The Social Media Content Calendar Template Every Small Business Owner Needs

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar is a tool used to manage every piece of content that your business publishes online. It ensures your content is strategic and consistent and prevents you from forgetting to post. It's basically your social media lifeline and helps you post strategic content that's aligned with your business and goals.

There are two ways you can find a content calendar that you like. First, you can create your own. You can use a platform like Google Sheets, Excel, Canva, or even pen and paper—just know that each of these have their limitations. Or, you can purchase a content calendar template. I created a ClickUp content calendar template that I use myself and with all of my clients, and you can shop it here!

Content Platform

The platform field helps you know where the content will be posted. This is also helpful for repurposing content across a variety of platforms.

Examples of the platform could include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, Email, Podcast, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. Content is not just what you post on social media, although most of your platforms likely will be a social media platform. In my business, my main platforms are Instagram, Blog, and Email.

Stage

The content stage represents where each piece of content is at in the creation process. The stages I use on my content calendar template range from "Planning" to "Published/Scheduled". These stages could depend on what the piece of content is—for example, a podcast episode may have stages such as "Recording", "Promoting", etc.

Think about the different stages you use in your content. For my content calendar, I kept my stages broad enough so they work for most platforms, but specific enough so my clients and I know exactly what needs to be done.

Caption

Did you know your content calendar can store your captions? When I'm batching content, I work directly off of my content calendar and batch write captions within each individual task. Even after a piece of content is published, I can refer back on my content calendar to see old captions to repurpose in future posts.

Photo or Video File

This field also depends on where you create your content calendar, but in ClickUp you can store your photo or video files. This includes things like pictures, graphics, carousel posts, reels, etc. This field is really helpful for myself when I'm batching content in advance, and it also makes collaboration and reviewing with clients seamless.

Content Type

The content type could be text only, photo, video/reel, graphic, carousel, etc. For emails and blogs, I typically set them as text only. For Instagram, this field helps me see that I'm sharing a variety content, from reels to carousel posts to photos of myself.

Place for Communication and Collaboration

If you work with clients as a social media manager or virtual assistant or if you have a team, it's going to be super useful for you to have a place for collaboration within your content calendar. In my ClickUp content calendar template, you can comment and tag clients/team members within every piece of content.

Is a piece of content ready for review? Do you need help wording your hook or call-to-action? Want to brainstorm ideas? This is where having a place for communication on your content calendar comes in handy.

ClickUp Content Calendar Template

Are you excited to work from a content calendar but don't feel like creating your own? Click here to get your ClickUp content calendar template! This template is exactly what I use within my marketing business and with all my clients, and it makes for a seamless content creation process that everyone loves.

This ClickUp content calendar template includes all of the features above and more. It's beautiful, totally customizable, and easy-to-use, even if you've never used ClickUp before. You'll also receive a setup and tutorial walkthrough video so you feel confident in getting started. Click here to download the ClickUp content calendar template I use and love to get started today!