What is a content calendar and what does it do?

One of the things that plays an important role in the success of content production is the content calendar. Perhaps this phrase over and over again in terms of content heard but still do not have a precise definition of it in your mind. In this article, we want to tell you what a content calendar is and what it does, and say something about the importance of a content calendar. be with us…

What is a Content Calendar?

When we talk about the Content Calendar, we are referring to a calendar that includes the following: time of publication including day, date and time, type of content, subject or name of the content, name of the author and editor, keywords, category related to Any content and all points regarding the publication of content must be observed.

With these explanations, the content calendar can be considered as a daily program for publishing content, which is set based on the goals and strategy of the content, SEO and marketing team.

How important is a content calendar?

To understand the importance of a content calendar, we need to say that a content calendar:

• It is a very effective tool for organizing content strategy, marketing and SEO.
• Ability to evaluate content details at a glance.
• Content plays a crucial role in the success of the content because codified planning plays a key role in winning.
• It facilitates the implementation of programs and saves time and energy.
• Keeps track of important and key dates and schedule content for them.
• Coordinates content production team members and organizes the work of marketing and SEO teams.
• It facilitates the management of the content production team and allows them to monitor their work and output.
• Prevents the production and publication of duplicate topics or increasing the weight of content in one of the categories and prevents duplicate (copying) of topics in Google.
• Makes the implementation of ideas possible and avoids confusion for their implementation.
• Accelerates the rise of links on search pages.
• Gives you a clear picture of content production for a specific period of time.
• Minimizes content update issues.

And these are just some of the reasons why we say that the content calendar is very important for success in content production.

Features a good content calendar

It can be said that a good content calendar is:

• Meet the needs of advertising campaigns.
• Be unambiguous and expressive.
• Adjusted according to the capabilities of the content production team.
• Align with the SEO and marketing team policies.
• Cover calendar occasions.
• Its purpose is clear.
• Be flexible and changeable.
• To set it up, ideation has been done.

Steps to building a content calendar

Creating a content calendar may seem like a simple task, but it is not. In order to set up an efficient content calendar, you have to go step by step and do each step carefully. These steps include:

Content Strategy Review:  You should refer to the content strategy regularly and be aware of the latest changes. Keywords, audience personality, categories, and. Are all part of the content strategy and are important for setting the content calendar.

Goal setting:  You need to define what your goal is in producing content and what you want to achieve by expecting content on your site or social media. Which categories do you emphasize on the site and which shortcomings do you want to cover in the site content? Do you just want to start producing content for the site or do you want to upgrade your previous content? . These are the goals that determine how to set up a content calendar.

Knowing the audience:  Whether you are at the beginning of the content production process or in the middle of it, you need to check and get to know the audience regularly. Your audience may change for any reason, or the tastes of your former audience may change. You need to consider the audience and their needs to set each calendar period.

Examine the types of content:  Identify the types of content that you can use and use and include them in the program. For example, have a combination of text, video and photo or select animation and text as types of content. However, you need to know what kind of content you want to have on your site or social media pages.

Examining the Capacity of the Content Production Team:  Writers, graphic designers, editors, editors, and. Each have specific abilities. Be especially careful with writers and graphic artists. Every writer writes some kind of text better or is more proficient in certain subjects, and the same is true for graphic artists and their work. To determine who produces what content, be sure to consider the team’s capabilities.

Specify topics and categories: Specify the  topics to be worked on and write the category name next to them. Leave each topic to the author or graphic designer and include his or her name on the calendar.

Content Update Schedule: Set a  time for content updates, and specify an update timeline in the calendar. For example, if the update is once every 6 months, write it next to the subject or specify the update time in the calendar based on the time of publication.

Determining the content publication schedule:  Write the date and time of publication next to the topics and be sure to specify that the delivery time is a few days before the content is expected.

Now you have a content calendar that works for you.

Content Calendar Tools

There are various tools for setting up a content calendar that are not too difficult to work with and you may have used them many times. Simple tools for doing this include Excel, Word, and Google Sheets. You can create a panel to do this, or use other tools like CoSchedule, Agorapulse, and project management tools like Monday or Trello.

