Marketers and business owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to the many social media platforms available for growing an online audience.
From BlueSky to TikTok, LinkedIn to Patreon, social media marketing has never been more robust, or, arguably, time-consuming.
But it doesn’t have to be. Fortunately, you don’t have to be everywhere at once.
Where you choose to show up online should be based on where your target customers spend most of their time. Choose these platforms purposefully.
Also, streamlining your social media marketing is made easier with the right planning tool in your arsenal – and no, it doesn’t require fancy software solutions.
In this guide, I’m sharing a free, easy-to-use social media planning template, plus helpful steps on how to make it work for you.
It’s as simple or as customizable as you need it to be. No unnecessary bells or whistles.
Free Social Media Planner Template For Google Sheets
Planning your social media content doesn’t have to be complicated – or require the use of expensive tools.
With the free Planner Template, you’ll find an easier way to plan, organize, and schedule your social media content.
Whether you are an individual, business owner, or marketer, this template is designed to help you publish content consistently, stay organized, and make better decisions about your social media strategy.
With this Google Sheets template, you can:
- Plan your content calendar in advance, see what you’ve published, and know what’s coming up next.
- Schedule posts for multiple social media accounts from one calendar.
- Track the progress of your content and use the information to inform your future strategy.
- Collaborate with others by sharing access with your team.
Note: Click on File > Make a Copy to edit your template. You do not need to request edit access.
Make a copy: Social Media Planner Template for Google Sheets
How To Plan Your Social Media Content
The Google Sheet template makes it easy to see your schedule well in advance and save all of your social media assets in one place.
Here’s how to plan your social media content this year.
Step 1: Create A Copy Of The “Social Media Planner Template”
Once you have access to the template, click “File” and then “Make a Copy.” This will create a new copy of the template that you can edit.
Screenshot from Social Media Planner Template, May 2025Next, give your copy a descriptive name, such as “[Business name] – Social Media Plan Q1-Q4 2025,” and save it to Google Drive.
Step 2: Identify Your Current Quarter/Month
Depending on when you’re reading this article, you will want to identify the quarter and/or month in which you plan to start your social media planning.
The bottom of the template includes tabs spanning from “Q1: January” to “Q4: December” of 2025.
Open the tab for the month in which you want to start planning your content:
Screenshot from Social Media Planner Template, May 2025For simplicity, we started with “Q1: January” and began filling out the first few topics as an example:
Screenshot from Social Media Planner Template, May 2025You will also see in the left-hand columns that there is a calendar for each month. This is simply a reference to the correct days of the week/month for 2025 so you can plan accordingly.
You can, of course, update this for 2026, 2027, and so on.
Step 3: Choose Your Social Media Platforms (“Platform”)
Column K includes a dropdown of various social media platforms to which you may be publishing your content.
You can select from this list of options (Blog, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok, YouTube, or Other), or you can add your own by clicking the pencil icon:
Screenshot from Social Media Planner Template, May 2025This dropdown allows you to easily identify which platform you plan on publishing to. Whether it be Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), or any other platform, this will help you keep your content organized.
Step 4: Plan Your Topics
Now, it’s time to fill in your topic ideas.
There are quite a few ways to think of engaging social media topics, which we covered in our guide on how to create authentic social media content.
However, the research process doesn’t have to stop there. Here are a few ways to come up with social media posts:
- Conduct competitor research: Look at what your competitors are doing on social media and use that as inspiration for your future social media posts.
- Look at industry trends: Stay up-to-date on industry trends and news, and use this information to create relevant and timely posts for your audience.
- Utilize user-generated content: Encourage your followers to share their own experiences and use that content as inspiration for your posts.
- Look at hashtags: Research and use relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts and reach a wider audience. This can also be a way to find content ideas.
- Schedule regular promotions: Share your promotions and discounts to drive engagement and increase sales.
Once you think up some ideas, you can start filling out your social media planner.
Just fill out Columns J through R with your “Title/Topic,” “Description,” and the like.
Step 5: Add Content And Publishing Notes
Start editing the template by adding relevant information, such as your descriptions, content document links, hashtags, publish dates, and tracking links (if needed).
Screenshot from Social Media Planner Template, May 2025Feel free to add rows, columns, or fields to suit your needs.
In the “Images” and “Video/Media” columns, you can add links to the visual assets you plan to use in your social media post. You can do this by adding a link to a Google Drive folder with images or your chosen Digital Asset Manager (DAM).
