Want your brand's Instagram Stories to look clean, polished and consistently stylish? Instagram Stories templates are the way to go.
The truth is, most of your favorite brands probably already use them. But really, it's no surprise they want to make their Stories look good: half a billion users interact with Instagram Stories daily, and 58% of people say their interest in a brand or product increased after seeing it in Stories.
If you're not using this Insta feature to put your best foot forward, you're going to miss out.
In this post, we'll show you how to use Instagram Stories templates to wow your audience and showcase your best content. We've also included a designer pack of 72 customizable templates that will boost the look of your Stories right away.
Download your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now. Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.
Why use Instagram Stories templates?
Though Stories may disappear after 24 hours, they're still going to reach plenty of eyeballs over that span of time, as we know from those impressive Instagram Stories stats.
Plus, now that you can turn Stories into "Highlights" on your Instagram profile, that temporary content actually has the potential for a much longer shelf life.
Might as well make it look nice, right?
But there are tons of other reasons to use Instagram Stories templates, too.
Look professional
Yes, Instagram Stories are primarily known for their charmingly unpolished execution (anyone else weirdly addicted to watching Go Clean Co. scrub grout?). But, as with all social networks, the level of professionalism that users expect from brands is steadily rising.
Brands often use Instagram Story templates to create a consistent aesthetic on their Stories: one that's connected to their larger visual identity or brand voice. The subtle (aesthetically pleasing) inclusions of branded fonts, colours and logos all help to build familiarity and trust with a brand.
Jewellery design studio Melanie Auld Jewelry uses templates to share editorial content on its Stories, like this profile of wellness and travel blogger Julianne Barbas. With shots laid out artfully and elegant text, it's almost like a digital magazine feature. Profesh!
Save time (and money)
Because most content on Stories disappears after 24 hours (unless you post them to your Highlights), it doesn't make sense to professionally design every single shot or video.
But if you know you're going to be regularly posting certain types of content, designing a template to accompany each one will save you time (and the cost of hiring a pro) in the future.
Pro tip: With Hootsuite's Instagram Story Scheduler, you can create, edit and schedule your Instagram Stories in advance.
Make non-visual content pop
Instagram is a visual platform where brands that invest in good photography excel. But not everyone on Instagram is selling something visually exciting like optical illusion makeup or horrifying '80s living rooms.
The Washington Post (whose TikTok, btw, is weirdly good too) gets people to swipe up on their news stories by using eye-catching animated text and simple illustrative graphics. Even though it's less flashy than glitter eyeshadow, it catches the eye in a Stories feed full of bright visuals.
Or, maybe you just need to post a Story that doesn't necessarily call for a photograph, such as an intro page for a slideshow of delicious treats, Ã la Minimalist Baker.
Stand out from the competition
This one's easy. Instagram Stories templates are a quick and simple way for your brand to distinguish itself as viewers are flipping through a sea of Stories.
A striking graphic design will (hopefully!) capture their attention and reinforce your brand's style in the process. It's also a way to show that you've put time and thought into your content.
Brit and Co.'s stories are instantly recognizable when they pop up in your feed: images and videos are always on a splashy backdrop that features brand-appropriate colors, shapes and textures. They're distinct from the standard look you get from crafting a Story directly in the Instagram app: definitely attention grabbing.
72 free Instagram Stories templates
As a thank you to our dedicated readers, we've designed a pack of 72 customizable Photoshop Instagram Stories templates that will instantly boost the look of your Stories. The templates are divided into nine different story types, with four to 12 styles per category.
Choose the format that best suits your purposes and customize it in Photoshop (instructions below) to match your brand—or simply use as is. The possibilities are endless!
Want 'em all? No sweat. Download them here!
Download your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now. Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.
Happy birthday Instagram Story templates
AMA Instagram Story templates
Quotes Instagram Story templates
Instagram Story ad templates
Instagram Story bingo templates
Instagram Story donation templates
Music Instagram Story templates
This or that Instagram Story templates
About Me Instagram Story templates
Instagram Story template size
If you're going to DIY your own Instagram story template, you're probably going to want to know the dimensions.
