What is an Editorial Calendar?

How do I know what to write about? How do I know when to post it? My answer is to put in place an Editorial Calendar.

Editorial Calendars are so beneficial when trying to manage content creation it helps with the planning, creating, and posting of your blog content. They come in all shapes and sizes from electronic versions to good old paper ones it is really all about one thing. Getting yourself organized. Using an editorial calendar for your content doesn’t have to be difficult. Getting this one tool for your blog or business in place will help you stay consistent in posting and plan relevant content.

Create Your Editorial Calendar

The basics of putting together your editorial calendar no matter if you use digital or paper to get it organized is the same

• First, gather up all your content ideas in one place
• Determine how many times a week you will be posting and to what platforms
• Fill in your topics on your based on how many times you will post in a given week
• Use this your calendar to write your posts ahead of time and give you an idea about what topics are coming up

How I use my editorial calendar

My current editorial calendar consists one topic a week for the following content

• One Blog Post
• One Newsletter
• 2 Instagram Posts a day
• 1 Facebook group post a day
• 3 Facebook Page posts a day

I use my calendar to plan my content by sitting down and looking at what topic I’ve got planned for the following week. This way I’m never unsure of what I’m posting about at the last minute and I can focus on providing quality and value in my posts.

Editorial Calendar Options

I’m a big fan of the WP Content Calendar plugin, if you have a WordPress. It is free and allows me to see in calendar view a month at a time. I can then drag and drop post drafts from a list onto the day I want it to post. I find this way easier than trying to look at a list view to make sure I’ve not missed something.

If you are a paper and pencil sort of gal then get a dedicated 12-month calendar and write out your plan. I would suggest pencil or writing on post-it notes and sticking them to the different days. This way you can move things around depending on what is going on or if you end up taking more time on one post than another.

Take it to the next level by planning your posts around the time of year and or holidays that are coming up. Using an editorial calendar will help you plan out what you are going to do in plenty of time to get it done. No more realizing Christmas is 3 days away and you have yet to make your Christmas Gift List printable.

I create a running list of blog topics in Evernote so I always have the ideas at hand. This comes in handy when I get a good content idea out and about. Or when I sit down to fill out my editorial calendar for the next quarter.