Build a social media calendar in a spreadsheet

Key takeaways

A social media calendar spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Excel is enough for most small businesses below about 30 posts a month. Use one tab per month, one row per post, seven columns, drop-down lists for platform, pillar and status, and a filter so each owner sees only their own posts. It costs nothing and everyone already knows how to use it.

• Free and familiar: enough below about 30 posts a month.
• 1 tab per month, 1 row per post, 7 columns.
• Drop-downs stop typos breaking filters and counts.
• Move to a tool when several people publish or approve.

How do you set up a content calendar spreadsheet?

Create one tab per month and one row per post. Use seven columns: date, platform, pillar, format, brief, owner, status. Freeze the header row, sort by date, and add drop-down lists for platform, pillar, format, owner and status so entries are consistent. Copy last month's tab to start the next, then change the dates and briefs.

• How to build a monthly social media content calendar
• Content calendar fields: what each row needs

Which spreadsheet features help most?

Four features do most of the work: drop-down lists, colour rules on the status column, filters by owner, and a small summary that counts posts by status. The summary is your mid-month check: if more than a quarter of next week's posts are still at 'idea', something needs to move.

• Drop-downs for consistent entries.
• Conditional colour on status so stuck posts stand out.
• Filter views so each owner sees their own list.
• A count of posts by status for the mid-month check.

• Colour-code a content calendar so it reads at a glance

Google Sheets or Excel?

Use whichever your team already shares files in. Google Sheets is easier for several people editing at once and for comments; Excel in Microsoft 365 does the same if your business runs on it. The choice matters far less than whether the file is shared, current and opened every week.

• A shared content calendar the whole team can use

When should you move off a spreadsheet?

Move to a scheduling tool when several people publish, when approvals need a record, or when you post more than about 30 times a month across platforms. Until then, a spreadsheet plus the platforms' own schedulers covers planning and publishing. Do not buy software to fix a planning habit; a calendar nobody updates in a spreadsheet becomes one nobody updates in a tool.

• Social media scheduling tools for UK small businesses

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a small firm pays for a planning tool, uses a fraction of it, and keeps a spreadsheet on the side because it is quicker. Dropping the tool and tidying the spreadsheet often costs nothing in output, and saves a subscription in the region of £20–£80 a month at indicative market rates.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Spreadsheet calendar checklist

• One tab per month, one row per post.
• Seven columns with drop-downs.
• Colour rules on status.
• A filter view per owner.
• A count of posts by status.
• Share it with everyone who makes or approves posts.

• Content calendar fields: what each row needs
• Your first social media content calendar, from nothing

Next step

Create next month's tab today with the seven columns and drop-downs. Fill in only the dates and platforms; the rest comes in your planning session.