Step by step: How to create an editorial calendar for social media with AI

Creating an editorial calendar for social media is one of the most efficient ways to maintain consistency, organize ideas, and turn loose content into a strategy with direction. For brands that need to publish frequently on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, this planning helps define topics, distribute posts throughout the days, and maintain communication aligned with business goals.

At Intellux, the AI-powered editorial calendar was developed to make this process easier, offering two creation possibilities: the manual flow and the automated flow. In the manual flow, the user guides each step with the support of intelligent suggestions. In the automated flow, artificial intelligence takes on a larger part of the planning process, analyzing the brand’s information and generating a structure ready for review, adjustments, and scheduling.

In this article, you will understand how Intellux’s editorial calendar works, using both the manual flow and the AI-powered automated flow. The goal is to show how the tool uses the brand manual, the registered tone of voice, verbal characteristics, and the brand’s personality preferences to create content pillars, organize topics, and distribute posts in a strategic calendar.

What is an editorial calendar and what is it used for in social media management?

An editorial calendar is an organization tool that defines which content will be published, on which dates, with which topics, formats, and distribution channels. In social media management, it works as a visual plan for the brand’s communication, helping turn loose ideas into a continuous, clear strategy aligned with business goals.

In practice, an editorial calendar allows the brand to publish more consistently, avoid repeating topics, and maintain an active presence on social media. Instead of deciding what to post only on the day of publication, the company can anticipate campaigns, commemorative dates, educational content, offers, institutional posts, and relationship-building materials for the audience.

This planning also makes results analysis easier. When content follows a strategic logic, it becomes easier to understand which topics generate more reach, engagement, clicks, leads, or sales. With this, the brand stops publishing on impulse and starts using social media as a real channel for growth, relationship-building, and positioning.

How to create content pillars for social media

Content pillars are the main themes that guide everything a brand publishes on social media. They help organize communication into strategic categories, preventing the profile from always talking about the same thing or publishing content disconnected from the customer journey. In a well-structured strategy, each pillar serves a function, such as educating, generating desire, building authority, presenting behind-the-scenes content, promoting offers, or strengthening trust.

To create good pillars, the first step is to understand the audience, the brand’s goals, and the topics that make sense within the market. A dental clinic, for example, can work with education about oral health, smile aesthetics, behind-the-scenes care, and social proof. A real estate agent, on the other hand, can divide content between available properties, financing tips, neighborhood life, documentation, and guidance for buyers. Ideally, each pillar should help the brand communicate more clearly and create varied content without losing focus.

Content tips by industry:

Dentists:

Daily oral health care.
Dental treatments explained in a simple way.
Smile aesthetics and self-esteem.
Myths and truths about procedures.
Clinic behind-the-scenes and humanized care.
Testimonials, authorized before and after content, and social proof.

Real estate agents:

Properties available for sale or rent.
Tips for buying a first property.
Financing, documentation, and negotiation.
Neighborhood and regional appreciation.
Behind-the-scenes of the agent’s routine.
Content for real estate investors.

Veterinary clinics:

Preventive care for dogs and cats.
Vaccination, exams, and routine appointments.
Nutrition, behavior, and animal well-being.
Warning signs for pet owners.
Behind-the-scenes of the clinic and team.
Patient stories and educational guidance.

Gyms and personal trainers:

Training tips and correct execution.
Motivation and routine building.
Myths about weight loss and muscle gain.
Nutrition and healthy habits.
Student results, when authorized.
Behind-the-scenes of workouts and the gym environment.

Restaurants and coffee shops:

Dishes, drinks, and menu launches.
Behind-the-scenes of the kitchen and food preparation.
Customer experiences.
Commemorative dates and promotions.
Brand and ingredient history.
Lifestyle content connected to consumption.

Law firms:

Explanation of rights and duties.
Frequently asked questions from clients.
Changes in legislation.
Common mistakes the audience should avoid.
The firm’s areas of practice.
Institutional and educational content with accessible language.

Clothing stores:

New arrivals and outfit combinations.
Style tips for different occasions.
Fashion trends.
Behind-the-scenes of the store and arrival of new pieces.
Social proof and customers wearing the products.
Promotions, collections, and commercial dates.

Tips for creating content pillars for each network

Each social network has its own behavior, which is why content pillars need to be adapted to the format, consumption rhythm, and audience intent on each channel. The same topic can appear on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but the approach should change. On Instagram, content usually works better when it is visual, fast, and direct. On Facebook, there is more room for relationship-building, communities, and shareable content. On LinkedIn, the audience tends to seek professional positioning, authority, strategic behind-the-scenes content, and market insights.

Instagram:

Prioritize visual content, such as Reels, carousels, photos, stories, and behind-the-scenes content.
Use pillars that generate quick identification, such as practical tips, before and after content, routines, products, services, and social proof.
Work with topics using direct language, strong hooks, and a focus on capturing attention in the first few seconds.
Explore relationship-building content, since the audience tends to interact with brands that show personality and consistency.

Facebook:

Use content that encourages conversation, sharing, and closeness with the community.
Work with pillars such as news, promotions, events, testimonials, announcements, and simple educational content.
Consider that many users use the network to follow local businesses, groups, recommendations, and practical information.
Use slightly more explanatory texts when the topic requires context.

