Welcome back to the blog! I love creating blogger tips for those who want to become content creators. Just as a media kit is a serious needed for this line of work, you also need a content calendar and a monthly content creation strategy!! Today, I’m not only sharing my breakdown, but I also have a great freebie for you! I’m breaking down my entire process for the month, so you can recreate it and ensure you have consistent content!
So before I begin, I want to say, I plan 1-2 months out. There are many resources out there to help you plan, such as Coschedule and Planoly. I leave a few spaces for last-minute content, but at the end of the day, this planning allows me to have a bit of lead time in case I procrastinate or if life happens! So let’s get into the breakdown!
The Breakdown of My Blog Content Creation Routine:
First 5 Days of the month:
During these first 5 days, I outline all of my posts for the month. Normally, I don’t exceed 9-10 posts per month. When I write these outlines, they are incredibly detailed, making drafting easy.
Day 10-17: I give myself a few days after outlining in order to prevent burnout. Then, I take my outlines and write them into a full blog post. I normally try to tackle 2-3 blog posts on writing days. So, if I have 10 posts on the docket, this will only take about 10 days to complete.
Day 22-25: These days, I read through all my posts multiple times, adding images, categories, tags, and choosing my SEO keywords. I use a program called Keysearch to do this, but there are many SEO researchers to choose from. Once I read through it and go through my grammar with a fine-tooth comb, then I just schedule them for the days and time I need to!
The Breakdown of My Social Media Monthly Content Creation Strategy:
Day 6: I write the Instagram captions and plan for the first half of the month. I separate everything by pillars and look at days of the month for ideas. I also describe the photo via Alt Text for all of these images.
Day 8: I take the second half of the month and repeat the same process. When I write these, I don’t do hashtags. JUST the captions. I also break down what type of content this is. So I mark Reels, Static Posts, IGTV/Lives, Carousels, and more. When I finish captions, I color code them yellow, so I know that they don’t have images or just aren’t scheduled yet into Planoly.
Day 10: Now, I do my hashtags. Hashtag research takes forever, unless I’ve finally found a great set of hashtags that work well! I split up the first half of my posts just as I do with captions, tackling the first 15 on this day.
Day 12: On day 12, I finish the rest of my hashtags and complete the other 15 posts, including Reels, and Lives.
Day 15-18: For these three days, I shoot, edit, caption, and redo all of my TikTok/Reels/short form video content. You might be thinking….why does it take 3 days? Short form video content is INTENSE. Instagram doesn’t have a captioning option yet for Reels, but Tik Tok does. So for each Reel, I have to go in and manually add captions to everything. It takes a long time, but I want to be sure my content is accessible for everyone. Also, I don’t want to wear makeup everyday, so I choose these three so I can rehab my skin for the rest of the month.
Day 18: On day 18 or whatever weekend day is closest, I do all of my shoots! Whether I’m doing it solo or hiring Hannah, I batch like 5-6 looks in one shoot day. I often come with a shot list, derived from my content ideas, so I know what to do with each outfit. Making it super easy to take these and move on to the next.
Day 20: On day 20, I schedule EVERYTHING. I block out like two hours or so in my calendar and I move all of my captions, edit the captions if something doesn’t sit right, and then I schedule them with image, caption, hashtags, and time. Once I do this, I’m ready to rock and roll and just monitor things. The only thing I can’t schedule are TikToks and Reels, so I set reminders in my phone to just post it from my drafts.
Days 25-30: Then Break!
I hope that this guide was helpful for you! As promised, I have another freebie for you! I know making a content calendar is hard, but not only am I selling the exact one I use in my store, but I’m offering a free version. All you have to do is sign up below and you will receive yours! It’s really thorough and perfect for new creators! I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think in the comments!