Exercise 5: Content Calendar Outline

One of the easiest ways to plan and organize your content each week is through the utilization of a
content calendar. Start each month by outlining key dates and themes of the content you want to share.
Then, each week you can write content and schedule or post it.

It may be helpful to have an overarching theme for each month to guide your content calendar. For
November, please put together a content calendar focused on the health harms of tobacco.

In subsequent classes we will drill down into the actual copy and images you will use based on this
outline.

Drafting Your Content Calendar Outline

1. Download the blank content calendar spreadsheet from the Training platform.

2. Fill in all key dates (note each week should 1 or 2 key dates at most), including:
a. Breakthrough initiatives utilizing the four buckets
i. Press conferences
ii. Offline events
iii. Online events (i.e., Twitter chats)
iv. Report releases
b. Legislative calendar
i. Start of parliament
ii. Important hearings
c. Holidays -- make sure they can tie back to your campaign

3. Enter the content themes for each day. Reminder that a content theme is the major topic or
activity your post will focus on for each day. Be sure to include placeholders for content about
“my organization,” “my friends,” and “our shared interests.”

Note that you do not yet need to write the actual copy or select images for your posts -- you
are just outlining the major topic (theme) for the day and key dates for your campaign, similar to
the second tab, which has an example content calendar outline.