Success on social media begins with a strong plan. Fairly than posting when inspiration strikes, it’s vital to zoom out to align content material together with your particular campaigns and general social media technique. Good social media planners will help you construct model consciousness, drive engagement, and keep a constant posting schedule.
monday.com: A visible social media planner for content material groups
monday.com is a standout selection for small, medium, or massive content material groups that depend on visible cues and shade coding to get work completed. The software program expertly combines undertaking administration rules with social media advertising and marketing in an intuitive and user-friendly means.
Plus, it’s free for as much as two customers so you’ll be able to attempt it out for some time with a small group earlier than deciding if it’s best for you.
It has the whole lot it is advisable plan new content material, keep organized, and observe the standing of your upcoming posts.
Extra on monday.com: monday.com Assessment | monday.com vs Wrike | monday.com vs Airtable.
monday.com is especially helpful for centralizing social content material. You may add your whole digital belongings, plan your content material calendar, and assign work to the suitable staff members in a single place.
When recordsdata get too massive to add immediately, you’ll be able to simply hyperlink them with Google Drive, Field, or Dropbox integrations as a substitute.
The template additionally connects with Fb Advertisements, letting you observe efficiency and tie it again to your assignments, high-level targets, and initiatives with out leaving the platform.
For groups that want flexibility, monday.com affords the whole lot you want, from calendar views and timelines to staff workload, Kanban boards, kinds, and extra.
ClickUp: Versatile social media administration for groups of all sizes
ClickUp affords complete undertaking administration and staff collaboration options, beginning with top-of-the-line free plans I’ve seen in the marketplace.
There are over 1,000+ templates within the ClickUp library, however the two beneath stand out for social media planning. One is simple, the opposite is for extra strategic planning and superior scheduling.
Extra on ClickUp: ClickUp Assessment | ClickUp vs Asana | ClickUp vs Notion.
Template 1: Easy cross-channel social media planning
Managing content material throughout a number of platforms might be tough. This templates you sort out frequent questions, like timing your posts and adapting content material for various channels.
Its color-coded calendar shows key data at a look, together with publish dates, channels, content material sorts, and themes.
A notable benefit to utilizing this template is inbuilt knowledge tacking. As an alternative of leaping between platforms to test analytics, you’ll be able to analyze submit efficiency proper inside the platform.
This makes it simple to determine profitable content material, sorts, and themes so you’ll be able to double down on what’s working.
The template additionally contains house to plan hashtags, set up content material concepts, and arrange an approval workflow to manage high quality earlier than posts go dwell.
Template 2: A complicated various for planning, strategizing, and scheduling
The earlier template was on the easier aspect. This one takes issues a bit additional. On high of fundamental planning and scheduling, you additionally get 19 customized standing choices for detailed workflow administration.
Total, it’s splendid for groups that deal with a whole lot of quantity and wish to take care of strategic overview whereas adhering to formal processes and high quality checks.
Except for statuses, it affords 5 customizable views plus distinctive options, like embedded X feeds and built-in SOP documentation you’ll be able to alter for every channel.
As your campaigns and methods change, it’s additionally simple to regulate plans on the fly, change up your schedule, add new duties, delete duties, tag related staff members, and have conversations about these updates with out leaving ClickUp.
Your total staff can keep looped in with customized alerts for job assignments and real-time notifications as content material strikes by means of your workflow.
Wrike: A social media planner for giant groups
Wrike shines as a extra sturdy, inflexible, and complete answer for giant groups. Whereas its free tier has fewer options than its rivals, premium plans supply enterprise-grade capabilities whereas sustaining ease of use for all kinds of customers.
Should you’re publishing lots of of posts each month throughout totally different channels, Wrike will help carry order and precision to the complexity.
Extra on Wrike: Wrike Assessment | Wrike vs Smartsheet | Wrike vs. Asana.
Wrike’s social media planner offers clear deadline monitoring and planning options, however its actual energy lies in streamlining the content material pipeline from idea to publication.
You may simply arrange dynamic request kinds that permit non-marketing staff to submit content material concepts or content material requests, together with the entire important particulars. Kind submissions can embrace the whole lot from target market, submit kind, required belongings, lead targets, ROI initiatives, deadlines, and extra.
These submissions robotically populate your backlog for scheduling, prioritizing, and assigning to the appropriate ream.
On high of that, Wrike permits you to consolidate and set up an important social media metrics in a single place, letting you monitor efficiency at scale with out disrupting established workflows.
Teamwork: Streamlined social media planner for companies
Teamwork is an all-around strong undertaking administration instrument, nevertheless it’s finest for companies or freelancers who often work with purchasers.
