{"id":16207,"date":"2025-11-28T10:26:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/social-media-calendar-template\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:26:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:26:36","slug":"social-media-calendar-template","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/social-media-calendar-template\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Calendar Template"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, let me tell you about the summer I tried to \u201cwing it\u201d with social media for my little Etsy candle biz. Picture this: me, hunched over my laptop at 11 PM, scrambling to post a Fourth of July sale on<\/em> July 4th because I totally forgot. My Instagram looked like a chaise lounge assembled with missing screws \u2013 functional, but yikes<\/em>. That\u2019s when I caved and googled \u201csocial media calendar template\u201d like a woman possessed.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I wish I\u2019d known sooner:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Templates aren\u2019t one-size-fits-all<\/strong> (learned this the hard way). I downloaded this gorgeous Notion template with 17 tabs \u2014 color-coded, hyperlinked, the whole deal. Felt like I\u2019d won the orgasm\u2026 I mean organization lottery. Lasted three days. Turns out, if you\u2019re a visual person like me, a Google Sheets grid staring back like a tax form will murder your soul. Switched to Trello with Pinterest mood boards for each month, and suddenly planning felt like scrapbooking.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Batch-creating captions saves marriages.<\/strong> Okay, maybe not marriages<\/em>, but my sanity? Absolutely. Every Sunday, I\u2019d sit at my kitchen island (coffee in my \u201cBut First, Ros\u00e9\u201d mug, Target pajama pants on) and brain-dump captions for the week. Pro tip: Use voice-to-text while folding laundry or driving carpool. You\u2019ll get gems like, \u201cScented candles: cheaper than therapy and<\/em> they pair with Netflix\u201d (actual caption that went viral in my 1.2k follower universe).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Leave room for chaos.<\/strong> I used to block every square in my calendar like a Type-A Tetris champ. Then Taylor Swift announced her Eras Tour movie the day before, and my \u201cCozy Fall Vibes\u201d post felt irrelevant. Now I keep 2 slots\/week for trends or random ideas (see: that time I made a reel comparing candle scents to The Office<\/em> characters).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The template that finally stuck?<\/strong> A hybrid. Google Calendar for deadlines (because I need those pop-up reminders), Canva for visual planning (drag-and-drop saved me from 47 open browser tabs), and a Notes app list of \u201cemergency content\u201d for when life explodes. Oh, and I schedule everything through Later \u2013 not sponsored, just obsessed.<\/p>\n

    You\u2019ll mess up.<\/strong> I once accidentally posted a Memorial Day sale graphic with a typo (\u201cThankful for your bussiness<\/em>\u201d \u2013 cue the 14 DMs from friends roasting me). But hey, that template gave me something to improve<\/em> instead of starting from scratch every month.<\/p>\n

    Start simple: a Monday-Friday row in Excel with columns for platform, caption, and image idea. Add sprinkles (analytics tracking, hashtag banks) as you go. And if you bail on it for a week? My dog-eared, coffee-stained planner and I hereby grant you permission to hit \u201creset\u201d without guilt.<\/p>\n

    (P.S. If you try the Trello method, name your board something ridiculous. Mine\u2019s \u201cInfluencer in Training (Send Wine)\u201d. Makes the grind feel less corporate.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Alright, let me tell you about the summer I tried to \u201cwing it\u201d with social media for my little Etsy candle biz. Picture this: me, hunched over my laptop at 11 PM, scrambling to post a Fourth of July sale on July 4th because I totally forgot. My Instagram looked like a chaise lounge assembled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}