How to Organize Social Media Content: Tips, Templates & Examples
Learn how to plan and organize your social media content with these expert tips. Categorize platforms based on customer attraction or nurturing, create content pillars for education, inspiration, and sales-related posts, use tools like Canva and Trello to stay organized, repurpose long-form content into shorter forms for accessibility across platforms, and schedule posts in advance using Hootsuite or Buffer. With consistency and strategic planning, you can grow your brand on Instagram and other social media platforms.
What Is the Best Way to Organize Content?
The speaker hasn’t posted on their social media stories in three days and their feed has been dry for two weeks.
Scheduling social media content in advance is important to avoid last-minute stress.
Social media platforms should be organized into categories based on whether they are used to attract new customers or nurture existing ones.
Attractive client content should be created for platforms where new clients are sought, while attractive community content should be created for nurturing platforms.
Social media should be treated like a magazine with a curated theme and editorial standards.
Creating content ahead of time makes scheduling easier and more organized.
YouTube is the primary platform used by the speaker to attract new customers, while Instagram and podcasts are used primarily to nurture them.
Tick Tock will soon become another platform used by speakers to find new customers
The speaker’s brand stands for helping others turn their success story into a six- or seven-figure brand using social media as an essential tool.
The cheat sheet can help plan your process of coming up with ideas for your social media posts.
Why I Don’t Use Planning or Scheduling Apps
Canva can be used to plan Instagram feeds instead of planning apps like Planoly, Unum Later or Preview.
Modern Millie is a social media influencer who posts videos every Wednesday on the latest social media strategies and trends to help grow your brand.
She uses Canva to plan her Instagram feed because she finds it easier than using her phone, and since her feed uses more graphics, it makes sense for her to stay on her laptop.
She created a template called “My Planning Feed Template” in Canva where she uploads photos and arranges them according to how she wants them displayed in her feed.
With other planning apps, you can’t plan out reels very well, but with Canva, you can have a reels cover image, so that when plugged into the feed layout after posting it to your feed, you can see how it will look cropped.
Millie plans three weeks of posts at a time by plugging everything into Trello board, which helps manage the content calendar week by week, as this seems manageable for batch writing captions, while images are planned two weeks in advance.
The video also talks about Dollar 80, which is an extension designed to make commenting on other users’ posts easier and more organized , thus increasing engagement and following without being a bot-like system software.
Millie prefers to use Canva over other planning apps because they require payment upgrades before certain features like scheduling carousel posts or auto-posting become available even if you have a business account connected to the Facebook page , whereas with Canva there is no such requirement.
Auto-scheduling of content via Instagram Creator Studio is only possible for professional accounts (creator/business) but not yet compatible with video content
How Do I Create a Content Calendar Plan?
The video is sponsored by Squarespace to create a professional online presence.
The video discusses how to manage a content calendar as a professional blogger.
A content calendar is a schedule of what content will be published on the blog.
Managing multiple channels requires planning in advance to tie all content together.
Being organized helps capture every idea and make it happen, increasing creativity.
Trello is used as a content calendar planning tool based on Kanban system columns.
Each card represents a piece of content with checklists, labels, due dates, attachments, etc.
Social media posts are planned using templates and graphics designed in advance.
Weekly vlog tasks are set aside to plan upcoming newsletters, videos and photoshoots
Maintenance tasks include answering emails, updating media kits and checking statistics
How I Plan and Organize My Content for Social Media
The video is sponsored by Skillshare.
The creator will show how she plans and organizes content for social media across multiple platforms.
She uses a weekly batching system to categorize and organize tasks, allowing her to work more efficiently.
She has six core categories: planning and organizing, writing, graphic development, shooting, and editing.
She plans all her content ideas in a Google spreadsheet that she can pull from when needed.
She uses ClickUp to organize all of her social media content including YouTube videos, Instagram posts/reels, and TikTok.
She also uses Google Calendar to plan and schedule when her content will go live on each platform, as well as any other deadlines or coaching calls she may have.