Step 6: Add Publish Dates
Next, use the template to schedule your posts in advance by adding the date and platform for each post.
Don’t forget to update the “Status” column (I) as you work through your social media plan.
You can also use the template to track the success of your content by adding metrics such as likes, comments, and shares.
Step 7: Share With Your Team
If you are working with a team, share the template with your colleagues and give them access to edit the template.
This will allow you to collaborate and work together to maintain a consistent social media presence.
The “Notes” column is for any miscellaneous notes about your upcoming content, including details about your upcoming content, drafts, due dates, etc. and you can use this to work with your team async.
Step 8: Plan Ahead And Repeat
Planning your social media content in advance offers numerous benefits that can greatly enhance your social media presence.
By taking the time to plan your content, you can ensure that you are consistently publishing relevant posts that engage your audience and drive results.
With a clear content plan in place, you can focus on creating high-quality content that is aligned with your overall marketing strategy and avoid the pitfalls of impulsive, unplanned posting.
I recommend using the social media planner to plan at least one quarter’s worth of content, so you’re not scrambling to write the copy, collect the assets, schedule the posts, etc.
Plan And Publish Social Media Content Like A Pro
Social media marketing doesn’t have to be a headache. With the right process, you can streamline your social media content planning and publishing schedule.
In as little as a few hours per quarter, you can plan your content well in advance, taking the guesswork out of your social media posting.
Using a planning template allows you to be proactive in your topic planning, get organized, and stay on schedule. Over time, planning your content will feel like second nature rather than a chore.
With social media planning, marketers gain:
- A no-nonsense system for tracking content topics and scheduling.
- Time efficiency and a streamlined publishing cadence.
- Consistency in publishing timely, relevant posts.
- Improved visibility into performance and results.
Also, when you plan your social media posts in advance, you can better allocate budget and resources to your efforts, ensuring you’re using your time in the most effective way possible.
So, take advantage of the free social media planning template, make it yours, and save time in your social media marketing efforts.
More Resources:
- Generative AI And Social Media: Redefining Content Creation
- Making Social Media & SEO Work Together
- Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To What Works
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
FAQ
What Is A Social Media Planner?
A social media planner is a tool that helps you map out, schedule, publish, and keep tabs on your social content so you’re never scrambling for what to share next.
Your planner can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complex as an AI-driven software application.
What matters is that it simplifies the planning, scheduling, and publishing process, according to your goals.
Utilizing a social media planner makes it easier to strategize your content in advance and manage posts across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond.
There are many social media management solutions available, as well as more simplified templates, tables, checklists, and the like.
Some of these tools include advanced features such as automation, AI insights, cross-tool integrations, and robust analytics, whatever suits your fancy.
Why Use A Social Media Planner?
Here are just a few of the many benefits of using a social media planner:
Publish Content More Consistently
A social media planner helps you publish content consistently by allowing you to schedule posts at recurring intervals.
You can often automate publishing, ensuring your social media presence remains active, even when you are busy or unavailable.
Consistent posting can help maintain engagement with your followers and improve the visibility of your content. It encourages users to anticipate your posts, looking forward to your next batch of helpful content.
Keep Organized
A social media planner works as a content calendar, organizing your posts by category, platform, date, and content type.
This allows you to keep track of what you’ve published, when you’ve published it, and what’s coming up next.
The ability to view your content calendar in one spot helps you avoid publishing duplicate content or leaving gaps in the topics you’d like to cover.
It also helps you maintain an active presence, ensuring you don’t miss valuable opportunities to engage with your audience.
Develop Your Strategy
A social media planner helps you track your social media performance and results. This data can be used to inform future content strategy, making it easier to identify what works and what doesn’t on each platform.
Visibility into how your social media content is performing allows you to make data-driven decisions about what to post (or what not to post). You are able to see your marketing dollars at work, or whether your efforts are falling short.
Collaborate With Your Team
A social media planner can also help facilitate collaboration between team members.
By allowing multiple people access to your planner, it becomes easier to share responsibility for maintaining a consistent social media presence.
For example, your content marketing team can contribute topic ideas, from which your graphic design team can design the posts. Everyone is able to see what’s on the schedule and their role in making it happen.
This can help ensure that content is published regularly and meets the quality standards you’ve set for your brand.
