Editorial Calendar Template​: Schedule Your IG Growth 

Making content for everyone to enjoy is not an easy job. Sometimes, it involves many moving parts and variables. An editorial calendar template could help you streamline this content. It’s not your usual calendar. It works with you to make you a better Instagram influencer.

Read this blog post for more information on this content planning tool.

What Is an Editorial Calendar?

An editorial calendar is a calendar that facilitates detailed planning for projects, businesses, and teams. It functions as a collaborative tool to streamline the goals of a team with many moving parts. 

It’s more than just a regular Instagram content calendar. It sets out assignments of roles and deadlines to complete tasks. Businesses with many departments and functions can benefit from an editorial calendar.

When done right, it is a great tool to communicate and plan. Team members can access this calendar and clearly understand their job description. They will see what department depends on their input. The overview that editorial calendars give can prevent lags in completing tasks.

A content calendar tool should do more than just show what tasks are at hand. It should make leading teams and spearheading projects easier. The attractive features add to the appeal of getting a social media editorial calendar template.

The Benefits of Using an Editorial Calendar

You might have a content calendar that you enjoy. It completes the basic tasks that you need, and you supplement it where necessary. What if we told you that a basic social media content calendar is insufficient? 

As you grow your online platform, the content requirements grow as well. Let’s talk about the benefits of using editorial calendar templates.

1. Improved Consistency

Nothing is worse than going months or weeks without social media posting. You cannot afford to allow people to forget you exist. Things move fast on Instagram, and someone can quickly replace you. However, it’s easy to post when you don’t have a plan.

An editorial calendar will clearly state how often you post on social media. The overview you get will help with better content management. A good program will make it obvious who needs to pull their weight and be more consistent.

2. Better Time Management

These programs are great for setting deadlines. They show which team member has to complete a task by a particular day. The good ones allow for full transparency. That way, everyone will know who should currently work on a piece of content.

Knowing that others depend on them could motivate team members to perform promptly. 

3. Enhanced Collaboration Among Team Members

Collaboration is a huge part of Instagram. To reach new people, you need to collaborate with other creators. Using a great editorial calendar can make the process more formal. It allows each party to take the project more seriously and perform optimally.

You don’t have to collaborate with just team members. You can find other content creators and add them to your calendar. They will see their deadlines and assigned tasks. You can share documents to facilitate Instagram collaborations in real time.

Features To Include in Your Editorial Calendar

This is not your regular content calendar. An editorial calendar should act like a team member in itself. For it to be effective, there are some key features you need to have. As you search the Internet for your ideal editorial calendar, consider these suggestions for features. 

1. Social Media Platforms

You might be a professional social media manager. Your content team may manage content for multiple platforms. Your editorial calendar should clearly show which platform your task belongs to. 

Color coding will come in handy here. The content you planned for Instagram might differ from what you have for TikTok. You might target different demographics on each platform. Accordingly, the posts or videos may be different. 

You may post at different times of day on each platform. Keep track of these differences with a good calendar.

2. Important Dates

Deadlines are a big part of every operation. Your calendar needs to show these dates clearly. Set specific dates for publishing content and ensure your calendar makes these dates clear to you. 

You should also remember important holidays. You will likely plan your content strategy around major holidays. Calendar holidays tend to dictate trending hashtags and popular audio clips. 

Seeing these dates in the future will help to organize content ideas. You could also include playful holidays dedicated to random things like donuts, girlfriends, and left-handed people.

Having the freedom to customize your social media content calendar is key. Your brand is unique; some holidays are more relevant to you than others.

You could also collaborate with your Instagram Insights tool. This special feature will tell you the best time to post on social media on a particular day. Use your calendar to save the best time of day to make social media posts. These times could guide you when you set team deadlines. 

You can create the piece of content well in advance. Then, use the Instagram scheduling tool to upload the content at a particular time.

3. Responsible Team Members 

Accountability is huge in the running of the team. It’s important to know who is responsible for each task. Good editorial calendars clearly display who has the assigned task.

Being able to assign each team member a color is also helpful. Your ideal editorial calendar will show who has what task at each stage of content production. This way, you know where there are delays in executing a project.

With this information set out clearly, you can refine your content schedule where necessary.  

A Good Example of a Calendar Template​

You should find a sample editorial calendar template online fairly easily. Instead of scouring the Internet, we can make a recommendation. Convince & Convert has a free downloadable template. It’s available in both Excel and PDF versions. You simply have to give them your name, email, and company name.

Only you know the specific needs of your online brand. Use our pointers as a guide to customize your template. Play around with different colors and fonts if you need to. Don’t forget any upcoming holidays or important events.

The Beauty of Editorial Calendar Template Google Sheets 

You may have noticed that we greatly emphasized collaboration. Being able to function as a team is important in content creation. Google Sheets could be effective in helping you accomplish that. 

The wonderful thing about using Google Documents is live editing. Multiple people can edit the documents as long as they have permission to do so. Transfer that level of accessibility to your calendar Google sheet. Creative Fabrica has options for you to explore.

Your Organized Content Deserves More Followers! 

You are doing a lot of work to streamline your content. You run your team like a well-oiled machine. You even control everything from the creation to the publishing of content. 

However, if you are using an editorial calendar template to organize your content, you may find that you still need to attract more followers. If you think you have the potential for more growth, it’s time to employ a professional growth expert. 

At Plixi, we use a powerful AI targeting algorithm to link our clients to their target audience. We can do the same for you. Your editorial calendar template can help you with the organization. Let us help you with growth. Sign up with Plixi today!

Frequently Asked Questions About Editorial Calendar Templates

Stepping into a more formal calendar might be intimidating. You reasonably have questions about how to use it properly. Check out our answers to some popular Internet questions. They can help you make a better decision about using editorial calendars.