# How to plan a social media content calendar

URL: https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar
Level 3: Post it (https://blackbox.plus/guides/post-it)
Updated: 2026-10-31
Time: about 10 minutes
You'll end with: Six weeks of posts and campaigns on one calendar, built around your markets’ holidays
Do it in Blackbox: https://blackbox.plus/app/plan

> One marketing calendar per brand: your posts and campaigns, each market’s holidays, and an AI CMO’s dated suggestions to make, put off or turn down.

## Short answer

To plan a social media content calendar with Blackbox (blackbox.plus), click Plan in the left menu. It shows one brand's month: posts that are scheduled, drafted or published on Instagram and TikTok, the brand's campaigns, and the public holidays and shopping days of each country it sells in. Set those countries once with Edit markets, then click a holiday to read your CMO's note on whether it fits your brand. With an approved strategy, the AI CMO plans six weeks ahead every week, at most 20 suggestions a month, and puts each on its day with a time, a market and why it is worth doing. Open one and click Create this content or Build this campaign to start it with the day filled in, Do my own instead to make something else, Not now to see it again the day before, or Dismiss. The + on any future day starts a post or campaign of your own.

## You'll need

- **An approved strategy.** Your CMO plans from it. Without one, Plan shows what you’ve planned and the holidays only. (Guide: https://blackbox.plus/guides/approve-your-strategy)
- **Instagram or TikTok connected.** To make posts from the calendar. Meta Ads too, for campaigns. (Guide: https://blackbox.plus/guides/connect-instagram)

## How to plan a social media content calendar in Blackbox

1. **Open Plan.** In the left menu, click **Plan**.
   You'll see: Your brand’s month on **Calendar**, with its posts, its holidays and your CMO’s suggestions.
   Starts at: https://blackbox.plus/app/plan
   ![Plan for Daybreak Coffee Co. with the Calendar tab ringed: November with a scheduled post, a draft, days such as Diwali, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, and dashed Suggested posts and campaigns at 07:00 PM or their start day](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/01-calendar.png)
2. **Pick the brand.** With more than one brand, click the brand’s name at the top and pick one.
   You'll see: That brand’s month, with its tabs beside its name.
   ![The brand menu open under Daybreak Coffee Co., with a second brand, Flow, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/02-brand.png)
3. **Add your markets.** Click **Edit markets**, then **Add a country** and pick a country you sell in.
   You'll see: Each country as a chip under **Markets**, in your order.
   ![The brand’s Markets card: United States and Canada, in order, with Add a country ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/03-markets.png)
4. **Save them.** Click **Save markets**.
   You'll see: **Markets saved**, and back on Plan each country’s holidays and shopping days on their days.
   ![Markets with Mexico just added after the United States and Canada, and Save markets ringed beside Undo changes](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/04-save.png)
5. **Read a holiday.** On the calendar, click a holiday or shopping day, such as **Black Friday**.
   You'll see: Your CMO’s note under **Why it matters** or **Why nothing is planned**, when people buy and ads usually start, and what is **Planned around it**.
   ![Black Friday, a shopping day in the United States and Canada: people buy Nov 20–Nov 30 and ads usually start Nov 6, the Why it matters note ringed, the three suggestions planned around it, and buttons to add your own](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/05-moment.png)
6. **See only the suggestions.** Next to **Show**, click **Suggested**.
   You'll see: Only your CMO’s suggestions, each with a dashed border and **Suggested**.
   ![The calendar with Show set to Suggested, ringed: only the dashed suggestions and the holidays are left on the month](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/06-suggested.png)
7. **Open a suggestion.** Click a suggestion on its day.
   You'll see: Why it’s worth doing, **What to expect**, what it will be and **What we’ll watch**.
   ![One week of the calendar with a suggested Instagram carousel, Your coffee, before your first meeting, ringed on its day](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/07-open.png)
8. **Make it.** Click **Create this content**, or **Build this campaign** on a campaign.
   You'll see: **Writing the brief…**, then the brief for that day, or **New campaign** with the day and market filled in.
   ![The suggestion open in the side panel: why it is worth doing, What to expect, What the post will be and What we’ll watch, with Create this content ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/08-create.png)
9. **Put it off.** Not this week? Click **Not now**.
   You'll see: It leaves the calendar, and a note says the day it comes back.
   ![The same suggestion with Not now ringed, beside Create this content, Do my own instead and Dismiss](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/09-not-now.png)
10. **Turn it down.** Click **Dismiss**, say why if you like, then click **Dismiss** again.
   You'll see: **Dismissed. Your CMO plans around this next week.**
   ![Dismiss recommendation, with a reason typed in the optional box and the Dismiss button ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/10-dismiss.png)
11. **Do your own instead.** On a suggestion, click **Do my own instead**.
   You'll see: **Make your own**, for the same day and market.
   ![Do your own instead for the suggestion’s day: Make your own, ringed, with Instagram, TikTok and Meta ads to choose from](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/11-own.png)
12. **Open a day.** Point at a future day and click its **+**.
   You'll see: **Create on this day** at the top, with **Post** and **Campaign**, and what is already on the day under it.
   ![One week of the calendar with the + on an empty Thursday ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/12-day.png)
13. **Choose what to make.** Under **Post**, click **Instagram** or **TikTok**. For an ad, click **Meta ads** under **Campaign**.
   You'll see: **Write it with the CMO** and **Upload your own**, or **New campaign** for that day.
   ![Create on this day at the top of the side panel: the US and Canada to pick from, Instagram ringed under Post, Meta ads under Campaign, and the empty day below](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/13-create.png)
14. **Write the brief.** Say what the post is about, then click **Write the brief**.
   You'll see: **Writing the brief…**, then the brief, filed on that day.
   ![Write it with the CMO, with what the post is about typed in and Write the brief ringed, and Upload your own below it](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/14-write.png)
15. **Pick up where you left off.** Click a suggestion marked **In progress**, then **Continue**.
   You'll see: What you started, at the step you left it.
   ![A suggestion marked in progress, at Brief, with Continue · Brief ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/plan-a-content-calendar/15-continue.png)

