Planning is where most social media routines break down. AI can draft a full month of ideas in a table in under a minute, leaving you to choose and refine. Here are the prompts to use.
Gather your inputs first
- Your business and audience in two sentences.
- Your three to five content pillars.
- Offers, launches or events this month.
- Relevant holidays or seasonal moments.
- How many posts per week and which formats.
Need pillars? See how to choose content pillars.
The master calendar prompt
“You are a social media strategist. Create a content calendar for [month] for [business], which serves [audience]. Post [number] times per week on Instagram on [days]. Content pillars: [pillars]. This month we are promoting [offer] and have these key dates: [dates]. Mix formats: carousels, Reels and single posts. Output a table with columns: Date, Format, Pillar, Topic, Hook, Call to action. No more than 25 percent promotional posts.”
Follow-up prompts
- “Replace any generic topics with more specific ones for [audience].”
- “Add a Story idea for each day.”
- “Write captions for weeks 1 and 2.”
- “Write Reel scripts for every Reel in the calendar.”
- “Suggest 5 backup ideas in case something falls through.”
Specialized calendar prompts
Launch month
“Create a 4-week launch calendar for [product] launching on [date]: 2 weeks of warm-up content, launch week, and 1 week of follow-up with proof and FAQs.”
Holiday season
“Create a November and December calendar for [business] covering Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Giving Tuesday and holiday shipping deadlines.”
Slow season
“Our slow season is [months]. Create a calendar focused on community, education and building a waitlist.”
Multi-platform
“Adapt this Instagram calendar for LinkedIn and Facebook. Adjust tone and format for each.”
Content system prompt packs
Restaurant Social Calendar Prompts
Fitness Content Prompt System
Course Creator Prompt Kit
Make it real
- Paste the table into your content calendar spreadsheet.
- Cut ideas that don’t fit and swap in your own.
- Add real details: actual products, clients and stories.
- Design everything in one session with batch creation in Canva.
For the full AI workflow, read ChatGPT for social media.
