Free social media content calendar template 2022

2021 is now behind us, and if your New Year's resolution is to finally get control over your company's social media activities, you're going to need a social media content calendar. Fortunately, we've already created one for you that you can download below, for free.

What is a social media content calendar?

A social media content calendar is a document (e.g. a spreadsheet) that you can use to plan and schedule your social media content across your social media channels. Your social media content should be strategically relevant and made as part of your overall marketing plan and in line with the objectives. With the right messages in the form of text, images, videos, captions and hashtags, you can reach the right audience at the right time. 

Why should you use a social media calendar?

Once you have created a social media content plan, take the time to transfer the plan to a spreadsheet. You will not only get an overview, but the plan itself also becomes much more manageable and tangible. For example, if you're planning on using quotes from company influencers and colleagues to strengthen your brand's profile, you need to collect these quotes, prepare an image or video, and plan when they should be published on your social platforms. It's a lot to keep track of, but a social media calendar is a perfect place to create a solid overview. With a social media calendar, you save time, nerves and don’t forget business-related events and important holidays. You can plan and prepare your content step by step and get ready for publishing at the right time.

Read more about social media plan in our comprehensive social media guide. You'll learn the importance of using social media for your business and how to develop your own social media plan.

Important events and holidays in 2022

Major events, significant anniversaries or national or international events are ideal for use in social media marketing. It's not always easy to decide what you should actually post about from your company's social media channels, so it makes life easier to have important days like these marked out in your calendar so that you're never short of inspiration.

In our calendar template, we've marked the most important public holidays and events, with a particular focus on Sweden. However, the days you want to celebrate probably look different. Everyone knows about Valentine's Day, but maybe your followers would appreciate a post about International Friendship Day on July 30, for example?

If you wanted, you could probably celebrate an occasion like this every day of the year - but try to stick to the ones that are relevant or entertaining for your audience. I found the lists below to be a good source of information:

• Wikipedia's list of 'minor secular observances' - full of national days from around the world, plenty of official UN international days, and some more left-field ones like World UFO Day (2 July, if you were wondering).
• Daysoftheyear.com - If you're looking for the official date of unofficial holidays like National Tempura Day, International Strange Music Day or International Podcast Day, this is the better option.

Excel social media calendar 2022 template for download

Hopefully our template comes in useful as you plan your social media activities for 2022. Download our free social media calendar as an Excel template to get started, and feel free to customise the columns to fit your needs.

Social media content ideas for your content calendar

Check out the infographic below from our friend Larry Kim. It outlines more social media content ideas that can be included in your content calendar.

Social media infographic by Larry Kim, MobileMonkey, Inc.