## Good to know

- Your CMO plans from your approved strategy: six weeks ahead, once a week, with at most 20 suggestions in a month. Without an approved strategy the calendar still shows your posts, campaigns and holidays — see [Get a marketing strategy for your small business](https://blackbox.plus/guides/approve-your-strategy).
- The first time you open a brand’s calendar, your CMO starts planning and the calendar says Your CMO is planning the next 6 weeks…. It usually takes about a minute.
- A post suggestion’s time is when your posts on that platform usually do best. A campaign suggestion shows the day it starts.
- Holidays come from each country’s public holiday list, and occasions such as Diwali, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are added. An occasion says when people buy and when ads usually start. One your CMO says doesn’t fit the brand is shown faded.
- With more than one market, each suggestion shows its country, and the Markets filter shows one country’s holidays and suggestions. Posts and campaigns show under every market.
- A reel or video suggestion opens Upload, since it is filmed. Studio makes carousels and still posts.
- Do my own instead keeps the suggestion until what you make is saved, then takes it off the calendar.
- Past days can’t take anything new; what is on them still opens. On a phone the calendar is a list, and New at the bottom picks a day.
- The calendar remembers your Platforms filter and your Show choice the next time you open Plan. A campaign shows on the day it starts and the day it ends.
- Posting and scheduling happen on the post itself — see [How to schedule Instagram posts](https://blackbox.plus/guides/schedule-instagram-posts).

## Questions people ask

**There are no suggestions on my calendar**

Your CMO plans only for a brand with an approved strategy, so approve it first. The first plan takes about a minute; open Plan again after that. Suggestions start six weeks out, so a month further ahead fills as the weeks pass.

**I see Plan the next 6 weeks**

Your CMO hasn’t planned this brand yet, or its first try didn’t finish. Click Plan the next 6 weeks. If it says it couldn’t start, click Report so we see it.

**Which social media holidays should I post on?**

Add the countries you sell in under Edit markets, then click each holiday on the calendar. Your CMO says why it matters to your brand, or why nothing is planned, and builds its suggestions around the ones that fit.

**A holiday I expected isn’t on the calendar**

Check the country is in your markets: click Edit markets and add it. If Markets is set to one country, click All markets to see the others.

**A suggestion I put off came back**

Not now brings it back the day before its date, so you can still make it. To take it off for good, click Dismiss; your CMO plans around it next week.

**It says Connect Instagram instead of Create this content**

The brand has no Instagram account it can post to. Click Connect Instagram and connect it on the Data page, then come back to the suggestion.