Instagram Stories are 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels tall.
For best results, your Instagram Story should have an aspect ratio of 9:16, and a minimum width of 500px.
And in case you were curious about any other social specs, here's our handy social media image size cheat sheet!
How to use the Instagram Stories templates
Here's how to customize these templates for your brand and then upload them to your Instagram Stories. You will need Adobe Photoshop to get started.
Download your free pack of 72 customizable Instagram Stories templates now. Save time and look professional while promoting your brand in style.
Download the templates now!
1. Once you've downloaded and unzipped the Photoshop files, double click the image you'd like to customize to open it in Photoshop.
2. To edit text: double click the text you would like to edit. You can change fonts and colors in the menu on the left-hand side.
3. To edit a color block: double click the color block you would like to edit. Change the size or use the menu on the left-hand side to change the color.
4. To edit a photo: double click the photo you would like to edit and click insert new image. Resize image as necessary.
5. To save one single Story template: Select the Story you would like to save and go to Save>Export As>Artboard to Files. Make sure to save as a .jpg or .png.
6. To save all four Story templates: Save>Export As. Make sure to save as a .jpg or .png.
7. Email the finished image file(s) to yourself and download them onto your phone.
8. Upload to Instagram Stories one at a time.
Instagram Story template apps
If this monster pack of templates still isn't quite fitting your needs, that's totally cool. You can make a custom Instagram Story template of your very own using Photoshop or one of the apps below.
Check out these other resources for Instagram Stories templates if you don't have Photoshop, or if you don't require a lot of customization capabilities.
Adobe Spark
Not only are there thousands of beautiful templates in Adobe Spark's free library, but it's got built-in photo editing functionality too — so you can make sure your images pop as much as the graphic design.
Photoshop
As mentioned above, you can use Photoshop to tweak our Hootsuite templates—but Adobe's also got some bare-bones starter templates too for you. Put your own spin on things and get experimental!
Unfold
Download the Unfold app for iPhone or Android to access a huge library of ready-made Stories templates right on your phone. A monthly or annual subscription will open up even more options.
A Design Kit
A perennial favorite of the influencer crowd, A Design Kit's designs allow you to add elements, tweak colors, texturize and more. Over 30 fonts offer an opportunity to really stand out from everyone else typing away with Instagram's minimal selection.
Easil
Easil's free version includes 2,500-plus templates to play with, but if you feel like splashing out, the platform's brand kit feature is pretty cool: it allows you to store your color palette, logos, brand images and fonts in one place to pop into their sleek templates. There's also a handy collaboration feature, so you can tag-team a Story with a teammate if you need an extra hand.
GoDaddy Studio
The unfortunately named GoDaddy Studio tool (formerly Over) actually has some pretty sweet design options. It's ultimately lure to try to get you to sign up for their web hosting services, but you can score some sleek looking templates for free.
Mojo
Mojo's specialty is animated Stories: toss your photos or videos into one of their dynamic templates and customize the timing, music and text effects for an attention-grabbing message. New templates and styles are added each month.
Crello
With Crello's free plan, you can download five designs each month; a subscription plan offers more options for tapping into their design library.
Creative Market
Okay, the Instagram Stories templates you'll find on Creative Market are all paid options… but if you've got some bucks in your social media budget, you can get something unique in the $30-$70 range. Buy a cohesive pack that speaks to your brand and you'll have plenty of options to play with. Most kits have hundreds of variations on a theme to keep your Stories on point but not repetitive.
Now that you're all set with some beautiful visuals, it's time to buckle down and focus on crafting great content to go with it. Check out our list of 20 creative Instagram Story ideas or guide to must-know Instagram Stories hacks to get the inspiration flowing for your next post.
Save time managing your Instagram Stories using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, respond to comments and DMs, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.
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Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts and Stories with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.
Instagram Library Stories Presets Package After Effects Template
Flow (Aescript)
1.4.0b (Current version) – Jan 2, 2019
After EffectsCC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015
What is it?
Flow will change the way you work with graph editor the moment you launch it. Period.
