have already got one, and click on Join Channels (you may join as much as three free of charge). Select the platform you wish to begin with and comply with the steps.
- Click on on ‘Create’ on the menu on the highest left to navigate to the Create House.
- Toggle on ‘board view’ on the highest proper. Select ‘Create Group’ to start out a brand new column, and select your required column names.
- Click on on ‘Tags’ (additionally high proper) and the settings cog image to create your tags.
9. Gina Sapien’s calendar for solo creators

Founder on the Distant Marketer Gina Sapien depends on her content material to develop her enterprise — and that progress all begins with a calendar.
“I exploit it to plan all my content material, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram,” she says. “Every little thing’s in a single place so I can keep on observe, maintain visuals aligned, and really see how the week and month is shaping up.”
The Notion-based system works effectively for solo creators who need one thing easy and versatile, she provides. “If you happen to like having full management with out getting overwhelmed, this simply works.”
“This calendar is my mind on paper, it’s the one system I truly persist with. It retains me targeted, artistic, and means much less careworn when posting week to week.”
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get Notion template hyperlink beneath.
- Click on on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) within the high proper nook
- Create a free Notion account in the event you don’t have one already
- Get planning! Gina’s social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
10. Sabreen Haziq’s one-a-day calendar
Sabreen Haziq, Senior Model and Neighborhood Supervisor at Buffer, depends on Buffer’s posting targets and predetermined time slots to stay to her objective of posting day-after-day.

“Even when I don’t publish precisely inside my chosen slot, seeing it there on the calendar — and all of the content material I’ve already shared up to now — is absolutely motivating,” she says.
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Easy methods to arrange your Buffer like Sabreen
- Click on on the Get began with Buffer hyperlink beneath.
- Create your Buffer account in the event you don’t have already got one, and click on Join Channels (you may join as much as three free of charge).
- Select the platform you wish to begin with and comply with the steps. If you join a brand new channel, you’ll be prompted to create a posting objective.
- If you wish to create a posting objective you have already got linked, select your channel from the channels record on the left-hand aspect, then click on on ‘set posting objective’ proper beneath the channel title.
- 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 instances’ so as to add or take away slots to your calendar.
11. Aiza Coronado’s electronic 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 electronic mail!
Bonus: It doesn’t simply assist her plan when to share the content material; it additionally helps her plan what the content material might be.
She prompted her AI software of selection, ChatGPT, to generate concepts for her, then arrange a ChatGPT job to have them despatched straight to her electronic mail inbox.
“The immediate is tremendous easy,” she says. “I used one thing like, ‘From our previous conversations, discover and record electronic mail advertising and marketing insights, potential content material concepts, and Substack matters I needed to jot down about’.”
I’ve created a extra generic immediate you may use for a similar goal, beneath.
“The titles are tacky, but it surely works as thought sparks,” she says. “I simply want to recollect what I did. And ask AI to uncover hidden insights I might need missed.”
Right here’s a number of the output it generates:

Easy methods to create this technique
- When you’ve landed on an output you’re proud of, you may create a job in ChatGPT at a cadence that fits you. Immediate in the identical chat: “Ship me certainly one of these content material concepts each morning,” or comparable. Right here’s extra data on how one can create a job in ChatGPT.
- You’ll obtain the duties in your electronic mail inbox. Click on on them to return to ChatGPT and make modifications earlier than posting by way of the platform or social media scheduling software.
In ChatGPT, use a immediate like this one to start out the dialog: “I’m a [job title/creator] who creates content material about [X,Y,Z]. My audience is [demographic]. I create [X] posts every week on [platform/s]. Discover potential content material concepts for me.”
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Professional tip: The extra element you add to this immediate, the higher. You’ll be able to embody examples of previous posts which have carried out effectively, or concepts from different creators or manufacturers that you just love, for instance.
12. 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 Put up on TikTok research and analyzing my very own video efficiency, I’ve pinpointed the most effective instances for me to share a video on TikTok day-after-day.
I’ve arrange my Buffer content material calendar to replicate these 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. My posting objective is 3 times per week, however I’ve slots arrange for day-after-day to offer me flexibility.
Bonus: This works for any social channels, not simply TikTok!
Easy methods to arrange your Buffer like me
- Click on on the Get began with Buffer hyperlink beneath.
- Create your Buffer account in the event you don’t have already got one, and click on Join Channels (you may join as much as three free of charge).
- Select the platform you wish to begin with and comply with the steps. If you join a brand new channel, you’ll be prompted to create a posting objective.
- If you wish to create a posting objective you have already got linked, select your channel from the channels record on the left-hand aspect, then click on on ‘set posting objective’ proper beneath the channel title.
- 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 instances’ so as to add or take away slots to your calendar.
13. Kiran Shahid’s calendar for private brand-building