For scheduling static Instagram posts, she plans to try Later, which is an official partner of Instagram, so it shouldn’t affect post reach negatively. For Reels/TikToks, it saves them in drafts until ready for manual publication (waiting for an in-app version).
Her goal is to upload/schedule YouTube videos by Saturday night so they can go live automatically on Tuesdays, but that doesn’t always happen.
She recommends checking out Skillshare’s online learning community with thousands of classes available for those looking to run an online business or create boss content for social media.
How Do I Start Planning Social Media Content?
Planning social media content is stressful for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and social media managers.
A content calendar is essential to plan social media posts and stay organized.
Anniston from Metro Pool shares tips on how to plan social media content in 2023.
A content plan guides which content to post on which channels and why it’s important.
Five steps to get the most out of your calendar: establish buyer personas/ideal clients, set goals, brainstorm content types, determine networks/frequency, and measure results.
Use a template that includes goals, platform, day/time captions, and actual content to stay organized.
Entering social media content into Excel can save time by scheduling all at once instead of manually posting each day.
Create an Excel spreadsheet with date/time/text/social platforms/content links/true or false (to shorten link text).
Download as CSV file and import into Metrical’s planning section where it will schedule based on date/time entered in Excel sheet
Use the Best Hours feature/planner/free 2023 social media calendar with holidays/dates to optimize posting times and never miss a good day.
How Do You Schedule Social Media Posts Effectively?
Planning social media content for a week can take as little as 60 minutes.
Creating a list of video concepts and outlining bullet points for each video can save time in the long run.
Including database things like stats or research shows authority and helps with followers, credibility, and Google rankings.
Tools like Canva, Adobe Spark, or PicMonkey can be used to create image content without hiring a designer or spending too much money.
Maintaining a database of ideas and pre-conceptualized topics allows easy access to content when needed.
List all the content types that you can commit to publishing that week, such as blog posts, live videos, podcasts promotions, etc.
Match the content type with the social media channels you’re willing to post on (Instagram is good for visual/image-based content).
Assign days and social platforms on which you will post each type of content (blog posts at least twice a week; video once a week).
Create rough outlines of what each post should talk about and look like before writing captions.
Schedule your content using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer, so you don’t have to log into social media every hour of the day.
How I Plan My Content for Instagram YouTube & TikTok
Consistency on social media is important for success.
Lack of workflow can be a reason for inconsistency.
The speaker has a team of freelancers who help with content creation.
Maple is a company that pairs business owners with vetted freelancers to help run their businesses more efficiently.
Asana is used to organize and plan content ideas across different platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and email newsletters.
Color coding helps the speaker stay organized in her planning process.
Instagram has a specific strategy in place and requires more tactical planning than other platforms like TikTok or Pinterest (which are managed by others).
Jess helps manage the speaker’s emails and turns her briefs into email newsletters for her audience once a week or more.
The video provides an in-depth look at the speaker’s social media workflow from idea generation to content creation and posting across various channels.
The video also promotes Maple as a solution for those looking to hire vetted freelancers to support their businesses’ growth and efficiency needs.
How to Make an Instagram Content Calendar
Consistency in posting on Instagram is essential for growth.
A content calendar helps bridge the gap between inconsistency and confidence in posting.
Content strategy involves determining the format and subject matter of posts that will connect with your ideal audience.
A sustainable Instagram strategy considers what you love to make, what performs well for your audience, and what you have time to make.
The content calendar is a practical application of the content strategy, turning it into a daily checklist for post creation.
Assigning ideas generated through niche and content pillar brainstorming to specific dates on the calendar helps with consistency in posting.
Planning a content calendar is helpful for staying consistent on Instagram and boosting confidence as an Instagram creator.
Coming up with fresh and unique ideas can be challenging, but there are methods like repurposing, researching, brainstorming, and applying viral trends to your niche that can help generate new ideas.
Confidence is also important for growth on Instagram as it allows creators to create more freely without fear or self-doubt holding them back.
The Instagram Roadmap course provides guidance on creating a sustainable strategy, planning a content calendar, consistently generating fresh ideas, and increasing confidence as an Instagram creator.