Flow brings an easy interface to After Effects for customizing animation curves, without needing to venture into the aging, confusing graph editor. Gone are the days of slow, heavy expressions, or fighting with speed and influence (what do those even mean?) – just make a curve, hit APPLY and you're gold!
Used to the web life? Flow works with the same CSS animation-timing-functions you've come to know and love. Our values correspond directly to the values in cubic-bezier (x1,y1,x2,y2). Flow's core is based on Lea Verou's cubic-bezier.com, so you are free to copy URL values and paste them into the extension – Flow will parse them and apply the exact same transition to your selected keyframes or expression.
Flow comes with 25 pre-defined, commonly-used motion curves based on Robert Penner's Easing Functions. But don't limit yourself – build your own library and share it with the world, or import custom presets from other animators with the single click of a button. Check out some available packs for download below!
Our graph and library support keyboard shortcuts; in the library, use Shift / Alt / Ctrl to quickly set eases to Ease In / In & Out / Ease Out, or in the graph to snap handles in different ways or move them symmetrically.
Features
Easy-to-use Curve Editor – click and drag the handles to define the shape of your curve. Anything you make here will directly translate to your animation curve.
Read Values from AE will analyze your currently selected keys and set the graph to their in/out curves.
Bezier Points reflects the location of your two points; if you're familiar with the CSS cubic-bezier() transition, these values work exactly the same way and will produce the exact same curve. You can click here to manually set or copy these values out.
Save to Library saves current curve to User Library for quick use later.
Apply as Keys or Expressions – don't want to mess with your perfect keys? Instead, try applying your curve as an expression. Flow will apply the curve to each pair of keys.
Use for Ease Out / In & Out / In toggles define whether you want to use your curve for easing into your keys, out of your keys, or both.
Import / Export Library provides a simple way of sharing animation curves with a team. Check out additional animation curves packs available for download below.
Responsive Layout – have it wide, have it slim, have it vertical or horizontal – Flow's interface will adjust to any given situation. Don't want to see the graph and have only library – we've got you covered. Simply slide the divider to hide the graph and you're set.
How to install Flow
In order to install Flow, please download the aescripts+aeplugins ZXP installer and follow the on-screen instructions. After installation is finished, you can access Flow via Window -> Extensions -> Flow.
If your target application is CC2014 and it does not appear in the aescripts+aeplugins ZXP Installer, proceed to install it for newer versions of AE and it should automatically install for CC2014 as well.
View Demo & Info Page
Download – From Prefiles.com Download – From Rapidgator.net Download – From Nitroflare.com Download – From Novafile.Com Download – From fileblade.com Download – From Zippyshare.com
Download free templates for label printing needs. Create and design your own labels with these templates.
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Blank label templates are available online to download for use with graphic design programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Gimp, InDesign, Inkscape and many more including some software programs in the cloud like Microsoft 365 and others.Templates can be downloaded in .DOC, .EPS, .PDF, .ODF and other file formats.
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Download PDF Label Templates for Graphic Programs. PDF are universal and can be opened up in many different programs. PDF templates are not editable. They are used as a guideline layer in graphic design programs. For Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator, Inkscape, Indesign, Quark and all other graphic design programs.
Download Illustrator .EPS Label Templates for Graphic Programs.Encapsulated Postscript Vector format is used in all types of graphic design programs like Illustrator by Adobe, Photoshop, Inkscape, Gimp. They are used as a guide layer to help you create and print labels.
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A social media calendar is like the Marie Kondo of your entire social media strategy. It sounds like a big commitment at first, but you can rest assured it'll pay that time back in the future. (Not to mention preventing minor panic attacks.)
Whether it's a simple grid with a few links, or a bespoke dashboard that can plan out dozens of feeds, your social media content calendar can be as simple or complex as your brand needs it to be.
Read on and we'll guide you through the steps necessary to make your own, and take a look at some real-world examples. We'll also list our favorite social media content calendar apps.
Oh, and we've built some free social media calendar templates to get you started!
But first, let's review the compelling reasons to invest in this tool to begin with.
Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance.
A social media calendar is an overview of your upcoming social media posts. It can be organized in the form of a spreadsheet, Google calendar or interactive dashboard (if you're using a social media management app).