Microsoft Excel

The first way to build a content calendar is to use Excel. Excel seems to be a great option, especially for freelancers or people who want to create a calendar for their personal site and social networks. At the very least, it allows you to create a simple and efficient timeline for your content without the need for much time and knowledge.

Google Sheets

If you want to have a content calendar like Excel spreadsheets that you can always access anywhere and also share it with other members of your team; Use this tool.

google sheets is online. You can always see the latest version of your changes. You can install the app on your mobile and make changes to your content app. You can set different access levels for other members of your team to edit, or not just view the contents of the calendar.

Another tool that does the same thing for you   is Microsoft Live Excel . But I always prefer Google products to competitors. Because they are more in sync with each other, and can be connected to other tools that we will learn later.

Google sheets site ,  download for Android  and  iOS

Google Calendar

All we want to do is create a calendar and enter our mailing list on it, right? So one of the most common ways is to use calendar apps like Google Calendar. This way we no longer need to spend a lot of time designing the calendar, we go straight to the point.

To build a content calendar, Google Calendar launches almost anything we need. You can add a reminder. Link your content calendar to other Google tools like Google Taks and Gmail. Also, share an event (like writing a blog post) with others to keep them informed.

Web version of google calendar  and  download for Android and iOS

Editorial Calendar Plugin for WordPress

This option is the best choice for WordPress users. A simple and clean calendar right at your site counter that is always on hand to plan faster.

The most important advantage of using this plugin is its integration with the blog. When you open Editorial Calendar, you will see all your blog posts on the calendar, and you can make any changes you need to them right away; For example, drag-and-drop their release date, change the display status of the post, make changes to the text, or set up a new post for a few more weeks.

Download the editorial calendar plugin

StoryChief

StoryChief will help you if you are looking for a comprehensive content calendar. First of all, this tool gives you a timeline on which you can enter post scheduling. Also manage your team members and define different tasks for them.

But the possibilities of StoryChief do not end there. More than just a content calendar, StoryChief is actually a very powerful tool for content marketers. This tool is used from planning to distributing and measuring the content of blogs and social networks.

Once you’ve created your content calendar, you can connect your blogs and social networks to StoryChief so that your posts will be automatically published on all channels at the specified time and day. Channels such as blogs (WordPress, Joomla and Drupal), social networks Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Of course, StoryChief is not the only tool available for content planning and distribution. Other apps like buffer, agorapulse and hootsuite offer similar features. The only difference is that StoryChief only offers unlimited (in terms of time) free service to its users.

Web version of StoryChief

Terllo

Most of the companies I worked with used this tool as their blog content and social media calendars.

I think one of the reasons Terlo is so popular is its intuitive and simple visual interface. Terllo provides a whiteboard-like dashboard for each project you define. You can create different columns on it and paste your programs like labels and cards.

When you created the cards, as we talked about a few minutes ago; Identify the person or persons on whom the Task is to be worked on and set a deadline. You can also add a to-do list for each checklist, and attach the required files to make it available to your team members. Other team members will be able to comment on and interact with each Task.

Everything looks good, right? The exciting thing is that Terlo is free for teams of 10 and you are allowed to upload 10 MB files.

Web version of Terlo  and  download for mobile and PC

Asana

Well, the next tool we are going to get acquainted with is my favorite option, which I use for my personal projects; It means asana.

The good thing about Asana is that it gives you the same features of Terlo with a better user interface: Unlike Terlo, where you create projects with a board view, in Asana you have the ability to list projects in timeline, timeline and on calendar. Build together. There is always a useful personal calendar for you to review your future plans. And most importantly, a very powerful Inbox that lets you know everything so you don’t miss a thing.

Registration and use at Asana is free for teams of up to 15 people without time limit. You also have the ability to share 100 MB files with your teammates.

Asana web version,  download for Android  and  iOS

At the end …

Content calendars make your site content more targeted and you can use it to achieve your marketing and SEO goals. So to generate content, be sure to set the content calendar. To do this, you can contact the experts of British Columbia Web Design team to do everything related to the content for you.