How the planner builds your calendar
- Posting slots: it lists every selected weekday in the chosen month. Three days a week gives 12–15 slots, depending on the month.
- Pillar allocation: it shares those slots between your pillars in the proportions you set, using whole posts (largest remainder rounding), so a 40/30/30 split of 13 posts becomes 5, 4 and 4.
- Spreading: it interleaves pillars across the month so the same topic does not run several days in a row.
- Format rotation: each post gets a suggested format (carousel, short video, single image, text post or story) rotated per pillar, adjusted to what suits the platforms you picked.
Every selected platform appears on each row. Adapt the post to each platform rather than copying it word for word.
Choosing content pillars
Pillars are the three to five recurring themes your account is known for. For most service businesses a useful starting mix is:
| Pillar | Purpose | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| Educational / how-to | Shows expertise, earns saves and shares | 30–40% |
| Proof (results, reviews, case studies) | Builds trust with people already considering you | 20–30% |
| Behind the scenes / team | Makes the business recognisable and human | 15–25% |
| Offer / call to action | Tells people how to work with you | 10–20% |
These are starting points, not rules. Adjust them based on what actually earns engagement and enquiries over two or three months. Our guide to which social media metrics matter explains what to track.
Practical tips
- Plan fewer posts you can keep up. Three good posts a week, every week, beats a daily plan that collapses in the second week. Use the Posting Capacity Calculator to check what your team can sustain.
- Batch by pillar. Create all of one pillar’s posts in one session; it is faster than switching topics.
- Leave room for news. Treat one slot a week as flexible for timely posts.
- Repurpose deliberately. One strong piece (a guide, a video, a case study) can feed several slots across platforms. See how to repurpose content without repeating yourself.
- Track links. When a post sends people to your website, tag the link with the UTM Builder so enquiries can be traced back to social.
What the planner does not do
It does not write posts, pick the best time of day for your audience or publish anything. Posting times are best judged from your own account insights after a few weeks of consistent posting. The download is a plain CSV that opens in Google Sheets, Excel or most scheduling tools that accept imports.