Each entry in a social media calendar usually includes some combination of these elements:
The exact date and time the post is going live
The social network and account where the post will be published
The post's copy and creative assets (i.e. photos or videos)
Links and tags to be included in the post
Any additional relevant information (e.g. is this an Instagram feed post or a Story?)
Depending on the scope of your social media strategy, your social media calendar can include one or many social networks.
Why use a social media content calendar?
1. Save time by being organized
Your social media marketing goals have a key point in common with many of the other goals in your day planner: they take effort and attention every single day. Not just when you're feeling inspired (or at 11PM when everything else is taken care of).
Maintaining a social media calendar lets you plan ahead, batch your work, avoid multitasking, and note down all your creative brainwaves for later.
Basically it's the best way to make sure you'll never find yourself desperately scrolling through generic inspirational quotes hoping to find something to post ever again.
And even though you'll be posting every day, maybe multiple times a day, that doesn't mean you need to be babysitting your feeds constantly. Certain social media calendar tools allow you to schedule social media posts ahead of time, and, just as important, manage audience engagement from one place.
Hootsuite's planning tool takes care of all of that, if you're inclined to give it a try.
2. Post consistently
Whether you're trying to increase your Instagram likes, your YouTube subscribers, or you've implemented social media KPIs, the first tip from experts will always be "post consistently." There's just no shortcut around it.
Why?
Consistently showing up in your audience's feed is the key to engaging them on social. Impressive engagement increases your organic reach via the platform's algorithm, so your posts get shown to new eyes, and new people start following your brand. And making genuine connections with a growing audience is the one true path to lifting your conversions.
Populating your social media calendar with posts ahead of time allows you to post consistently whether it's a slow news week, or your biggest promotion of the year.
3. Make fewer typos, and also reduce the risk of big mistakes
Planning your posts ahead of time means that you can build failsafes into your workflow. Copy-editing the text, fact-checking information, or even vetting it with organizational stakeholders like the legal team or C-suite, are all a lot easier when you're working days or weeks in advance.
A social media calendar—especially one with team member approvals built in—is the best way to prevent a low-key embarrassment like posting the same message across channels, or a high-key social media crisis.
4. Get more ambitious with your social strategies
The world's biggest social media brands are often running multiple campaigns at once—long, medium and short-term, paid and organic. And that's just the day-to-day posts.
Once you have your schedule nailed down, your glorious brain is freed up to tackle even bigger questions. Should you run an Instagram contest? Start looking for influencer partners? Maybe it's time to get your brand on LinkedIn, or introduce a social media employee advocacy program.
Whether you're managing a five-person content team or you're posting your Story while mixing bleach for your 3pm client's pastel ombre long-bob, getting your social game to the next level means getting organized.
5. Don't miss out on relevant moments
Never forget about the Super Bowl again. (Or, you know, make sure you're ignoring it on purpose.)
A social media calendar allows you to strategically observe worldwide global moments that are relevant to your brand's audience.
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 31, 2019
Also, with your day-to-day schedule covered, if something topical comes up—like maybe Jennifer Aniston joins Instagram or an egg gets bigger than before—you have the creative and logistical bandwidth to engage with the moment in an on-brand way.
6. Make higher-quality content
Social media production values have skyrocketed since the early days, and the notion of a lone-wolf Millennial tweeting memes from their beanbag chair has gone the way of the jegging. (Ok, ok, except for whoever is behind Moonpie.)
Today, it's not that unusual for a single social media post to have a whole team of creatives behind it: copywriters, designers, video editors, photographers. And asking your team of hard-working artistes to drop everything for an emergency Instagram Story is not going to win hearts or minds. (And it's not even guaranteed to earn engagement, if it feels slipshod or pushy.)
A social media calendar helps you allocate your assets—both human and digital—effectively, so that your team has the breathing room to do their best work.
And a long-term vision means you're pushing a consistent brand voice and content that supports your marketing goals.
7. Track what works, and improve it
What gets scheduled gets done, and what gets measured gets improved.