It’s free for as much as 5 customers however its paid plans are packed full of specialised options for shopper collaboration and managing dozens of initiatives on the identical time. Plus, each plan contains limitless shopper customers so that you by no means must pay for touchdown extra offers.
Extra on Teamwork: Teamwork Assessment | Teamwork vs monday.com.
This template and the platform itself excel at creating clear workflows between you and your purchasers.
Groups might be devoted to shopper workspaces, purchasers can solely see what you permit them to, there are administration approval roles, and everybody can simply observe progress whereas sustaining open (and arranged) communication.
Each shopper has their very own account and permissions so you’ll be able to hold social media content material organized with out unintentionally looping in somebody who shouldn’t be there.
You’ll be capable to arrange particular person content material backlogs, calendars, plans, and initiatives for every shopper. It’s also possible to handle suggestions and revisions in the identical place.
Most plans embrace time monitoring and the choice of setting billable hours, measuring precise vs deliberate budgets, and even deal with invoices immediately inside the platform. Greater tiers offer you retainer administration, useful resource scheduling, superior reporting, and dashboards.
They’ve significantly considered the whole lot.
TeamGantt: Strategic, timeline-based social planning
Because the title implies, TeamGantt makes a speciality of Gantt charts. Whereas this is probably not the very first thing you consider utilizing for social media planning, it’s helpful if you wish to plan out long-term content material campaigns that align with higher-level timelines.
There’s a free plan for particular person customers, protecting as much as one undertaking and 60 duties, — it’s enough for preliminary technique planning earlier than rolling out to your staff.
Extra on TeamGantt: TeamGantt Assessment.
This planner locations an emphasis on strategic planning past fundamental submit scheduling. You may allocate time to analysis the market, outline your targets, and finally outline a method that aligns with what you’ve uncovered.
You’ll additionally be capable to set distinctive targets for every platform permitting you to distinguish between LinkedIn’s position in driving weblog site visitors versus Instagram’s give attention to model consciousness.
The visible timeline format makes it simple to attach social content material to broader advertising and marketing initiatives, too.
Utilizing color-coded Gantt charts, groups from throughout your online business can simply visualize how your social technique matches in with the work they’re doing.
That is notably true for occasions like product launches or seasonal promotions.
Whereas TeamGantt affords fewer undertaking views and customization alternatives than different instruments, its timeline targeted method serves groups that prioritize strategic alignment.
Notion: Social media planners to maximise productiveness
Should you wish to tinker and customise templates as a lot as attainable, Notion must be in your radar. It’s extra of a doc creator and light-weight database answer for brainstorming concepts, creating SOPs, and making a centralized workspace in your staff.
Notion’s free plan is nice for particular person customers however is extra of a free trial if you wish to use it together with your staff.
The 2 social media planners beneath work properly collectively. However should you needed to choose only one, the primary has all it is advisable get began.
Extra on Notion: Notion Assessment | Notion vs Asana | Notion vs Confluence.
Template 1: Simplified content material administration
Notion has 1000’s of templates to select from, a lot of which can work simply nice for managing social media content material. I like this one particularly due to its simplicity — it permits you to plan, handle, and monitor the whole lot from one display screen.
Posts can be sorted by class, platform, or standing, making it simple to view your pipeline in several methods.
Though you’ll be able to handle your content material pipeline in a single view, there’s a separate board with customized fields for managing digital belongings.
You and your staff will be capable to monitor the standing of customized picture creation for every bit of content material, serving to you guarantee all visible necessities are met earlier than a submit is because of go dwell.
This template additionally contains devoted areas for model belongings, channel pointers, and staff assets.
As a result of Notion’s so customizable, you’ll be able to simply add on and construct out further modules that join to one another should you’d like. The probabilities are infinite.
Template 2: AI-powered brainstorming and content material technology
Should you need assistance developing with new concepts, enhancing, or writing content material, this template leverages AI to assist with all three. You may simply pull it into your present workspace (or the template above should you resolve to make use of it).
It could possibly additionally learn the entire content material inside your workspace, together with SOPs, historic content material, upcoming content material, feedback, and extra.
As a result of it may perceive the whole lot you’ve already written, it has a leg up on different AI platforms. You don’t have to go away Notion to make use of it and it has much more context to present you extra related recommendations, ideas, and duplicate.
It could possibly even allow you to determine content material gaps, do fundamental analysis, get to know your target market, and extra.
Even should you construct a completely customized Notion setup to handle social media content material, you need to use this template on high of it. It’s extremely versatile irrespective of how you utilize the platform.
