Content calendar: how to plan a month of posts

A content calendar is your social media posting schedule in the form of a table: what goes up, where, when, in which format and who approves it. To plan a month, start from your pillars and the dates that matter, set a rhythm you can keep up and plan production so that one photo shoot covers many posts.

The calendar does not replace the strategy. It translates it into each week's work. If you have not yet defined your audience and key messages, start there and come back to the table afterwards.

Pillars and the dates that matter

Pillars are a few themes, usually three to five, that recur every month. For a clothing e-shop, for example, they might be: the product, how to wear it, the people behind the brand, practical tips and the customers. For a service company they might be: how we work, answers to frequently asked questions, the team, results and news.

Next to the pillars, write down the dates in the month that matter to you: launches, offers, holidays, sales, in-store events. These go into the table first. The other posts are filled in around them, so that no pillar is missing for two weeks in a row.

Formats and rhythm

Each pillar suits different formats. Choose the format based on what you want the viewer to do.

• Reels: for movement, use, before and after, behind the scenes. They can also reach people who do not follow you, so they work well when you want new people to discover you.
• Carousels: several images in one post, for steps, comparisons, collections and tips worth saving.
• Single photos: for a strong shot, a new product, an announcement.
• Stories: for everyday contact, questions, polls and reminders. They disappear after 24 hours, unless you keep them in your profile highlights.

As for rhythm, the most useful answer is the one you can keep up for six months. Three good posts a week that go out every single week give you more than daily posts that stop after a month. Start with something sustainable and add more when production can handle it.

The table: a simple template

You do not need special software. A shared spreadsheet is enough, as long as every row has the same columns:

• Publication date and time
• Channel: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or LinkedIn
• Pillar
• Format: Reel, carousel, photo or story
• Topic and hook, meaning the first line or the first shot that holds the viewer
• Caption and call to action
• Assets: which photo or which video, with the file name
• Link with UTM, if the post leads to the site
• Owner and status: in production, for approval, approved, scheduled

An example row: Tuesday 10:00, Instagram, pillar “How to wear it”, carousel with six slides, topic “Three ways to wear the same jacket”, caption with a link to the category page, photos from the lookbook shoot, status “for approval”.

At the end of the month, add two columns with the results of each post, for example saves and shares, messages or clicks. That way the same file becomes the basis for the next month.

Keep a second sheet of ideas in the same file: customer questions, topics that did not make it in, comments you heard in the store. When you plan the next month, you start from there and not from a blank page.

Approvals without delays

In many teams, delays come from approvals rather than production. Four simple rules help:

1. The month's topic plan is approved before production starts, for example two weeks ahead.
2. One person gives final approval. Everyone else comments within a set deadline.
3. The rounds of revisions are agreed in advance.
4. You leave one or two empty slots a week for topical subjects, so the schedule does not fall apart when something comes up.

At approval, the person in charge first checks what is hard to fix after publication: prices, dates, product names, links and spelling. The tone and the visual details have already been agreed in the plan.

One photo shoot, the whole month

The most efficient calendar is planned together with production. Before the shoot, you look at the table and write a shot list: which frames are needed for carousels, which vertical shots for Reels and stories, which versions for ads in 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16.

One day in the studio can produce product photos for the e-shop, styled shots for the feed, short videos for Reels, behind-the-scenes content for stories and ad creatives. The month gets a consistent look and you do not need small, rushed shoots every week.

This is also how THPAUL works on social media: content pillars, a monthly calendar that you approve, photos, Reels and graphics from our own studio in Athens, and publishing by us. For video we follow the same logic and plan all the versions in advance, so that one shoot produces many files. To estimate the cost of a photo shoot, the cost estimator on the Studio page gives you an indicative price. The minimum charge is indicatively from €160 for e-shop photography and from €350 for creative still life, plus VAT.