Your social media analytics have a lot of insights for you. A social media content calendar provides the opportunity to schedule your experiments towards improvement. Plan out your A/B tests until you find the right recipe for the type of content, format, post frequency, and best time of day to post for each social platform.
There are 8 steps to creating an effective social media calendar:
Audit your social networks and content
Choose your social channels
Decide what your calendar needs to track
Make a content library for your assets
Establish a workflow
Start crafting your posts
Invite your team to review, and use their feedback to improve
Start publishing/scheduling
Pro Tip: If this is your first time making a calendar for social, you might want to crack open our guide to creating a social media marketing strategy first. Your calendar will be all the better for having clear goals to underpin it.
1. Audit your social networks and content
Developing a clear picture of your current social media efforts will let you identify areas for improvement and opportunities for new efforts. An audit is key to fine-tuning your content strategy and maximizing your ROI.
Start with our social media audit template. This will result in precise, up-to-date data on:
Impostor accounts and outdated profiles
Account security and passwords
Goals and KPIs for each branded account, by platform
Your audience, their demographics and personas
Who's accountable for what work on your team
Your most successful posts, campaigns and tactics
Gaps, underwhelming results, and opportunities for improvement
Key metrics for measuring future success on each platform
Budget some dedicated time to go through all of your social assets. Then rest assured that you'll be tackling your refreshed social strategy with the best information. That is, the information that's unique to your audience, accounts and brand.
2. Choose your social channels
It seems like every social media manager we know got the same Slack message last year. Some random higher-up going Hey there! [sunglasses emoji] Why aren't we on TikTok?
(Pro Tip: Have an impartial third party drop your boss a link to 6 Things You Should Never Say to Your Social Media Manager.)
In the hustle and bustle of the daily grind, it takes concerted effort to find the time to stay on top of new developments. Like, should your brand care about Instagram Threads? And is your audience even on TikTok?
This is why you should take a minute to make sure you're clear on each social media platform's user demographics. And review best practices for business marketing strategies, too. Naturally, we here at Hootsuite have compiled the most complete guides possible:
Instagram marketing strategy
Facebook marketing strategy
YouTube marketing strategy
Twitter marketing strategy
LinkedIn marketing strategy
Pinterest marketing strategy
We're not saying you have to go into freshman-year-organic-chemistry-exam mode and absorb it all at once. Just take some professional development reading breaks during that post-lunch lull, and you'll be sparkling with new insights and ideas in no time.
3. Decide what data your social media content calendar needs to track
As you figure out what this beautiful beast is going to look like, (and where it's going to live, a.k.a. a permanently-open Chrome tab between Gmail and Slack) you want to map out the information and functionality this tool is going to provide to you.
Maybe you're starting fresh for, say, your side-hustle doing social for local indie rappers. In which case a simple spreadsheet might do.
But if you're managing a seven-person team with a dozen different consumer-facing brands, you're going to want something that can tell you who's doing what, when it's done, when it's approved, and when it's published—and then how successful it was.
(Spoiler: Sometimes a spreadsheet is not enough, which is why there's a list of all our favourite tools at the end of this article.)
Also, add more advanced details that you might potentially find helpful. (You can always nix them later if they're redundant.) Details like:
Platform-specific format (eg., feed post, IGTV, Story, poll, live stream, ads, shoppable posts, etc.)
The vertical or campaign it's affiliated with (eg., product launch, event, contests, annual giving, general brand awareness, customer service, etc.)
Geo-targeting (i.e., is it global, North American, etc.)
Value (i.e., Is it a short-lived topical post or a big-budget evergreen showpiece that could be recycled or cannibalized for parts down the line?)
Paid or organic? (If paid, then additional budget details might be helpful)
Has it been approved?
Has it been posted? (If so, do you want to include the link with its UTM?)
Analytics and results (Generally at this level of complexity you probably rely on your analytics reports to contain and explain this information.)
4. Make a content library for your assets
Some people like to call these content repositories or media resource databases or digital asset banks.
Regardless of what you call it, your supply of visual content should not be living on your iPhone, or in a bunch of desktop folders marked "misc social." (Ok, ok, at least don't keep them there permanently.)
