Facebook : How To Create A Content Calendar For Your Organization

As a government, politics or nonprofit marketer, your days are busy and filled with dozens of different tasks that need to be completed. Does "Post to social media" move further down your to-do list as the day goes on? If so, we're here to help. A content calendar can help you stay organized as you're communicating with your community online. Taking the time once a week to plan your posts can save you time, keep you organized, and help you stay top of mind with your community.

Why should you use a content calendar?

• You only have to be creative once a week. Creativity takes a lot of brain power. Centralizing your time to be creative with your social media posts allows you to focus your creative energy and may yield more engaging content.
• It will help keep you consistent. Having a content calendar can significantly cut down on the time required to post -- you'll just need to copy and paste. Better yet, you can use Creator Studio to schedule your posts in advance if you know you won't have time in the future. If something comes up, you can always edit or cancel any scheduled posts.
• Build trust with your community. Posting content consistently is one of the best ways to help grow engagement and build trust with your community. This shows you are sharing news and information in a timely manner and your Page may become a trusted source of information.

What's included in a content calendar?

• Date: Make sure to include any holidays or special events that you want to highlight.
• Theme: Note if this post fits into a larger campaign like Giving Tuesday, public health information, or a campaign event.
• Caption: Create your post text, which may include hashtags or tagging other Pages.
• Visual description: Include whether you will be sharing an asset like a photo, graphic, or website link.
• Format: Note what type of post this is (photo, video, link, text or story) so you can ensure a variety of post types to reach different people with different preferences in your audience.
• Creator Studio: If you are using Creator Studio to schedule your posts, you can easily customize your text for Facebook and Instagram to make it more engaging for your audience on each platform.

If you're ready to start using a content calendar to help improve your planning process, download our content calendar template.