Plan a month of social media posts
Give your business, audience and goals. Get a 30-day social media content calendar with post copy, hashtags and posting times for LinkedIn, X or Instagram.
How to use it
- Define your content pillars List 3–5 core themes your brand covers, for example industry insights, behind the scenes, customer stories, product tips. This keeps the calendar varied.
- Fill in the form and run it Enter your platform, brand voice, posting frequency and pillars. You get a full month mapped week by week.
- Remove off-brand posts Flag any post that doesn't match your voice or claims something untrue about your business, and ask in the chat for a rewrite.
- Add real data and specifics Add real numbers, customer stories (with permission) and product details to turn templates into authentic posts.
- Schedule the posts Copy the final posts into Buffer, Hootsuite or your scheduler. Use the suggested times as a starting point, then adjust to your own analytics.
The prompt
You are a social media strategist. Create a 30-day content calendar for [PLATFORM: LinkedIn/Twitter/Instagram] for a [COMPANY_TYPE] in the [INDUSTRY] space. Brand voice: [DESCRIBE: e.g. "professional but witty, data-driven, avoids corporate jargon"] Posting frequency: [X] posts per week Target audience: [JOB_TITLE or DEMOGRAPHIC] Content pillars: 1. [PILLAR 1] 2. [PILLAR 2] 3. [PILLAR 3] 4. [PILLAR 4 - optional] 5. [PILLAR 5 - optional] For each post provide: - Day and date (Week 1 Mon, Week 1 Wed, etc.) - Content pillar it belongs to - Full post copy (ready to publish, no placeholders) - 5 relevant hashtags - Suggested posting time (in UTC) - Post type: text / carousel / poll / question Do not repeat post types more than 2 days in a row. Mix in 2 engagement-bait posts (polls or questions) per week.
Example result
Platform wasn't specified, so this plan is for Instagram (best fit for a bookshop). Voice assumed: warm, bookish, a little funny. Audience assumed: local readers aged 25–55. Posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday; times in UTC with Sydney time (AEDT, UTC+11) in brackets, so a Monday 8 am post is scheduled for Sunday 21:00 UTC.
| Day | Pillar | Type | Post copy | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 Mon | Staff picks | Carousel | Jess has read this one three times and is "not okay about the ending". Swipe for her five reasons it's the best novel of the year so far. Signed copies at the counter while they last. | 21:00 UTC Sun (Mon 8 am) |
| Week 1 Wed | Behind the counter | Text + photo | 7.58 am: kettle on, boxes in, Biscuit (shop cat) already asleep on the new releases table. Some mornings write themselves. | 22:00 UTC Tue (Wed 9 am) |
| Week 1 Fri | Community | Question | Settle this for us: do you read the last page first? We're split 50/50 at the counter and need outside opinions. | 07:00 UTC Fri (Fri 6 pm) |
| Week 2 Mon | Staff picks | Carousel | Short on time? Five books under 200 pages that still hit hard, chosen by Marco for "people who say they don't have time to read". | 21:00 UTC Sun (Mon 8 am) |
| Week 2 Wed | Events | Text + photo | Book club is back Thursday 6.30 pm. This month: a crime novel set two streets from the shop. Wine, cheese and strong opinions provided. Free; reply to save a spot. | 22:00 UTC Tue (Wed 9 am) |
| Week 2 Fri | Behind the counter | Poll | Our window display needs a theme for next month. Vote: 🌊 Books set by the sea or 🍳 Cookbooks we actually cook from. | 07:00 UTC Fri (Fri 6 pm) |
| Week 3 Mon | Staff picks | Text + photo | The book customers bring back to buy a second copy of, as a gift. That's our favourite kind of recommendation. On the shelf now. | 21:00 UTC Sun (Mon 8 am) |
| Week 3 Wed | Events | Carousel | Photos from Thursday's author talk: 60 people, one very brave question about the sequel, and zero books left on the signing table. Thank you for coming. | 22:00 UTC Tue (Wed 9 am) |
| Week 3 Fri | Community | Question | What's the book you've recommended the most in your life? Best answers go on our "Recommended by you" shelf next week. | 07:00 UTC Fri (Fri 6 pm) |
| Week 4 Mon | Behind the counter | Carousel | How a book gets from the publisher to our shelves, in six photos (and one very heavy box). | 21:00 UTC Sun (Mon 8 am) |
| Week 4 Wed | Staff picks | Text + photo | Your "Recommended by you" shelf is up! 23 books chosen by our followers. Come and see if yours made it. | 22:00 UTC Tue (Wed 9 am) |
| Week 4 Fri | Community | Poll | Saturday story time for kids, 10 am or 11 am? Majority wins and we start next month. | 07:00 UTC Fri (Fri 6 pm) |
Hashtags (rotate five per post): #bookstagram #independentbookshop #shoplocal #booksydney #staffpicks #bookclub #currentlyreading #bookshopcat #booklover #readmore
Notes
- Two engagement posts (question or poll) every week, and no post type more than two days in a row.
- Week 3's question feeds Week 4's "Recommended by you" shelf: a reason for followers to come back and visit.
- Replace names, the cat and the events with your own; real staff faces get more reach than book covers alone.