How To Use an Instagram Content Calendar (2024)

On your personal Instagram account, you probably post photos of your vacation or that new recipe you tried, in or close to real time. When the goal for your social media presence is to keep your friends and family updated on your life, a sporadic posting pattern makes perfect sense. 

But if you’re using Instagram for your business, you’ll likely aim to reach more potential customers and drive traffic to your website. A goal like this calls for a more strategic approach to social media. An Instagram content calendar can help you save time and stay organized as you execute an effective social media marketing strategy.

Here you’ll learn the benefits of using an Instagram content calendar and how to create your own. 

What is an Instagram content calendar?

An Instagram content calendar is a planning tool to organize and schedule Instagram posts ahead of time. Social media teams use these calendars to schedule content in batches and create a big-picture view of upcoming posts. An Instagram content calendar can be as simple as a spreadsheet with a list of upcoming posts or an advanced app with scheduling, engagement metrics, AI caption generation, and more.

Benefits of using an Instagram content calendar

Instagram content calendars are a key tool for any social media marketer looking to make the most out of their Instagram account. Here are four advantages to using one: 

Maintain a consistent posting schedule

Posting consistently keeps your brand fresh in your followers’ feeds, ensuring that your Instagram audience sees your posts consistently when they log in and scroll—posting three to five times per week is usually sufficient. An Instagram content calendar is a key tool for maintaining a consistent posting schedule, as it lets you plan ahead and schedule social media posts in advance. 

Plan strategically

Using a social calendar can help you align your social media strategy with your overall marketing goals. By planning your social media posting schedule, you can anticipate and make the most of key events, such as holidays, product launches, and marketing campaigns. 

This proactive approach can also give you the opportunity to plan for a strategic mix of content. This ensures a balance between promotional and more entertaining posts, or between branded content and user-generated content. By investing time in content planning, you can brainstorm and refine your post ideas, producing higher-quality content.

Improve efficiency 

Planning and scheduling posts ahead of time can cut down on a social media manager’s day-to-day workload. When you plan content in batches, you can schedule social posts for an entire campaign, week, or month in one sitting. This could prove a more efficient use of time and attention than figuring out what to post, procuring creative assets, and manually posting content on a daily basis. 

How to create an Instagram content calendar

1. Set clear goals
2. Choose a social media content calendar tool
3. Categorize your post types
4. Schedule posts strategically
5. Track performance

To get the most out of an Instagram content calendar, consider your goals and choose the right tool. Here are five steps to get started.

1. Set clear goals

Establishing specific objectives—such as increasing engagement, growing followers, or driving website traffic—is crucial for shaping an effective Instagram strategy. Your goals will inform your content calendar, helping you determine how often to post and what kind of content to share.

For example, if your main goal is to increase engagement, you might create content that is highly interactive, such as polls or questions. On the other hand, if your goal is to expand your reach, you might schedule collaborations with influencers who share your target audience.

2. Choose a social media content calendar tool

While you can schedule posts and reels on an Instagram business account, a third-party tool can help you plan your entire social media strategy in one centralized location. When choosing a social media scheduling tool, consider the amount of content you need to post per week and the size of your social media team.

When assessing a social media management tool, you’ll also want to evaluate its interface (is it easy to use?) and cost (does it fit into your budget?). Here are a few scheduling tools to consider:

Google Calendar

For a simple, free calendar tool, Google Calendaris a great starting point. You can schedule reminders to make and publish posts, color code your calendar, and invite multiple people to collaborate. Google Calendarlacks specialized features for social media management, such as content previews, hashtag suggestions, analytics, and auto posting, but it’s a good simple tool for staying on schedule.

Buffer

Buffer is a social media scheduling tool with an easy-to-use social media calendar function. You can create, edit, and delete posts within the calendar and schedule them to auto-publish. And while you can manage multiple accounts at once, you can filter the calendar view by social media platform. Buffer offers a free plan for up to 10 posts per month. If you want to collaborate and see analytics, paid plans start at $5 per month. 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a comprehensive social media management tool that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts from one place. It’s great for collaboration, offers in-depth analytics, and includes a bulk uploader that lets you schedule up to 350 posts at once. Plans start at $99 per month.

3. Categorize your post types

Categorizing your Instagram posts is an essential step in developing an Instagram calendar. It allows you to create a balanced mix of the different types of content you want to share, ensuring your posts align with your various social media marketing goals.

For example, if your primary goal is to increase engagement and your secondary goal is to reach more of your target audience, you can create content in both categories and share them in proportion to your priorities. If increasing engagement is twice as important as expanding your reach, ensure that two-thirds of your posts encourage the former, while one-third aims to fulfill the latter. 

You may want to further categorize your posts to ensure an aesthetic balance on your page. For instance, if you want to include both polished branded product photos and more casual behind-the-scenes shots, make sure you consistently post each. The same goes for the balance between static photos and Instagram Reels. 

4. Schedule posts strategically

Now it’s finally time to schedule your posts. You can typically schedule on a weekly or monthly basis (the former if your content is more timely, the latter if it’s evergreen). 

First, start by scheduling posts for major events, such as holidays, sales, product launches, or other time-sensitive campaigns. Then, fill in the rest of the calendar with a balanced mix of posts from the categories you decided on.

When choosing the publish date and time, aim for high-traffic hours to increase the likelihood that users will see your posts. If you’re using a social media management tool like Buffer or Hootuiste, you can let your tool select optimized times for you, or you can use Instagram’s in-app analytics to see when your Instagram audience is most active. 

🌟Resource:Uncover the Best Time To Post on Instagram in 2024

5. Track performance

Finally, track your posts’ performance to learn what works and what doesn’t. For example, see whether your influencer campaign has driven traffic to your Instagram profile and increased your follower count. You might find out whether reels or photos get more interactions and whether branded product photos or customer testimonials generate more sales. Use these data points to optimize your content mix toward supporting your goals.