LinkedIn is an essential social media for your business. It’s endlessly marketable, easy to use and great for finding like-minded people. Here, we show you how to create a LinkedIn content calendar – so you can figure out how to get the best out of your social media strategy.

LinkedIn – Essential for thought leadership

Did you know there were more than 660 million users on LinkedIn in 2021? And 33 million of those are in the UK!

LinkedIn is the primary choice for B2B marketers, and the most successful marketing platform – given its emphasis on professional networking and ease of sociability.

LinkedIn is also great for industry experts demonstrating ‘thought leadership’ – crucial for brands and experts wishing to lead in their field of expertise.  

However, like all social media, there are algorithms to navigate. This means that to succeed, you’ll have to understand the platform’s needs as well as the needs of the audience you cater for.

Whatever your goals are for LinkedIn, regular posting is key. It’s one of the biggest factors in ensuring your content is seen by your audience.

To create consistency, you’ll need a schedule (AKA a LinkedIn content calendar!)

Why do I need a LinkedIn content calendar?

It takes as much energy to wish, as it does to plan.

As with anything in marketing, organisation is key. It not only makes your life easier, but also helps campaigns to run smoothly, and frees up headspace.

Benefits of being organised? It can help develop your LinkedIn in the following ways:

• Helps you to plan ahead and develop ideas for both the short and long run
• Allows you to develop themes and channels that run through your posts
• Assists with planning for noteworthy events like awareness days and current affairs
• It aids with collaboration, as the whole team can gain a visual understanding of plans
• Ensures that you are buyer-oriented and reach a target audience with your posting

What’s the difference between an editorial and content calendar?

As suggested by the name, editorial calendars may lean more towards magazines or blog posts.

While an editorial reveals a bigger picture of your content strategy, a social media content calendar is a day-to-day plan to showcase when different content will be published.

Social media content calendars are essential for an organisation, ensuring consistency and making sure your brand doesn’t miss out on any major opportunities.

Is there a LinkedIn content calendar for automatic posting?

Unfortunately, at present (2022), there is no built-in post-scheduling feature on LinkedIn, like there is on Twitter or Facebook.

However, there are some third-party LinkedIn tools that offer this feature, like Hootsuite, Socialpilot and Later.

How do I create a LinkedIn content calendar?

The first step in creating a LinkedIn content calendar is to decide what platform you’re going to use for it.

While there are plenty of free and paid content calendars on the internet, it can be just as effective to create your own using Excel or Google Sheets.

We prefer Google Sheets, as you have the added benefit of sharing and editing the document amongst peers.

Below, we have a very basic template of the type of thing you might want to create:

Included here are the days of the week, the date of the week beginning, the weekly conversation theme, and categories for the post itself.

We’ve included the fundamentals here. But the overall look is up to you.

Let’s run through the categories:

LinkedIn Post Topic

We recommend writing a title. A draft title can really help to structure your post. Generally, it helps to keep the title short and eye-catching, especially if you want to use it as your opener. It may be useful to scour LinkedIn for some inspiration before you start this bit.

Linkedin Post Format (Types)

• Blog posts: Linking to a blog post can help to bring traffic to your website, however LinkedIn wants to keep people on to their site, so take this into conideration. Make sure, however, to keep the teaser/preview text snappy.

• Third-party content: Post about engaging/interesting content from other publishers. Not only can this reduce your workload, it also shows users that you have insightful things to say about the world around you (you’re not just operating with tunnel vision). See point above for the caveat.

• Videos on your LinkedIn posts: Requiring slightly more effort, this format can still be very rewarding if done right. It can also draw new users to your site as it’s visually appealing.  Consider interviews, animations, recaps.

• Plain text posts: By far the most popular medium on LinkedIn. There are really endless possibilities. Many creators on LinkedIn are great storytellers, and use text posts for anecdotes on business stories about themselves or others.

