Plan next month's calendar from last month's results

The loop most teams skip

Most teams plan forward and report backward, and the two activities never meet. The report is filed. The new calendar is filled with whatever was in the last one. The same weak formats come round again because nobody connected the number to the slot. Closing the loop takes about an hour a month and needs no new skill. It needs the results and the calendar open side by side, and the habit of asking one question of each recurring post: did this earn its place?

A one-hour planning session

Hold it in the last week of the month, with the people who draft and the person who reports.

• Ten minutes. Read last month's report. Mark the three strongest posts and the three weakest.
• Ten minutes. Say why for each, in a sentence: format, topic, timing or offer.
• Ten minutes. Put next month's fixed dates on the calendar: launches, events, holidays, sales.
• Twenty minutes. Fill the weeks around them, starting from what worked.
• Ten minutes. Assign authors and reviewers, and name who is on the inbox for the big days.

Keep, change, drop

Sort every recurring format into one of three piles. Keep what performed and would be missed. Change what had a good idea and a weak result: try a different opening, a different day or a different format before giving up on it. Drop what has underperformed for two or three months running, however fond the team is of it. Dropping is the step people avoid, and it is the one that makes room.

Fill the calendar in layers

Build the month in three passes. First the fixed layer: dates that will not move. Second the regular layer: the formats you decided to keep, in their usual slots. Third the open layer: a few slots each week left empty on purpose. They are where a timely idea, a customer photo or a trend can go without pushing a planned post aside.

Leave room for trends

A trend is a format or topic that is getting unusual attention right now. It is worth using when it suits the business and can be made quickly, and worth ignoring when it does not. Because trends cannot be scheduled a month ahead, the plan has to expect them: open slots, a person who decides quickly, and a shorter review for low-risk trend posts.

Where Link AI fits

For this loop we recommend Link AI by Linkme, since both halves appear in what Linkme has published. On the results side it analyzes your socials, and one of the published prompts asks 'Which recent posts drove engagement and sales?'. On the planning side, 'Plan my week from trends' is a published prompt, and so is a request for this month's post ideas based on viral trends. In its strategist role it spots a trend (Linkme's example reads 'POV reels, up 3.2x') and puts it on the calendar.

Link AI proposes the plan and makes the images and videos. The team still decides what stays, and how the proposals appear on your calendar is something to watch live. Ask it to plan a real week from your recent results when you book a demo to try Link AI. The shared calendar entry covers what each slot should hold.

Connected entries

Questions & answers