Creating a social media calendar

January is a big month to think about plans and goals. If you manage the social media at your nonprofit or historic site, a calendar is a great way to stay consistent and offer inspiration to help you engage with your followers.

What are the steps you need to create a social media calendar?

• Use a calendar or template you love. If you’re a digital person, consider adding to your Google or Outlook calendar or task list. If you’re a pen and paper person, make a list. You can also create an annual calendar using a table in Word or a spreadsheet in Excel.

• Start with an annual social media calendar. Create post ideas and inspiration for each day of the week. You can have multiple post ideas for each day. You can also make the days flexible so that you can highlight a program on a Monday and mission on a Sunday. For example:

  • Monday: Mission Monday - highlight a story or article that is central to your mission

  • Tuesday: Project - give status updates on a project your organization is working on

  • Wednesday: Hashtag - use your organization’s hashtag to create a post

  • Thursday: Throwback Thursday - every organization has a history; share some stories and images of past work and results

  • Friday: Fundraiser - Fridays are a great day for asking! Ask for financial or volunteer support or highlight how financial or volunteer support has helped your organization

  • Saturday: Highlight - a user, your site, nature, a student, a client

  • Sunday: Program - share information about or an invitation to an upcoming program

• Make a list of draft post ideas each week. Review these ideas to make sure you have a good variety of posts.

• Schedule your posts on the social media channels that your organization uses.

A social media calendar should be flexible and adaptable. It should inspire your social media, but not dictate it. If you schedule posts in advance, it’s good to stay on top of current trends and to be aware of scheduled posts in case something happens in your area. You can then be responsive and post appropriate information.

Does creating a social media calendar feel daunting? Let’s work together on this project! A few hours of time together will give you the tools you need to set up a successful social strategy for 2022. MuseumTastic offers affordable solutions for small museums and nonprofits.