• Photos/Illustrations in posts: Images – especially those which are authentic and eye-catching – do very well on LinkedIn. However we think pure text can do just as well.

LinkedIn Post

Here the actual post copy is entered, exactly how it would be pasted into LinkedIn, with spaces and breaks included.

Adding a CTA (Call to Action) at the end of your LinkedIn posts

This refers to what action you want your followers to make when they see your post. It could be for them to comment by asking them a question, clicking a website link, or using a trial of your product. CTAs are very important as they’re the way of monetising your page.

Hashtags for LinkedIn

The use of hashtags can be helpful on LinkedIn as it allows people to discover your page. You might want to stick to just a few, as too many looks cluttered and doesn’t really do you any favours in pushing your content up people’s feeds.

Primary keywords

Choose 5-10 words that you want to include in your post and that are aimed towards your target audience. This just helps to keep the focus of the piece and it may be good to communicate your ideas with your author.

Other supporting media

This mainly refers to any third-party content you may wish to include in your LinkedIn post. Inserting a link in this column helps to keep things nice and tidy.

Remember to tag other creators, especially if they’re mentioned in your post – it can help increase visibility for both of you.

How do I come up with ideas related to my sector for my LinkedIn Content Calendar?  

Struggling for inspiration? New to the platform? Here are some tips for creating content:

LinkedIn Content Calendar Tip #1: Scour LinkedIn for noteworthy ideas

The best way to create is to consume. Try taking a look at some successful pages from people in your sector. Note down where they went right, what kinds of posts got the most engagement, what topics they use etc.

This should give you a good idea about what kinds of things satisfy the LinkedIn market. Keep in mind that copying isn’t the way to go, and in fact the clever people on LinkedIn rarely miss it. At the end of the day, you’ll want to engage YOUR target audience, so think of what they’d want to see.

LinkedIn Content Calendar Tip #2: Peek at industry news

What’s going on in your industry? Or in the world at large? Is there a lesson to be learnt?

Look out for viral trends that might be shaping conversations in your sector, or what topics are becoming more popular to help you get a sense of how to keep your content relevant.

A great place to start is on LinkedIn’s content suggestion tool which gives you a sneak peek into what your audience is looking for.

LinkedIn Content Calendar Tip #3: Use key dates as a springboard for post ideas

Leveraging posts around awareness days, key dates and anniversaries is popular on LinkedIn as it can help to boost the social awareness of your profile.

Our platform – the Key Dates Finder is great for discovering all-year-round events ranging from key royal events, to sporting moments, as well as UN dates. You can use it as a playground for ideas, add your favourite events to your pinboard and search for industry-specific dates!

What do I post about on LinkedIn – what does well?

Inspirational Storytelling

No surprise here if you’ve been on LinkedIn a while. Storytelling is a very popular form of post.

Quite often, these stories have a motivational element to them. For instance, where CEOs share their stories at the beginning of their hustle. The more motivational your post is, the better it performs. 

Just make sure it’s authentic, and not out-of-touch – I’m not sure you’d want a reaction like Molly Mae’s 24 hours in a day speech.

Interactive Content on LinkedIn

Sharing highly interactive content (that encourages likes, comments and shares) is sure to increase your virality.

Familiarise yourself with LinkedIn polls, ‘carousel’ posts and live video – and if you’re brave enough, try one of them out!

Sharing on LinkedIn Company News and Employee Spotlights

Posting employee shout-outs is a great way to appreciate your workforce.

With the added benefit of make your company feel more personable, it could help to attract new employees.

You can also use this opportunity to share company news. Where is your company going? Have you fulfilled the goals you had at the beginning of the process?  

Takeaway

You’ll need a content calendar if you’re really serious about your marketing strategy and it’s important to figure out what works well on LinkedIn. That’s why we’ve created this article, to keep you in the know.

If you want to find out more about online strategy and planning, check out How to Create An E-Commerce Social Media Calendar.

Written by Zoe Papadopoulos