You can use Dropbox, Google Drive, your company's internal network, or made-to-purpose database software. A social media content library has a few key features:
It's spacious enough for large files;
It's accessible from your phone as well as your computer (trust me on this one);
It's easily shareable with team members, but you can trust its privacy features;
It provides links to individual files so that you can plunk them into your calendar (or perhaps it interfaces with your calendar natively).
The way you set up your content library is almost as important as your social media calendar. The less searching around for assets that you have to do, the better.
For instance, Hootsuite's content library feature is seamless within the calendar feature, so that you're barely aware they're two different tools. See how it works in the video below.
5. Establish a workflow
Ok, now that you've gathered all possible information, it's time to start sketching in the bones of your daily, weekly and monthly social media cadence.
You'll want to think about:
How often you want to post to each channel;
The best time to post to each channel (based on your analytics; or else check out our full breakdown here);
What your content ratio will look like (an easy starting point is the rule of thirds, which is #8 on our list of social media best practices);
Who needs to approve posts (e.g., your copy-editor, your legal team, your CEO) and how communication will work there;
What the process is for brainstorming new content, not to mention assigning and creating it.
Pro Tip: Once you have a social media workflow outlined, consider documenting it in an easy-to-access place (say, a separate tab in your social media calendar spreadsheet). The more complex your team, the more helpful it is to break down definitions and processes so that you're not answering texts from colleagues when you're supposed to be chomping beignets in the French Quarter, or getting a root canal.
This example from social innovation NGO Digital Opportunity Trust shows how their communications team keeps a "guidelines" tab in their calendar, with helpful resources like branding and official visuals linked.
Source: Digital Opportunity Trust
6. Start crafting your posts
At this point you're probably raging with ideas, right? Take some time to go through that old "misc social" folder and start pulling together some discrete posts.
Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance.
Get the template now!
As you work, evaluate how your calendar feels. If it's onerous and finicky, maybe you want to dial back some of the detail. Or maybe it's not detailed enough and you need to add a few columns. (Or maybe it's just… kinda ugly, in which case check out our beautiful free templates, in the next section.)
Source: the author
On the other hand, if you're feeling stumped for posts that go beyond next Tuesday, we have a social media content ideas cheat sheet right here.
7. Invite your team to review, and use their feedback to improve
Now that you've sculpted the foundations of your organizational empire, it's time to reveal your work to the world, or at least to your colleagues.
You want your calendar to be moderately intuitive, so send an invite around to the people who'll need to use it every day (or every day you're on vacation).
Ask them to put it through its paces, and schedule a meeting for everyone to connect on findings. You'll probably find some gaps.
Does everyone have the passwords they need?
Do people understand UTM parameters?
Do you have an unrepentant hashtag abuser on your team?
Does everyone know how to find, download and upload the high-res infographic the designer made for the Jan 18th thought leadership piece for LinkedIn? If not, can they figure it out easily?
At the end of this step, you should have an airtight document that even the newest team member can understand.
8. Start publishing (or scheduling)
As Rafiki says to Simba: it is time. Your social media calendar is up and ready to run.
As you start publishing consistently, you may realize that it's still taking time to sit down and manually publish your posts. This is especially true if you're working with some high-volume feeds.
In that case, using a calendar that also has a scheduling function is your best bet.
Maybe you're wondering: what do these calendars really look like, at the end of the day? Well, we've got some real-life social media content calendar examples for you.
1. National Geographic's editorial calendar
To start, let's take a look at how top-shelf editorial eyes view long-range content planning.
This isn't a social media content calendar, but magazine editorial calendars are typically made with potential advertisers in mind. Their purpose is to give advertisers an idea of what's coming up, issue by issue.
These calendars are good-looking, concise, and only detail the biggest hook. They also typically include audience demographics and mission statements. If you're presenting to your higher-ups—or you're an influencer looking to showcase your talents to potential brand partners—an editorial calendar might be the ticket.
Source: National Geographic
2. Digital Opportunity Trust's internal social media content calendar
One of the toughest things to find online—believe us, we looked—is what an actual working social media calendar looks like. Fortunately, DOT's Director of Communications and Digital Engagement, Anne Patterson, slipped us some screencaps of what her team's day-to-day looks like.
