Where to next?
Content creation can be stressful and overwhelming and It’s no secret that managing multiple platforms and deadlines can feel like trying to put out a house fire with a dixie cup of water. 😅 The struggle is real! Trying to keep everything organized, having a safe place to save ideas, staying consistent… it’s a lot.
But hey, fear not! We’ve got a secret weapon up our sleeves – introducing the FREE Google Sheets content creation planner template! 🎉 Yep, you heard that right! This little gem is about to revolutionize the way you tackle your content creation woes.
This bad boy is here to save the day by giving you a structured framework to plan and schedule your content so you can see the big picture while still zooming in on the day-to-day.
Now, let’s dive into the details. 👇
If you haven’t downloaded the template just yet, you can snag it here:
Check out the video below for a quick rundown of how to use this template, or read on to get the step-by-step in this blog post 🎉
Video Tutorial: 🎥
Copying the template:
As soon as you open this Google Sheet Template, the first thing I would suggest doing is making a copy and saving it to your own Google Drive so that you can easily edit this to make it your own and fit your personal content creation needs.
You can do this by heading to the top of the toolbar on the Google Sheet and clicking FILE > MAKE A COPY. From there, you can rename the file and save it anywhere you would like in your Google Drive.
Understanding the dashboard:
On the bottom of the sheet, you’ll notice there are 4 tabs for each quarter of the year. This is so that you can plan your content 90 days out and see the entire quarter at-a-glance. Each quarter has the same top dashboard so that you can update these items as the year and your content plans evolve.
Next, you’ll see the “Content Pillars” section. Use these boxes to notate your content pillars. Your content pillars are the main topics you share about on your social media and that your audience learns to expect from you.
After your content pillars, you’ll want to add any highlights that you would like to have that quarter on your Instagram profile. This is also a great way to stay up to date on any fresh additions to your highlights quarterly and anything you want to remove that quarter as well.
Under your highlights, use this area to note which Instagram posts you would like to have pinned to the top of your profile that quarter.
Lastly, for the top dashboard, you’ll notice a block to the right labeled “Staple Posts”. This area is a bank of staple post ideas for you to draw inspiration from whenever you are feeling a bit of a creative block.
Planning your content:
Moving onto the daily content planning portion of this template, let’s take a look at the “Post Type Bank”. Use this bank to copy and paste the box of the type of post you would like to make for that day of the week, and paste it onto the “post type” slot for that day. For example: If I wanted to post a single photo on Tuesday, January 2nd, then I could copy the “single post” box and paste it into the “post type” box for Jan 2nd.
Types of post boxes include:
- Text Carousel
- Image Carousel
- Single Post
- Lives
- SF Video (short form)
- LF Video (long form)
Feel free to add more boxes to the bank if a post type you frequent isn’t listed there.
When you are planning your content for each day, you can expand any of the rows for the platforms you post on and delete any rows of platforms you don’t post on to make it personalized to your needs. You can notate post types, story ideas, and concepts, tending sounds you want to use, etc.
Pro Tip: If there are any days of the week that you typically don’t post, highlight those days of the week and change the color to grey to make your view more focused.
Time to create a content plan!
With this free Google Sheets content creation planner template by your side, you’ll be waving goodbye to stress and hello to smooth sailing. So go ahead, take the leap, and watch your content creation game level up!
