Speaker 1: Have you ever struggled to stay consistent with your posting on Instagram? Okay, yeah, I see it. Every single hand in the room goes up. Trust me, we've all been there. It's really tough to post consistently and frequently, but it is really essential for growth. And that is why a content calendar is so important because a content calendar is going to span that gap between being really inconsistent and unsure about your posting to feeling confident and knowing that you're on time, you've got your content made, and it's ready to go. In this video, I'm going to show you how to craft a content calendar that is actually filled with fresh and high quality fun Instagram content ideas that's actually going to help you connect with your audience and generate engagement and over the long term see real organic growth. Before we get into the specifics of planning your content calendar, I think it's important to define the difference between your content strategy and your content calendar because I think this is an area where a lot of creators get confused and it's really, really important that you have a clear content strategy before you go and make your content calendar because if you don't have that strategy in place first, you're going to be kind of directionless when it comes to actually planning out that calendar. In my philosophy of Instagram content creation, your content strategy is really made up of kind of two parts and essentially it's the framework of what types of content you're going to be posting. So the format, whether that be reels, carousels, photos, stories, etc. And then the second half of that is what subject matter are you going to be focusing on. So the format is kind of like the package that that content is going to go into, so whether it's a video or a graphic or whatever. And then the subject matter is basically your niche, your content pillars. As you're developing this strategy, the point is to think about what is going to connect most with your ideal audience because when it comes to different formats, for example, different audiences are going to feel different ways about video, photo, graphics, all that stuff. So determining what types of posts your ideal audience will be most interested in is kind of step one. And then step two is figuring out what subject matter they want to hear about and that's the niche and content pillars piece. Okay, so that's what your content strategy is. Now let's talk about your content calendar. Basically, your content calendar is the practical application of your content strategy. It's taking those two different pieces that we talked about and then matching them up together and actually turning it into your kind of to-do list for content creation. So you have an idea from one of your content pillars and then you match it up with one of those forms and you say, okay, this would work really well as a real and then you assign that to a specific day on your content calendar. So I like to think about your content strategy as your overarching plan for your Instagram and then your content calendar is more like the practical day-to-day checklist of what exact posts you're going to make. Now, like I was saying, before we can make the content calendar, it's really important that you have a solid content strategy. And if you've watched my videos before, then you'll know just how important it is to have a sustainable Instagram strategy. Because at the end of the day, if your Instagram content strategy is unrealistic or like too ambitious or you don't actually like to create that kind of content, then you're going to have a really hard time keeping that strategy up in the long-term and you're not going to have that consistency that we're all going for. So to determine your sustainable Instagram strategy, you want to ask yourself three questions. What do you love to make? What performs well for your audience? And what do you actually have time to make? Your ideal Instagram content strategy is going to exist at the intersection of those three areas. Everyone's strategies are going to look different because the whole point is they're uniquely designed based on your particular answers to those questions. But let's just talk about a few quick examples so you can see like in practice what this might look like. So one strategy might be two tutorial reels per week, one behind the scenes reel per week, and then one tweet graphic per week. Or another possible strategy could be three photo posts per week with vulnerable captions, and then two lifestyle reels per week. And finally, potential strategy number three would be one educational reel, one lifestyle reel, and one graphic carousel per week. And then of course within these posting frameworks, you're going to have your niche and your content pillars right to actually inspire like what's that educational reel going to be about. Also don't worry if this is the first time that you're really thinking through all of this. I've done a couple of videos diving more deeply into how to determine your niche and content pillars, and then also figuring out your sustainable Instagram strategy. So I'll have those both linked in the description if you want to keep learning after this video. Okay so hopefully by now you get what I mean about the difference between a content strategy and a content calendar. So it's important that you first determine what your strategy is going to be based on those three factors, what you love to make, what performs well for your audience, and what you have time for. And once you have that determined, we're going to go and plan your content calendar. So now it's time to actually plan that content calendar. So maybe you've done a bit of your strategy planning on paper, and now we're going to transfer over that strategy framework to your actual calendar template. So this is my Notion content calendar template. It's actually up for sale on my website, but it also comes for free with my brand new course the Instagram Roadmap, but more on that in just a minute. I'm going to show you how you can set up your content calendar starting from that point of your strategy, which we kind of took some notes on, and then we can start filling in our actual ideas like the posts that we're going to batch. So let's just go ahead to a fresh month. Let's say I'm making my content calendar for September, and we're going to move forward with the third strategy example that I mentioned before. So one educational reel per week, one lifestyle reel per week, and one graphic carousel per week. So what I can do