Whereas this template by itself isn’t sufficient that can assist you get began, the 2 mixed will help you create a streamlined workflow from ideation to execution.
Social media planners for Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Phrase, PDF, Google Docs, and PowerPoint
Venture administration platforms and comparable software program can get costly and will even be overkill. Should you’re working by your self or publishing fewer than 10 to fifteen posts a month, you’ll be able to most likely get by with one thing extra guide.
Easy spreadsheets and paperwork might be simply as efficient for managing social media content material.
Plus, you gained’t be tempted by all the additional options to convolute your workflow.
Template 1: A easy weekly social planning template
The perfect factor about this template (other than its simplicity) is the variety of methods you’ll be able to obtain it. It’s out there without cost as an Excel, Phrase, PDF, PowerPoint, Google Docs, and Google Sheets template.
You may obtain a clean model or one with pattern knowledge so you’ll be able to see it in motion earlier than changing the whole lot with your individual data.
Total, it affords a simple method to weekly content material planning.
It makes use of a row-based system for every social channel, permitting you to plan content material of various sorts for every day of the week.
Relying on what model you obtain, you’ll be able to alter it to match the channels you submit on, embrace precise dates as a substitute of days of the week, make duplicate copies, and even change the colours should you’d like.
Template 2: Audit your social media profiles
This spreadsheet-based template provides you a simple solution to consider social media efficiency earlier than planning new content material.
Designed for quarterly or semi-annual audits, it offers a side-by-side comparability of an important metrics throughout totally different channels. Whether or not your channel is model new or established, it’s a good way to know what’s happening.
With it, you’ll be capable to determine profitable methods and underperforming channels to tell future content material selections.
The draw back is it’s important to add your whole knowledge manually except you already know your means round scripting. Though it possible gained’t take very lengthy to do your self, you run the danger of human error throughout knowledge entry.
That mentioned, this template may be very easy and efficient so long as you bear in mind to make use of it.
Should you don’t thoughts paying for Smartsheet, you may as well use this template alongside its wide selection of automation, collaboration, and app constructing capabilities.
How to decide on the very best social media planner
There’s no common “best” social media planner for everybody. Understanding your particular wants will information you in the appropriate path.
Maybe an important distinction is whether or not or not you intend to collaborate with a staff. Should you’re working by your self, you’re free to decide on no matter you’d like however I strongly suggest one thing so simple as attainable. Google Sheets or one other free Microsoft Excel various is commonly greater than sufficient.
In case you are working with a staff, it’s best to take into account what they’re snug with, the way you’ll assign work, how they’ll view their work, and the way you’ll guarantee everybody’s on the identical web page.
The finest undertaking administration options include much more collaborative capabilities. That mentioned, Google Sheets and Excel have come a good distance when it comes to including a few of these options as properly. That mentioned, a devoted platform will most likely supply a greater general consumer expertise.
Except for that, you must also take into consideration:
- Planning vs. planning and execution.
- How far upfront you wish to plan.
- Publishing quantity.
- Visualization preferences.
- Analytics and efficiency monitoring.
- Integration necessities.
- Cellular entry.
- Asset administration.
- Storage wants.
The best answer that checks all of the bins is probably going the most suitable choice. This may hold you from including on extra bells and whistles than you want or losing time navigating a bunch of options you’re by no means going to make use of.
Suggestions and finest practices for utilizing a social media planner
Planning social media content material can really feel intimidating with out the appropriate instruments, processes, and methods in place. That is very true should you’ve by no means completed it or must be taught the instrument as you’re planning.
The perfect place to start out is with clear aims you’ll be able to break into smaller deliverables. This ensures the whole lot aligns together with your targets so that you’re not posting for the sake of posting.
From there, you’ll be able to create undertaking milestones and begin to map out campaigns together with particular person items of content material on totally different channels.
Listed below are some further finest practices to bear in mind:
- Guarantee each piece of content material aligns to a excessive degree purpose.
- Contemplate creating themes to remain organized and on matter.
- Embody a mixture of totally different content material sorts, like movies, pictures, and carousels.
- Doc the whole lot, together with processes and model data.
- Keep away from planning too far upfront — issues change.
- Hold a backlog of concepts you need to use to fill in gaps.
- Don’t skip over common audits and critiques.
Nonetheless, the very best recommendation I may give is to choose a platform and keep it up for some time. After a number of months, you’ll have a greater thought of what works and what you’re lacking.
Then (and solely then) you’ll be able to take into account switching to one thing that higher matches your wants.
