How to Create a Trello Social Media Calendar

Having a system for planning your content helps you stay organized and saves time. This Trello social media calendar is my go-to for planning social media posts, blog posts, videos, and other content – all in one place!

Watch the Video Tutorial:

Tutorial Notes

If you get stuck at any time during the tutorial, you can view my sample Trello social media calendar.

1. Go to Trello.com – You’ll need to create your free account, if you haven’t done so already. If you’re already a Trello user, you may have to log in.
2. Once you’re logged in, click the “Boards” view.

Creating the Board

The first thing that we need to do is create a new board. If you’ve ever used Pinterest, the idea is similar – a board contains all of the cards you create for a particular topic, kind of like a bulletin board. 

1. To create a new board, click the + icon in the top right area of the screen, then choose “Create Board.”
2. Title your board & choose a background.

Adding Lists

Now that we have our board, let’s start making lists! My social media calendars typically have 7 lists in them.

List 1 – “This Month’s Plan.” I create my content calendars one month at a time, and use this column to add notes about my marketing plan for the month, like my Monthly Theme, or my Product Focus.

TIP: If you need help writing a marketing plan for your business, Amber Housley offers a great course on that called Flourish.

List 2: “Important Events for This Month” – here I like to make note of things like holidays, product or service launches, etc. 

Lists 3-5: Create, Scheduled, and DONE! This is how I keep track of my workflow for creating content.

If something needs to be created or I’m still working on it, it goes under Create. Once the content is finished and scheduled, it goes under Scheduled, and once it’s published, I move it to “DONE.”

Lists 6 + 7: Ideas and Past Content Calendars.

The ideas list is a dumping place for brainstorming and any random ideas that I might come up with so that I don’t forget them.

Each month, I like to archive all of the cards on my board – more on that later. Before archiving, I can screenshot the board and add the image to the Past Content Calendars list in case I want to reference it later.

Enabling Calendar View

Calendar view is what’s called a “Powerup,” an enhanced feature. In the free version of Trello, you are allowed to use 1 free powerup per board.

To add your powerup:

1. Click Show Menu,
2. Select Powerups
3. Search for Calendar

With our Calendar added, we can now toggle between our calendar and list views.

Adding Cards

Now that we have our lists and views set up, we’re ready to add some cards! Let’s pretend that we are creating a content calendar for March.

I might want to add a cards to “This Month’s Plan” called “Theme: Growth” and “Service Focus: Website Rebranding.” To the Important Events list, I’ll add a new launch and a holiday. For events, I usually include the date in the card title. To the Create Column, let’s add a card for a Motivational post, I am just brainstorming right now, I can go back and add a more specific title later.

How to Make Cards Show Up in Calendar View

You’ll notice that if I switch to the calendar right now, nothing shows up! That’s because the cards aren’t dated.

To add a due date to a card:

1. Click the card
2. Under “Add to Card,” click “Due Date.” I like to set the due date for the day the content will post or go live. 

TIP: Setting due dates is also helpful because Trello will alert you if something is due soon or past due.

For example, my dog Sage’s birthday was February 13th, which has already passed. If I create a card called Sage’s Birthday and set the due date for February 13th the date turns red because the post is past due.

With our due dates set, we can now switch back to calendar view and see that our cards are showing up. 

Creating & Applying Labels

I might want to be able to differentiate between my Instagram posts, video content, and blog posts at a glance. Labels can help me do that!

Let’s create a new red label and call it Video.

How to create a new label:

1. Click on any card.
2. In the right column, click “Labels.”
3. Click “Create New Label” at the bottom.
4. Name your label, select a color, and click “Create.”

Then, go through the same process to create a label for Instagram. Once you’ve created labels, they are saved to your board and you can add them to any card. I created a third label for Blog Posts using the same steps. The labels you use are totally up to you! 

How to add existing labels to cards:

1. Click on the card.
2. Click “Labels”
3. Select the labels you would like to apply (you can choose more than one!)

TIP: One more thing about labels – you can choose to display the text & color, or just the color. To change the look of all of your labels, click on the label of any card.

How to Quickly Sort Cards in List View

If we go back to list view, you’ll see that all my cards are here, but they aren’t in chronological order! We can easily fix this.

How to sort a list in date order:

1. Click the three dots at the top of the list.
2. Choose “Sort By > Due Date.”

In the top right corner of the screen, Trello will notify you that it is sorting, then say that sorting is finished. Your cards should now be in the right order!

Attaching Images to Cards

Now let’s say that for the post about Sage’s birthday, I know what picture I want to post. I can add an attachment to the card.

To attatch an image to a card:

1. Click the card.
2. Click “Attatchment” on the right side.
3. Find the image you would like in your computer and insert it.

TIP: An attached picture shows up nice and big in list view, but won’t be visible in calendar view unless you click to open the card.

Using the Create, Scheduled + Done Lists

Here’s where my list system comes in – once a piece of content is scheduled, I can click and drag the corresponding card to Scheduled. Once a piece of content is posted, I move it to DONE.

TIP: I usually click on a card and check it’s due date once the post is scheduled. The date will turn green.

In calendar view, a card that’s due date has been checked off will appear with a line crossed through it. 

Adding Descriptions to Cards

The description area of each card is a good place to add caption ideas and other notes. Even if I don’t write the whole caption here, I might put a few bullet points of what to include when I go to schedule the post. 

Saving Past Content Calendars

Pretend that the month of March has ended and we wanted to save our calendar for reference. (You could just copy the board and set up a new one, but I like to clear and keep using the same board).

To save a reference image of the March Calendar:

1. Go to calendar view.
2. Take a screenshot.
3. Create a card called “March 2020” in the Past Calendars list.
4. Add the screenshot as an attachment to the card.

TIP – How to take a screenshot:

Windows – Search for & open the Snipping Tool. You can now click and drag to take your screenshot.

Mac: Use the shortcut Command + Shift + 4. You can now click and drag to take your screenshot.

TIP: If you click on the attatchment of an open card, you can view the image full screen.

How to Archive a Card

When I’m ready to get rid of a card, I archive it. To do this, right-click the card and choose “Archive.”

If you accidentally archive a card:

1. You will see it in your recent activity. (click Show Menu and scroll down to Activity).
2. Click the link for the archived card.
3. You will see an option to permanently delete it, and an option to send it back to the board.
4. If you click send to board, it goes back to the exact same spot where it was before archiving.

We’re done! Now that your content calendar is ready to go, it’s time to start using it! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I’d also love to hear any ideas that you have for future tutorials!

How I Use My Trello Social Media Calendar

I am a Brand + Showit Web Designer for creative businesses. You can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and this blog, of course. I use Trello to plan the content for all of these different platforms in one place, but I use other apps to actually schedule content. For more social media tips, see the related articles list at the end of this post!

Related Articles:

• 8 Tips for Creating Social Media Graphics Using Canva
• Social Media Management Tips for the Busy Small Business Owner
• How to Schedule Instagram Posts for Free Using Planoly