30 Days of Social Media Content (+ Free Content Calendar)

Social media marketing can be pretty overwhelming when you have absolutely no idea what to share. Many businesses tend to go the wrote of “promotion, promotion, promotion,” but no one wants to follow a social media account that only talks about themselves. Social media is about engaging with people and providing content that will help your followers and give them something they’ll actually want to read.

Of course promotion is part of it–but it’s only a part. You only want about 20% of your social media marketing to be promotion. The rest is all about your followers.

So what the hell do you post?

I’ve written before about the different forms of content to post on each social media platform–after all, they’re all very different.

But what about what, specifically, you should post?

I’ve created a calendar with 30 days–and 30 types–of social media content. Mix and match whatever content types you want on whatever days you want. Post every day, every other day, or whatever works for you. But this calendar will give you a bucket full of ideas to choose from and you can pull a new idea out of it each day.

---

Click on the image below to download your calendar:

---

1. Memes:

Memes are extremely popular online content and generally earn a good bit of likes/shares. Use an awesome meme that you found online or you can even create your own. (There are a million meme generator websites to choose from.)

2. Question of the Day:

Ask your followers a question. Relate it back to your followers’ blogs/businesses, ask for their feedback about your own, or just ask a fun and random question, like “What are your favorite pizza toppings?” Regardless, you’re reaching out to your audience and asking for their opinion on something. This is a great way to create engagement.

3. Quick Tips:

Share quick tips or snippets of advice to help your followers get shit done. Here’s a great example of a quick tip:

It’s never too late to grow, change, and evolve your brand.

— Devan Danielle (@Devan_Danielle) October 8, 2015

4. Tutorials: 

One of my favorite types of videos shared on Facebook is tutorial videos. Buzzfeed does a great job with recipe tutorial videos and I follow a cookie decorator on Facebook just to watch her royal icing tutorials. If you have something that you can show your readers how to do, a tutorial is a great way to do it.

5. Branded Graphics: 

There are many different types of graphics that you can share on your social media. However, if it’s a graphic that you’re creating yourself, make sure to always leave your watermark on it and make sure that it fits with your brand.

6. Quotes: 

Depending on the platform you’re sharing these quotes on, you can either share a text version or a branded image version. Here are examples of both:

“If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.” Tom Peters — Lauren Hooker (@LaurenElizHook) October 8, 2015

7. Videos: 

Facebook is a great platform for video, as they embed right into your Facebook posts and begin playing while people are scrolling through their news feed. Other platforms also support video, but other than YouTube, Facebook is my favorite platform for it.

Create a vlog, a home tour, a tutorial (see above #4), or anything else that your followers would love to see in a video from you. With an online business, people don’t typically get to see the real you, so incorporating video into your strategy is a great way to show off your voice.

8. Announcements: 

Your social media platforms should always be buzzing when you have big announcements to make. Take this amazing announcement Regina made when she, Brittany, and Jenna made when they had a huge launch:

9. Your Blog Posts: 

Your blog posts are always part of your strategy. Share your new ones the day you publish them, but don’t ever forget about your old blog posts. Make those continually work for you by sharing posts from your archives.

10. Contests/Games: 

Everyone loves a good game. Host a “caption this” photo game, fill in the blank, or another fun content/challenge.

11. Curated Content: 

This will always take up the majority of your social media content. Share content from other bloggers and reputable sources. It’s not a competition. Content does not always have to be from you. Sharing is caring.

12. Discounts: 

Offering a discount off of a product or service? Shout it out to all of your social media followers. Pin it to the top of your social media pages for as long as you’re offering it, putting this discount right in front of the eyes of everyone who visits your page.

13. Infographics: 

Infographics are wonderful visual appeals and always do well on social media (Pinterest especially). Find helpful infographics online or create your own.

14. Listicles: 

You can include your own list in a social media post or you can grab a funny listicle from Buzzfeed, one of my favorite online sources for listicles ever. They pretty much own the listicle.