Kiran Shahid has constructed a formidable private model on LinkedIn — and she or he’s seeking 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 an entire lot smoother.
“I’ve these techniques in place, I’m discovering it really easy to start out and have a content material financial institution prepared earlier than I launch,” she explains. “If an thought pops into my head, I can word it down on Notion and develop it later once 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 functional place makes repurposing a breeze too. On days I’m feeling a bit lazy, I can merely copy-paste an previous thought to verify there isn’t a giant hole in my scheduling.”
Easy methods to use this calendar
- Click on on the Get Notion template button beneath
- Click on on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) within the high proper nook
- Create a free Notion account in the event you don’t have one already
- Get planning! Kiran’s social media content material calendar template is yours to edit as you see match.
Social media content material calendar FAQs
If you happen to’re new to utilizing social media calendar templates — or simply making a social media content material planner generally — here is some helpful steering from somebody who lives by them.
Why do I would like to make use of a social media content material calendar?
In case you are on the fence about establishing a social media calendar — with a template or from scratch — here is a fast overview of the advantages. A social media calendar is a key a part of constructing your social media technique. It should assist you:
- Keep on high of a number of social channels.
- Sustain with the content material pillars in your social media advertising and marketing technique.
- Follow a constant posting schedule.
- Schedule posts prematurely and automate your content material creation workflows.
- Work with group members (in the event you’re on a Advertising and marketing group or social media groups), collaborators, or stakeholders.
- Keep on high of product launches, advertising and marketing campaigns, occasions, and even holidays.
- Streamline a system of approvals earlier than posting.
- Save time with content material batching.
- Repurpose content material.
- Preserve observe of content material concepts.
Why do I would like to make use of a social media calendar template?
As a result of winging it solely works for thus lengthy. A social media calendar template provides you construction with out stifling your creativity. It frees up psychological area, helps you intend round launches and social media campaigns, and makes positive your content material aligns along with your general technique — not simply what you’re feeling like posting that day.
Plus, it helps you persist with your social media technique and keep constant (which, in my expertise of social media advertising and marketing, is half the battle).
What ought to I embody 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 embody:
- Posting dates and instances
- Platform and publish format (Reel, Story, textual content publish, and many others.)
- Captions and visuals (or not less than notes)
- Content material pillar or class
- Standing (drafted, scheduled, printed)
Some folks 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?
Decide a software, decide a format, and block a while to plan. You can begin with a template (like those above) or construct your personal within the software of your selection — Notion, Google Sheets, Buffer, no matter you’re almost definitely to really use. Then set a recurring time every week or month to map out your content material.
Even simply planning three social posts prematurely could make a giant 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 shade coding, rename columns, or delete sections you don’t want. If you happen to’re not a morning poster, shift your instructed instances. If you happen to publish extra on TikTok than LinkedIn, prioritize that.
It’s your calendar — make it replicate 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 ideal template must be:
- Straightforward to navigate
- Suitable along with your planning model (visible? list-based? Kanban?)
- Customizable to suit your social or advertising and marketing technique
- Shareable (in the event you work with a group or shoppers)
Bonus factors in the event you can filter by platform, observe publish standing, or embody media recordsdata and notes immediately within the calendar.
As a content material author at Buffer, I spend a very good 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 recurrently.
Whereas numerous the steering for social media success modifications 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 energetic in your social community of selection as potential. It’s the most effective 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 the easiest way to make sure you are persistently posting on these networks? A social media content material calendar! Acquired your template? Congratulations. You’re on the street to success.