What does a strategic social media content calendar look like?
If writing your social media content calendar involves Googling something like, “What national and social media holidays are coming up next month,” writing down all the notable days, and filling in random posts around them—you’re doing it wrong.
It is 2025, and that just doesn’t work anymore.
That’s what I would call making content for content’s sake. Honestly, the only kind of business I can think of that could consider that strategic is a party supply company.
Now—you might not just be solely planning around things like National Cheesecake Day, but you may be feeling a little aimless when you sit down to a blank post. What should you be putting out into the world? What would resonate?
What does a strategic content calendar look like?
Why old-school strategies don’t work anymore
We’re smack in the middle of the second decade of social media marketing, and things have changed a ton since the early 2010s. In fact, they’re unrecognizable.
Social isn’t something business leaders are rolling their eyes at anymore (at least, not all the time)—it’s a valuable tool they know they need to be leveraging.
But the noise has gotten louder. Feeds have gotten fuller. Algorithms have gotten complex.
Not only that, but content has changed completely. Businesses are becoming less and less buttoned-up and professional; they’re feeling like they can let loose a little on their social. That actually makes things a lot more complex.
Users can—and will—be choosy with who they want to follow; boring won’t cut it these days.
The social media strategies that work in 2025
Okay, so what can work? How do you actually plan content, then?
These days, your social media content needs to do several things if you want it to actually be a strategic, functional channel for your business.
Strategic social content ladders up to your business goals.
Each piece of content you put out should somehow tie back to a different goal in your business. Do you want to grow a certain service line? Fill the top of the funnel? Make customers familiar with your sales team before they even walk in the door? Educate people about a new and exciting product you’ve developed?
If you don’t know what your business goals are or what you want to achieve—or if your social media manager has never asked you that question—you’re probably not putting out strategic content.
Strategic content looks 90 days ahead.
This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your business goals, but pull out your calendar and look ahead. Is there a class you want to fill? A webinar to promote? A new product to sell or a version release to download?
Your content calendar needs to start incorporating these things early enough to give users time to see it, digest it, and get hyped about it. You’re going to feel like you’re saying the same thing over and over, but it’s important. Sales and funnel-building aren’t going to happen two weeks ahead of time.
Strategic content builds community.
You want people to be excited about your content, not bored to death by it. Your content should make your audience feel seen, heard, and understood. Your content isn’t about you and your business—it’s about your customer and how you can make their lives better.
You’re not going to draw a community by constantly talking about how great you are—you need to invite the user into your space and make them feel welcome.
Strategic content connects to places off of social media.
I’ve talked about this before on the wake of the TikTok Apocalypse, but we forget that social media isn’t something we own. We each rent a little space on it every day. It could all go away, and we’ll completely lose our audiences.
Not only that, you want to be able to sell to, remarket to, and pull customers along on a broader experience than just your social media. Understanding how and when to drive people off your page and into a different experience is just as important as knowing how to get them locked into their feed.
Strategic content feels hyper-relevant to your niche.
Even if you’re chasing a trend or using a meme or even actually doing a holiday post, it should align directly with what you do. You shouldn’t be jumping on trends just to jump on them—add your own interesting, relevant flavor.
Like this Valentine’s post by a police department:
Stuck? Keep these four things in mind.
If you’re feeling stuck and don’t know how to get started, here’s a ‘hack’ to keep in mind that will help guide your strategy.
Make sure every piece of content you plan does one of four things:
Educate
Entertain
Tell a story
Show your work
Write each of those things on a piece of paper, and start to brainstorm out a piece of content that could fit under each bucket. Some ideas might cross two buckets, and that’s okay!
Once you get the ideas down, try to think about how you can make them social-media ready. Should it be a video? A timelapse? A Q&A with employees? Maybe just a photo carousel? How can you spin each to be for your audience, not your ego?
Or maybe you have an idea that you can turn into a little of everything—a carousel, a Q&A, a relevant trend. Don’t feel like each idea can only work one way. Remember, feeds are filled. One idea may get zero traction while others completely pop off.
Use this framework whenever you need to jumpstart your creativity—it’s bound to make content that’s both interesting and strategic.
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