is just click on the plus button to add something to my content calendar, and I'm going to start by selecting one of these templates. So we're going to schedule the first reel, and for now I'm just going to add a little label educational reel as a placeholder until I actually come up with the idea in a little bit. You can see that because I've set up these templates, like it automatically adds a status, adds the platform, and adds the type of post, and a little icon so that when we go back to the calendar view, we can see that it's a reel from the cute little icon that I put there. Okay, so since I'm planning to do this kind of structure, this framework every week, I'm going to just go ahead and copy this educational reel placeholder to each week in September. So I can do that by just holding down option and then clicking and dragging it. Okay, cool. Now I'm going to schedule my lifestyle reels. So I'm just going to press plus again and select reels, and this time just give it the placeholder title of lifestyle reel. And finally I'm going to go ahead and schedule in my graphic carousel. So I'm just going to press plus again, choose carousel graphic, and uh and add that placeholder title again. And of course click and drag these like that. So it's important to note I normally like to plan stuff like this, and I'll do like yeah all my educational reels on Monday, all my lifestyle reels Wednesday. And I just sort of do that for the sake of organization to start out, because after I plan some of this stuff, I might end up swapping it around in my grid just to like make it look better if I'm batching a month in advance. Or if I'm doing a more of like a weekly batching content creation style, then coming up to the week I might say, oh actually I prefer to post this graphic on Wednesday and this reel on Friday or whatever, and I'll swap them around. I really don't think that at this stage of the game on Instagram it really matters all that much exactly the day and time that you're posting. I think it's more important that on like the scale of a week or whatever you're posting about the same each week, so that you don't just go completely dark for a while and then come back online. And you know it's that inconsistency that we want to avoid, but it's not like make it or break it if you post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or if some weeks it's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or whatever. Like it's not that big of a deal. It's just important that on average you're posting the same amount each week. Or at least that's what I've found in my experience. Like it doesn't alter your growth that much to not post exactly the same day each week. So once you have your strategy basically transposed onto your content calendar, now you basically look at the ideas that you maybe have generated through your niche and content pillar brainstorming and start assigning them to your content calendar. So maybe like for a lifestyle reel or whatever, I would go in and then change the title to let's say one of my content pillars was thrifting. I would make this like go thrifting with me or something. And then maybe like another lifestyle reel later in the month would be like a thrift haul or I don't know. The point is it's at this stage once you've planned out your strategy and you've kind of plotted it on your calendar that you actually start taking your ideas for potential posts and then assigning them to dates. I find this process so helpful when it comes to staying consistent because there's nothing quite like just having a clear calendar that tells you, okay, on this day you're posting this, on this day you're posting that. And like I was saying, even if it ends up getting swapped around a little bit through the course of life or what you feel inspired to make, at least you have a visualized idea of what you kind of need to post. It's so much easier than just approaching it from like a, oh gosh, I know I need to post on Instagram today, but what should I post? You're going to have much better results from planning it out like this. Okay, so we did a deep dive into how to actually plan out your content calendar, but I know I kind of skimmed over the coming up with content ideas section. So I want to let you know that I've actually got an entire module in my new course, the Instagram roadmap dedicated to walking you through several different methods and techniques for coming up with new and unique ideas for your Instagram content. This is one of the biggest areas where a lot of creators get tripped up. I think for a lot of us, you spend a long time on the platform trying to come up with ideas, and eventually you feel like, oh my gosh, I have no idea what to post about. And that's exactly what this module is going to tackle. So we're going to go through lots of different methods like repurposing, but also how to do research and how to brainstorm and how to see what the viral trends are and apply them to your own niche so that you can also get that reach. So if that sounds like an area you would like some help with, definitely check out my new course, the Instagram roadmap. It's linked in the description below. Also, we go into so much more in the course. It's really just a journey of taking you from feeling uncertain and overwhelmed with Instagram to feeling confident and excited to make content that you love. So if that sounds like a transformation that you're looking for, check it out. Also, remember the launch is only live until September 16th. So if you join before the end of the launch, you're actually going to get over $300 of launch bonuses included for free when you sign up. So you're not going to want to miss out on that. All the details are at the link in the description or at the instagramroadmap.com. I know all of this planning and stuff might seem a little bit intimidating and overwhelming at the beginning, but trust me, planning out a content calendar is the best thing that you can do to be consistent on Instagram. And another major component of growth on Instagram that a lot of people don't talk about is confidence. And I actually made a whole video talking about how you can increase your confidence as an Instagram content creator and why that's so important to your growth. So you might want to go check that out next. Of course, remember to sign up for the Instagram roadmap at the link in the description. And as always, thank you so much for watching. I hope you're having adventures and following your dreams. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye.