How to Create an Instagram Post Using AI — Ideas, Photos, Reels + Captions

A step-by-step guide to using AI to help you create Instagram posts, including photos, captions, and videos. Here are all the tools you need to create your post from scratch.

I won’t bore you with a lecture about why you need a social media content calendar. You know you do.

You likely landed here because you’re looking for a social media content calendar template, a quick starting point for mapping out your content plan for the coming weeks or months. 

If you are on the fence about setting one up, here's a quick overview of the benefits. A social media calendar will help you:

1. Stay on top of multiple social media channels efficiently.
2. Stick to the content pillars in your social media marketing strategy.
3. Post consistently.
4. Schedule posts in advance and automate your content creation workflows.
5. Work with team members (if you’re on a Marketing team or social media team), collaborators, or stakeholders. 
6. Stay on top of product launches, marketing campaigns, events, or even holidays.
7. Streamline a system of approvals before posting.
8. Save time with content batching. 
9. Repurpose content. 
10. Keep track of content ideas. 

I’ve worked as both a social media manager and content creator and live by my social media content calendar.

My current favorite tool is (obviously) Buffer, but there are loads of quick and dirty options. If you’re looking for something lo-fi to get started, I got you. 

Here's a list of 7 calendar templates to help you get more efficient, plus how to use them. 

1. Buffer social media calendar
2. Social media calendar template with the best times to post
3. Weekly social media calendar template
4. Monthly social media calendar template
5. Canva social media calendar template
6. Notion social media calendar template
7. Google Sheets social media calendar template

1. Buffer social media calendar

This is not a downloadable template, per se, but Buffer is so easy to plug and play it might as well be. 

Buffer’s content calendar features a weekly and a monthly calendar view, where you can drag and drop posts to easily change publish dates and times in real time. 

You can even filter these views by platform, or see all your posts in a list if you prefer. You can even optimize your posting schedule (or queue) according to the best time to post on each platform (more on this below). 

The tags feature allows for custom social content categories and color coding (my personal favorite feature). You can organize your posts by status, content strategy pillars, target audience, marketing goals, or type of content — whatever works best for your content creation system. 

The benefits of mapping out your content in Buffer go way beyond just planning — Buffer is a social media scheduling tool, not just social media planning tool. Buffer can automatically schedule your social posts, photos, and videos to go live at the precisely the time you want them to. 

Unlike the rest of the calendars on this list there’s no need to cross-reference multiple tools or systems or manually post every single content piece on multiple platforms. Buffer connects with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Pinterest, Mastodon, and more. 

If you’re sharing the same posts to multiple platforms, you can schedule the posts in one go (and make minor tweaks to each platform if need be). I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a time-saver this is. 

Outside the calendar, there’s the Create space to help you brainstorm and organize your ideas, engagement tools to help you manage replies to comments and the analyze tools to check in on metrics at a glance. 

How to use this social media calendar

1. Click on the Get Buffer’s social media calendar button below.
2. Create your Buffer account.
3. Click Connect Channels (you can connect up to three for free).
4. Choose the platform you want to start with and follow the steps.
5. Click on Publish on the top left. 
6. Welcome to your social media content calendar! Click New Post on the top right to start scheduling posts or New Channel on the bottom left to add another social platform. 

2. Social media calendar template with the best times to post

Timing your post just right can have a positive impact on both your reach and engagement — which is why we dove into the data from millions of social media posts in Buffer to uncover exactly that. 

Thanks to this analysis, we’ve pinpointed several posting times for each platform during which posts get more engagement or views. I’ve highlighted these times for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter/X in this downloadable PDF calendar.

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on the Get the ‘Best Time to Post’ calendar template button below.
2. Once downloaded, right click on the file and open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and use good old-fashioned pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

There’s a whole lot more nuance in figuring out the best time to post for your audience. I’d recommend checking out these resources:

• The Best Time to Post on Facebook
• The Best Time to Post on Instagram
• The Best Time to Post on TikTok
• The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
• The Best Time to Post on YouTube
• The Best Time to Post on Twitter/X

3. Simple weekly social media calendar template

This free template features the same layout as the one above, with publishing schedule time slots from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., just without highlights for the best times to post on each platform. 

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on the Get the simple weekly social media calendar button below.
2. Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and use good old-fashioned pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

4. Simple monthly social media calendar template

If you want to map out an entire month at a glance, this calendar template is for you. Think of this calendar as your big-picture view — it can be helpful to map out the month in broad strokes by publish date using a layout like this one, to help you prioritize tasks. 

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on the Get the simple monthly social media calendar button below.
2. Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
3. Click Fill & Sign.
4. Click within the time slot you want to use to start typing.
5. Alternatively, you can always print these pages and use good old-fashioned pen and paper to fill yours out.
6. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

5. Canva simple social media calendar templates

If you’d like to customize the ‘simple calendars’ above to better suit you, here are the editable versions in Canva. You’ll need a free Canva account to tweak them. 

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on one of the Get calendar buttons below. A preview will open in Canva. 
2. Click the Use template button. An editable version will appear in your Canva workspace.
3. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit. 

6. Notion social media calendar template

Notion is a wonderfully flexible project management tool, where, unlike some of the simple calendars above, you can easily store the text, captions, and media you plan to use for each post in the calendar itself. 

You can also view all your posts in different views, like a list, table, Kanban board, or Ghant chart, which can be useful in planning. It’s a great choice for a content marketing or editorial calendar template too, as you can map out newsletters, blog posts, and other digital marketing campaigns.

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on the Get Notion template button below
2. Click on the Duplicate button (the juxtaposed squares icon) in the top right corner
3. Create a free Notion account if you don’t have one already
4. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

7. Social Media Calendar Template in Google Sheets

I’ve never been a huge fan of using Sheets for anything outside data wrangling. But now that Google’s added a dropdown lists feature, Sheets is growing on me as an organization and planning tool.

I particularly like how you’re able to use specific custom colors for the list options, too — I like my content calendars to be pretty.

This calendar template is, along with Buffer and Notion, one of the most customizable on this list. It’s also suitable for storing entire posts and captions, rather than just making notes, as you would have done in the simple calendar templates above. 

How to use this social media calendar template

1. Click on the Get Google Sheets template button below. 
2. Click Make a copy.
3. Read the instructions on the ‘Start here’ sheet. If Microsoft Excel is your spreadsheet tool of choice, click File > Download > Microsoft Excel.
4. Get planning! The social media content calendar template is yours to edit as you see fit.

Social media success starts with a calendar

As a content writer at Buffer, I spend a good chunk of my time pouring over the (often cryptic) algorithm updates from the various social media platforms. We have loads of great blog articles (if I do say so myself) breaking down the algorithm for every single platform, which we update regularly. 

While a lot of the guidance for social media success changes in those resources pretty often, there’s one tip that always, always remains in them: be consistent. Whether you’re a content creator, social media marketer, or small business owner — be as active on your social network of choice as possible. It’s the best route to success on any given platform, whether you’re posting to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Mastodon, you name it.  

And what’s the best way to ensure you are consistently posting on those networks? A social media content calendar! Got your template? Congratulations. You’re on the road to success. 

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