15. Non-Blog Promos: 

Have a webinar coming up? Periscope? Twitter chat? Some other type of event or collaboration that you’re participating in? Promote those on social media as well!

16. Homework Assignment: 

The first place I ever saw this was in an email newsletter and I loved the concept. People love adult homework that helps to improve themselves/their business/their blog. Give them some!

17. Current Events: 

Whether it’s an upcoming holiday or a local/national tragedy, take a break from your strategy and pay attention to current events.

18. Behind-the-Scenes: 

Your followers want to get to know you! Show a bit of some behind-the-scenes, behind-the-blog, and behind-the-business. In this example, Kory is celebrating National Dog Day with her new pup:

A photo posted by Kory Woodard Nobes (@korymae) on Aug 26, 2015 at 9:34am PDT

19. Encouragement:  Offer up some words of wisdom to your readers and encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing. Make sure your followers know that you’re supporting them every step of the way.

20. Social-Only Promos: 

Want to offer a discount on a product/service only to your social media followers? Do it. It has been several months now, but I remember Regina offered a free Love My Brand kit to everyone who followed her on Twitter. She announced it on her blog and shared it only on Twitter. Seriously genius idea to gain some more followers.

21. Calls to Action: 

Whether you’re growing your email list, selling a new product/service, or sharing a new blog post, include a call to action so that your followers know what to do with your post.

22. Reader Surveys: 

Your social media followers are there for a reason–they’re interested in you enough to click Like or Follow, so take advantage of that and ask them questions about what you can do to improve or what you’re already doing that they love.

23. Giveaways: 

Giveaways are a great way to grow your social media following. Offering up a prize that people can enter to win as long as they give you a follow on a social media platform or two is easy and has great ROI.

24. Products/Services: 

Launching a new product/service? Let your social media followers know. Pin it to the top of your profiles so that everyone visiting your page can see it.

25. Personality: 

Similar to behind-the-scenes, you want to give your followers a glimpse (or maybe a little more than a glimpse) of you. Twitter is my favorite platform for this one. Throughout the day/week, share little quips from your brain so that your Twitter feed has more personality than just quotes and curated content.

26. Freebies: 

Offer your followers an incentive for following you. Share random freebies only for your social media peeps. This could be a simple worksheet or content extra, or you could go as far as offering them a short ebook.

27. Virtual Events: 

Plan on attending an upcoming webinar or Twitter chat? Invite your social media followers to join you by sharing dates and times for the online event.

Join guest host @MariahCoz + I tonight at 7 PM CT to chat about How to Double Your Mailing List at #createlounge! pic.twitter.com/RC3BDcs7qo

— Kayla Hollatz (@kayla_hollatz) October 7, 2015

28. Longer Anecdotes: 

Share a short story, status update (how often do we actually even see statuses on Facebook anymore?), or longer tips and tidbits for your readers. Kind of like a mini blog post.

29. Inspiration: 

Whether this is through quotes, inspiring others by sharing your own experiences, or inspiring others by sharing other experiences.

30. Time-Sensitive Offers: 

Got a discount going on for a limited time only? Let your followers know. That rush will always get them to buy faster. Here’s a great example:

Okay last chance to grab F*ck Yeah Funnels before I raise the price to $97 in the next hour!! http://t.co/GSCtZDTmPA #marketing — Mariah Coz (@MariahCoz) September 28, 2015

---

So, my friends, what the heck do you do with this calendar?

First, print it out and hang it up where you can see it each time you’re working on creating your social media content.

Second, pick and choose the ones that you can/want to use this month. Maybe you don’t have any exciting announcements going on, so you can scratch that off your list. Maybe your audience responds better to humor, so you’re going to want to include more of that. Cater to your audience and what’s relevant to your business.

Third, create your editorial calendar and decide on your posting method. You may choose to post day-by-day, or you may choose to set aside enough time in one afternoon to schedule all of your social media posts for the rest of the month. I recommend Buffer for scheduling.

---

P.S. Which Social Media Platforms Do You Need to Be On?