KATE SHEWAGA: I'll be honest.
Social media content planning can be
a real time suck if you do not have
systems in place to help keep you organized.
Let me show you how I use
Microsoft Excel to plan all my content,
and no, you don't need to buy a fancy template.
You can either make your own from scratch or use one
of the free templates from the Microsoft Create site.
First you'll want to make an idea list.
I'll use this to write down all
my ideas I can think of and I'll
revert back to it often when I
go to plan my content calendar.
I love using the drop down tool to easily categorize.
Excel has made it really easy to
create a drop down list like this.
All you need to do is click on the cell,
Go to Data, Data Validation,
search for List under Allow,
and under Source, put the categories
you'd like to use in your drop down.
Hit "Apply" and then you'll
see using this little down arrow,
you can easily choose within that list you just created.
Now let me show you what a personal
monthly content calendar could look like.
This is my content calendar for November,
it shows what will be posted and I've even
added in a caption so it's ready to go.
When you get really organized with content like this,
it makes posting a breeze. Planning
your content will ensure you save time,
stay consistent and will likely lead you
to get more brand deals and collaborations.
Open up Excel and get that content planned out.