A Guide to Customizing a Content Calendar for the Academic Year

Content marketing can never be successful if you don’t have a plan for what you hope to achieve. Is your school district engaging with parents through social media on a regular – if not daily – basis? How do you keep in touch with community members who aren’t a part of your district through social media?

This type of recurring contact is essential to building trust in your school district, which is all the more critical when it comes time to place a levy on the ballot. People want to learn more about your school district’s story—they want to see everything from the holiday art projects by the third-graders to the basketball team who qualified for state finals.

The reality is this: gathering, creating and sending out updates across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (and any other avenues that reach your target audiences!) can be a full-time job.

If your district is larger than most, you might have dozens of social media accounts from different teams, clubs and teachers as well as a main one run by a marketing manager. If you hail from a smaller district, several staff members may be sharing the responsibility—adding their different voices, ideas and styles to the mix.

Regardless of the size of your district, using a content calendar is a fantastic solution to organizing all of the moving parts of a school district’s social media.

Content calendars, which are also called editorial calendars, are an indispensable tool that allow you to plan your content creation and publishing schedule for social media.

Some of the top benefits of using a content calendar at your school district include:

• Fuels idea generation and innovation
• Aligns your output with the needs of the community
• Gives your audience a consistent communication stream
• Reduces the stress of seeking out new content every day
• Increases your online presence, reputation and brand

Have we convinced you that you need to use a content calendar yet? If yes, you may be wondering where to begin and how to tailor the content to an entire academic year. Don’t worry! It’s best to start small—and to first determine what you should include on the calendar.