In our world, a content calendar is not meant to be set in stone or something we must stick to no matter what. Social is immediate, timely and must be able to react to the world we live in.
So when a client or potential client wants to see – in detail – a full layout of the year, quarter, or even month of upcoming “posts,” that’s not really how this works.
Agility is a main tenant of being a social media/community manager. We must be nimble enough to move things around and adjust to needs. Those needs could be:
- Canceling a post or bumping it due to something more important, timely and not-evergreen that is more pertinent for the brand.
- Removing or unscheduling a planned post due to a worldwide event. Trust me, when there is a global emergency no one is interested in your TikTok dances, your trending audio or even your cute dog (I know, strange but true).
- Jumping on a trend before it’s too late. Trends pop up and if we don’t get on the bandwagon immediately, it’s hardly worth getting on at all.
Now, that’s not to say a content calendar doesn’t matter or is completely useless. We think about calendars with big-picture consideration. We want our calendars to include:
- National or global holidays
- Holidays or calendar days related to the brand – these can be fun, silly celebrations like “National Chocolate Day” but also things like “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
- Seasonality of their brand – does back-to-school fit their brand? Summer travel? These could also be local events. For our local clients, we always build content around The Kentucky Derby Festival.
We also layer in specifics to the brand – do they have an open house? A Galentine’s Event? A holiday party? A webinar? What needs to be planned out in order to get the content in front of people in a timely manner, and how often should we share that information with a CTA for registration?
Outside of those items, a lot of what we post is evergreen. We want to share content that can be looked at WHENEVER a community member comes across it. Remember that an algorithm doesn’t present content chronologically. So the last thing we want to do is a bunch of posts about a special that is over, an event the viewer missed or a deadline that is in the past. We want to be sure our content makes sense whenever it comes in front of a pair of eyeballs.
So I encourage you to think more big-picture about your content calendar. Leave room to plot important notes in as they come. Don’t be so rigid about the calendar that it can’t be adjusted.
And with that… go make your voice big this week.
by 