DOT's social media content calendar is clean and succinct, allowing all of their channels to be taken in at a glance—including their proprietary platform, Innojo.
Source: DOT
Meanwhile, DOT's content library tab functions as a self-explanatory holding pen for inspiration, evergreen content, and as-yet-unscheduled future posts.
Source: DOT
3. Hootsuite's internal social media calendar
Our third and final example is where we put our money where our mouth is. Check out what Hootsuite's internal social media team gets up to in Google Sheets.
Source: Hootsuite
Hootsuite's social media team uses both Google Sheets and the Hootsuite Planner. This Sheets calendar (above) serves many channels with multiple posts per day.
Users scroll horizontally to see different platforms, and vertically to see future or past dates. And when posts go live, the text gets stricken out. (It's very satisfying.)
Meanwhile, the "content pillar / topic" column is so important it has its own key in a separate tab:
Source: Hootsuite
The team also keeps an "evergreen" tab, sorted by platform, to keep high-quality resources close at hand, no matter the season.
Source: Hootsuite
According to Social Media Manager Amanda Wood, due to the large volume of content Hootsuite publishes, Sheets is helpful to sketch out content across all channels, often far in advance. The team might enter placeholder posts (i.e., posts without finalized copy, links or assets) to get the lay of the land and ensure a healthy mix of topics.
The Hootsuite Planner, on the other hand, is where Hootsuite's finalized social media posts get mapped out with their assets attached, in preparation for scheduling and posting.
Source: Hootsuite
If you're ready to get started, we have two Google Sheets templates for you to take a look at. Just open the link, make a copy, and plan away.
Social media calendar template
This calendar template makes space for the big four major platforms and focuses on a weekly scale. But it's highly customizable, and you're free to make it your own.
Like the editorial calendar above, just open the file and create your own copy. Make sure to create a new tab for each month, and plan out your editorial content week by week.
Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance.
Among the many helpful items in this calendar, make sure not to miss the tab for evergreen content. This is a content repository for blog posts that always perform well on social, despite seasonality. It includes:
Type of content
Original publication date (keep track of this so you know when it's time for an update)
Title
Topic
URL
Top performing social copy
Top performing image
Social media editorial calendar template
This template is intended for planning individual content assets. Think blog posts, polished videos, new research, et cetera. In other words, this is where you plan out the content that your social media efforts will be promoting.
Create a new tab for each month, and plan your editorial content out week by week.
Click here to start using our editorial calendar template in Google Sheets.
Social media content calendar apps and tools
Honestly there are probably as many different social media content calendar tools as there are social media managers. (Firefighter wall calendar? Microsoft Outlook? Do as you like!)
Google Sheets
Do we even have to list this one? Yes. Google Sheets is the microwave oven of your social media kitchen: you're not going to brag about it to your foodie friends, but life without it would be unnecessarily complicated.
And while it may take some extra time to start rolling with pivot tables (or just make the thing look decent), our handy social media calendar templates at least take care of that second point.
Hootsuite Planner
Our favorite social media content calendar tool, of course (you knew this was coming), is the Hootsuite Planner.
It eclipses even our trusty Google Sheets because you can draft, preview, schedule and publish all of your social media posts directly from the calendar.
The Hootsuite Planner works for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest.
The social media calendar you can build with Hootsuite's planner is interactive. You get your visual overview, all your assets (copy, visuals, links) in one place. From there, you can easily publish, schedule or edit your posts.
If you're part of a bigger social media team, you can easily share the calendar with your coworkers and managers, and even create custom approval workflows that will help you keep always keep your busy content calendar in check.
Source: Hootsuite
Hootsuite will even help you find the best time to post for each of your social media accounts. Using the Best Time to Publish feature will help you set all of your upcoming content up for success.
To learn more about scheduling and publishing content with Hootsuite, watch this video:
Once you've planned your social media content calendar, use Hootsuite Planner to schedule all of your social media posts, engage with your followers, and track the success of your efforts. Sign up for a free trial today.
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