Step 3: Content Calendar with AI

One-Line Summary: Use AI to plan a full month of social media content with weekly themes, balanced post types, and platform-specific strategies.

Prerequisites: Brand voice guide from Step 2

Why Plan a Full Month

Posting without a plan leads to three problems: inconsistency (you post five times one week and zero the next), repetition (every post is promotional), and burnout (you are always scrambling for ideas). A monthly content calendar solves all three.

AI is excellent at this because it can balance themes, vary post types, and account for platform differences all at once.

Understand Post Types

Before generating your calendar, know the four content pillars that keep your feed balanced:

This 40/25/20/15 split is a starting point. You will adjust it based on what performs best (Step 8).

Generate Your Monthly Calendar

Paste your brand voice prefix from Step 2, then add this prompt:

Create a 4-week social media content calendar for [month, year].
 
My business: [one sentence description]
Platforms: [list your active platforms]
Posting frequency: [e.g., "5x/week on Instagram, 3x/week on LinkedIn, daily on Twitter/X"]
 
Content mix:
- 40% Educational (tips, how-tos, insights)
- 25% Engagement (questions, polls, discussion starters)
- 20% Promotional (products, services, offers, testimonials)
- 15% Personal/Behind-the-scenes (brand story, team, values)
 
Upcoming dates/events to incorporate:
- [List any holidays, product launches, industry events, or seasonal themes]
 
For each day, provide:
1. The post type (Educational/Engagement/Promotional/Personal)
2. A specific topic or angle
3. Which platform(s) it should appear on
4. A one-sentence content brief
 
Format as a table with columns: Week | Day | Type | Topic | Platform(s) | Brief

Example Calendar Output

Here is a sample week for our fictional coffee roaster:

Add Weekly Themes

Weekly themes make content creation faster because you are thinking about one topic at a time. Ask AI to assign themes:

Looking at the calendar you just created, assign a weekly theme to each
of the 4 weeks. The theme should tie together at least 3 of that week's
posts. For example: "Week 1: Brewing Basics" or "Week 2: Meet the Team."
 
Reformat the calendar with the weekly themes added.

Platform-Specific Strategy

Different platforms reward different content formats. Use this prompt to get platform guidance:

For each platform I use ([list platforms]), give me:
 
1. Best posting times for [my industry/audience]
2. Ideal post format (text length, image vs. video vs. carousel)
3. Content types that perform best on this platform
4. How to adapt the same content idea for this specific platform
 
Keep it practical and specific to my audience: [your audience description]

Build Your Content Bank

A content bank is a list of evergreen topics you can pull from any time you need filler or want to swap out a planned post. Generate one:

Generate 30 evergreen social media content ideas for my brand.
These should be topics I can post about any time of year.
 
Organize them into my four content pillars:
- Educational (12 ideas)
- Engagement (8 ideas)
- Promotional (6 ideas)
- Personal (4 ideas)
 
Each idea should be one sentence describing the specific angle or hook.

Save this list alongside your brand voice guide. When you sit down to write posts in Step 4, you will have both the calendar telling you what to write and the voice guide telling you how to write it.

Organize Everything

Create a simple spreadsheet or document with these tabs or sections:

1. Monthly Calendar — the full table from above
2. Weekly Themes — the theme for each week
3. Content Bank — your 30 evergreen ideas
4. Platform Notes — posting times and format guidelines

Google Sheets works well for this. Notion, Airtable, or even a simple document also work fine. The format matters less than having everything in one place.

You now have a clear plan for what to post, when to post it, and where to post it. Next, we will use AI to write the actual posts.

Next: Step 4 - Generate Post Copy →