Lesson 4 of 7 · about 11 minutes
A Content Calendar You Can Keep
You'll be able to
- Pick a posting cadence based on the hours you actually have
- Batch writing and image work into one or two sessions a week
- Fill in a simple weekly calendar table
- Leave room for news that breaks mid-week
The calendar that works is the one you still use in March. Most people start with a plan for two posts a day on five platforms and are posting nothing by week six. Plan for the week where your kid is sick and the car needs a new alternator. If that week still gets four posts, you have a cadence.
Pick the cadence from your hours
Count honestly. A text post with a cropped document takes about 15 minutes once you have the reporting. A chart takes 30 to 45. A short reel takes one to three hours the first few times and maybe 45 minutes once you know your tools. Replying to comments takes whatever time you give it, which is the dangerous part.
| Hours a week for social | A pace you can hold |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 3 posts a week on one platform, plus one cross-post |
| 3 to 5 | 4 or 5 posts a week on two platforms, one chart or document post, replies twice a week |
| 6 to 10 | Daily on two platforms, one reel a week, a third platform if your readers are there |
Treat these as starting points. The real rule: pick a number you could keep for 52 weeks, then post that many. Your readers learn when to expect you. Platforms tend to show steady accounts to more people than accounts that disappear for a month and then post nine times in a day.
Batch the work
Switching between reporting, writing, image making and posting eats time. Group like tasks.
- One sitting for writing. Sunday evening or whenever you have 90 minutes. Write every post for the week from the article you published (lesson 3 gives you the pieces).
- One sitting for images. Crop all the documents, build the chart, make the quote card. Write alt text for each one while you are looking at it, in a text file next to the images. Then it is ready to paste.
- Schedule them. Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube and X all offer scheduling either in the app or through their business tools. Outside schedulers work too, but you do not need to pay for one to start.
- Two short reply windows. Fifteen minutes, twice a day, or whatever fits. Not all day. Lesson 5 explains why.
The weekly template
One table. Fill it in during your writing sitting. Keep the blank version as a document you copy each week. A spreadsheet works, and so does a sheet of paper on the fridge; the format matters far less than looking at it every Sunday.
| Day | Platform | Format | The one point | Receipt | Link? | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Facebook, Bluesky | Main post with document image | Bond asks $2.4M more than project list | Resolution and packet p. 22, side by side | Yes | |
| Tue | Facebook, Instagram | Chart | $11.8M vs. $14.2M | Source line on chart | Bio / first comment | |
| Wed | Threads, Bluesky | Quote card | City's answer on the gap | Meeting date and speaker | Yes | |
| Thu | Open | Held for news | ||||
| Fri | Instagram, Facebook, TikTok | Reel, 40 sec | Gap explained with meeting clip | Clip label and document | Bio | |
| Sat | Bluesky, Threads | Thread | Timeline from packet to ballot | Images in posts 2 and 3 | Last post | |
| Sun | None | Replies and next week's plan |
Notice Thursday. Leave at least one slot open every week. Civic news does not run on your schedule: a surprise agenda item, a records response, a correction. If nothing comes up, post something evergreen from your back pocket.
Keep a back pocket
Evergreen posts stay true for months. Write a few when you have a slow week and keep them in a folder.
- How to find the agenda packet on your city or county website
- What a levy is and how to read the line on your tax bill
- How to file a public records request (the Idaho FOIA / Public Records Letter Generator at jeffapierson.com/journal_tools/foia-letter-generator/ helps Idaho readers draft one)
- When your local boards meet and how to give public comment
- A "where is it now" follow-up on an old story
Plan around the predictable
Much local news is on a calendar already. Budget season, levy elections, board meetings, the filing deadline for candidates, the date tax notices go out. Put them on your calendar a month ahead. Each meeting gives you two easy posts: a preview ("Tuesday the council takes up the road bond; here's the packet page") and a result ("The council voted 4 to 1..."). The Idaho Open-Meetings Compliance Tracker at jeffapierson.com/journal_tools/idaho-open-meetings-tracker/ is one way to keep track of meetings you are following.
And one more note on Substack: Notes allow up to 100 posts per channel in 24 hours, according to the help page of Buffer, a third-party scheduling tool (as of October 2026). If you hit that, the problem is not the limit.
Try it
Copy the weekly template into a document or spreadsheet. Count the hours you can really give social media next week, then choose a cadence from the first table. Fill in every row for next week from one article you have or plan to write. Leave one slot open. Write the alt text for each image in the same document. Then look up the next three public meetings for a board you cover and add a preview and a result post for each to the following weeks.
Check yourself
1. Which cadence is the better choice for a volunteer with three free hours a week?
A pace you can hold beats a pace that burns you out in a month. Consistency builds an audience; bursts and silences lose one.
2. What is batching?
Batching saves the time lost switching between tasks and keeps the week's posts consistent.
3. Why leave one or two open slots in the weekly plan?
Civic news does not wait for your schedule. Open slots let you respond without throwing out the week.
4. What should you do with a scheduled post if big news breaks that makes it look tone-deaf or outdated?
Scheduled posts keep firing while you are busy. Check the queue whenever something major happens.
5. Where do public meeting dates belong on your calendar?
Meetings are predictable news. Planning around them gives you two posts per meeting with little extra work.
Terms in this lesson
- Cadence
- How often you post, on which days, kept steady over time.
- Batching
- Grouping similar tasks into one work session instead of spreading them out.
- Content calendar
- A plan showing what will be posted, where and when.
- Evergreen
- Content that stays accurate and useful for months, such as an explainer on how to file a records request.
- Scheduler
- A built-in platform feature or outside tool that publishes a post at a set time.