Creating an Editorial Calendar
(A version of this originally appeared on the Non-Profit Network website.) You may have heard the term “editorial calendar” before but thought that was something just for magazines and newspapers. No – it’s for anyone with a blog or newsletter or social media feed, including nonprofits and NGOs. Put simply, it’s a calendar where you plan what kind of content your organization will push out via your website, blog and social media accounts. The key word there is “plan.” For example, let’s say you work at an HIV/AIDS organization. World AIDS Day is 1 December every year. Who or what organizations will you target with press releases? What stories, pictures or videos will you be publishing that day? What about social media campaigns? All that information should be on your calendar, which – by the way – does not have to be fancy. It can be a whiteboard in your conference room or a paper calendar on your office wall or a Google calendar. The most important thing is that you and your content team use it. Here are some tips to get you started with creating an editorial calendar:
- On your calendar, note what important events are happening locally so you can tie your content to those events. Also note which UN International Days pertain to your work, which presents an opportunity to tie your content to a global observance.
- What type of content do you want to push out? One success story a week? Three Instagram photos a week? A series of tweets on work-life balance tips? Once you’ve decided on categories you can….
- …..schedule your content on the editorial calendar. Make sure people know their deadlines for creating the content. Remind people about their deadlines, too.
- Establish workflow: who will edit the content, select images (if necessary) and publish/upload?
- Be consistent with how often you publish content. Be realistic with how consistent you can be and how much you can rely on people to meet deadlines.
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