Steps to Building Your Content Calendar

If you’re ready to dive in and create a calendar, we’ve got great news for you: most of your content likely already exists.

Think through the catalog of resources you use for your job every day. You might have a calendar of important dates and events, conversation starters you use in presentations, social media accounts that are already active, email responses that you frequently rely on, webpages full of interesting and helpful information, and so much more.

The trick to building a good content calendar isn’t to create new content, it’s to rethink existing resources in a way that helps your audience pursue your goals.

Here’s how many successful Wisr partners build their calendars:

1. Audience and Goals. Whenever you start thinking about content creation, always start by asking yourself who you are trying to reach and what action you want them to take. We suggest starting with the specific Wisr Community you are planning to post in.

Is the community for parents, students, or alumni?
Are you hoping students interact with the posts, learn from them, or take specific actions like registering for an event?

Action: Write down your answers and review them often while you’re building your calendar.

2. Timeline. Consistency is key, but cadence depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Maybe your community is focused on teaching members about campus like, and a lot of student-focused content is needed. Or, maybe your community is focused on student interaction and your content will only serve to break the ice or prompt new conversations. The timeline of posts for each of those communities will look very different throughout a semester. One might require posts twice a week, while the other only requires posts every other week.

Action: Pre-populate the days you will need posts in your document so you can see the total amount of content needed and when you’ll need it.

3. Milestones and Deadlines. Your content should support real-world actions.

Are there important deadlines each year?
Do members need to be taking actions to stay on track related to the community audience and goals you wrote down earlier?

Action: Add milestone information into empty post slots to reserve those dates for reminders, contextual posts, or updates. Don’t worry, you can add specific content later!

4. Events. Make sure your members are always up to date on important events and opportunities.

Do you have big events coming up that you’d like to promote or provide recaps for related to you communities? For example, maybe you have a housing webinar planned a few months in advance and you also have a housing-related community in your Wisr network.

Action: Add events and additional timely posts to ensure your members are always up to date on important events.

5. Existing Content. Now that you have important dates crossed off, it’s time to get to the fun part. Think about existing social media posts, videos, webpages, facts, conversation starters, and information that you might already have on hand.

Action: Once you have a list ready, add them to the calendar where they might make the most sense from the audience’s point of view. For example, if you have a great video about the fan experience at a basketball game make sure to compare it to the season’s schedule and place it accordingly.

6. Original Content. Take a look at the remaining open spots in your calendar and get a feel for what kind of space you have left.

Action: Explore different types of content categories to encourage interaction and start building out content ideas to fill the slots. This task might feel the hardest, and that’s OK. You don’t have to figure it all out today; instead, start thinking about how to boost “authentic” posts like a photo from a classroom, a day-in-the-life story from a student or alum, an emoji poll asking for feedback on future content, or anything else. Even jotting down a broad concept can help a lot when it comes time to build out the content, giving your full attention to creativity rather than ideation.

7. Polish and Write. With a calendar full of ideas, it’s time to start writing! You may not be able to fully compose every post, and that’s not a bad thing. As you move through the calendar, you’ll find that you may want to make edits or add additional context that you didn’t think of before.

Action: Our suggestion is to get as much of the “easy” posts written as possible, so you will have more time to concentrate on other content in the future.

8. Stay Flexible! Don’t think of your content calendar as a prescription. Instead, see it as a cheat sheet for your future, making each post easier and quicker and giving you space to strategically place your energy. If your plans change or you find different content to post, go for it! There’s nothing stopping you from adjusting your content calendar as you move through the year.