LinkedIn:

Focus on authority, positioning, strategic behind-the-scenes content, and professional insights.
Use pillars such as company culture, market vision, cases, processes, innovation, results, and trend analysis.
Adapt the language to a more professional tone, without losing clarity and naturalness.
Prioritize content that shows knowledge, decision-making, and business value.

TikTok:

Work with fast, spontaneous content with high discovery potential.
Use pillars such as curiosities, behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, trends, common mistakes, and answers to questions.
The audience tends to consume content with a dynamic rhythm, simple language, and an attention-grabbing beginning.
Avoid overly rigid formats, as the platform favors naturalness and creativity.

YouTube:

Use pillars that allow deeper content, such as tutorials, guides, analyses, demonstrations, and educational content.
Think of topics that answer real questions searched by the audience.
Work with more complete videos to build authority and generate continuous traffic.
Organize content series to maintain recurrence and make navigation easier for the user.

How to use Intellux’s automated editorial calendar, step by step

1. Access Intellux’s Editorial Calendar

The first step is to access the Editorial Calendar area inside Intellux. On this screen, you will find the monthly view of already planned content, editorials in progress, and the area for creating new plans. This is the environment where the brand can organize its publishing routine and view posts distributed throughout the days.

At the top of the page, Intellux presents the planning creation options. The user can choose between the manual flow, in which each step is defined with the support of intelligent suggestions, or the automated flow, which generates the editorial calendar based on the brand’s information.

2. Choose the automated option

To start the AI flow, select the automated option. This mode is suitable for those who want to generate content planning faster while maintaining alignment with the brand identity, tone of voice, and goals defined in the prompt.

In the automated calendar, Intellux takes on an important part of the strategic structure. The tool analyzes the information available in the Brand Manual, considers the registered preferences, and transforms this data into a content proposal ready for review and creation.

3. Select the brand registered in the Brand Manual

After choosing the automated flow, the next step is to select the brand that will be used as the basis for the editorial calendar. This brand must be previously registered in Intellux’s Brand Manual, because it is from this information that the AI understands the positioning, personality, and communication characteristics that should guide the content.

This point is important because the calendar is not created generically. Intellux uses the selected brand’s data to generate suggestions that are more coherent with the business, avoiding content that is misaligned with the proposal, the audience, and the way the brand wants to communicate.

4. Write a prompt with the type of content desired

After selecting the brand, you can fill in a prompt box with specific instructions about the type of content you want to create. In this field, it is possible to indicate topics, goals, campaign ideas, priority subjects, or any direction that helps the AI better understand the planning need.

For example, a brand can request content about tips, behind-the-scenes, products, commemorative dates, or educational topics. The clearer the prompt, the greater the chance that the generated calendar will reflect the user’s strategic intention and bring topics closer to the brand’s reality.

5. Click the button to generate the plan

With the brand selected and the prompt filled in, simply click the button to generate the plan. At this moment, Intellux’s AI begins analyzing the information available in the Brand Manual, including the tone of voice chosen during registration, the verbal tone characteristics, and the brand’s personality preferences.

From this analysis, the tool identifies content paths that make sense for that brand. Instead of creating isolated posts, the AI structures an editorial logic, connecting goals, content pillars, channels, and publishing frequency.

6. Review the new editorial summary

Before completing the creation, Intellux presents a summary of the new editorial. This step allows you to view the main planning information, such as the chosen brand, publishing frequency, validity period, selected platforms, and main goals.

In the automated flow, the default is to generate 2 weeks of content, with 3 posts per week. The plan also considers the social networks available for scheduling within Intellux itself, including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

7. Analyze the content pillars generated by AI

In the editorial summary, Intellux also presents the content pillars created based on the brand and the prompt provided. These pillars work as strategic categories that organize the topics of the posts and prevent the calendar from becoming repetitive or directionless.

Each pillar represents a communication front for the brand. They may involve educational, institutional, promotional, behind-the-scenes, relationship-building, authority, or any other approach relevant to the business. This division helps maintain variety, balance, and coherence throughout the publications.

8. Create the automated editorial calendar

After reviewing the information, the user can click to create the editorial calendar. From this point, Intellux organizes the topics and distributes the posts on the defined days, respecting the default frequency of the automated plan.

The result is a calendar with content positioned throughout the weeks, allowing the user to visualize the strategy clearly. This organization makes review, editing, and progress to the next stages of creation and scheduling easier.

9. Track the plan in the Editorials area

After creation, the plan appears in the Editorials area, located below the calendar. In this space, the user can track the editorial status, view progress, check the number of posts created, and access the plan whenever needed.

In the example presented, the automated editorial appears highlighted in blue or purple, making it easier to identify among the other plans. This area works as a control panel, allowing the brand to track its active calendars and move forward with content production.

10. Schedule the posts directly through Intellux

With the topics organized in the calendar, the user can move on to the creation and scheduling stage of the posts. Since the automated calendar considers Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, Intellux allows content organization for these networks to be centralized in a single environment.

This reduces the time spent on manual planning and helps maintain a more consistent posting routine. Instead of thinking about each piece of content separately, the brand starts working with a planned editorial structure, aligned with its tone of voice and ready to be adjusted according to the strategy.

How to use Intellux’s manual editorial calendar, step by step:

Intellux’s manual editorial calendar was created for those who want more control over each stage of content planning, without giving up the support of artificial intelligence. In this flow, the user chooses the platforms, defines the posting frequency, selects the goals, reviews the content pillars, and determines the validity period before creating the final calendar.

Unlike the automated flow, in which AI takes on a larger part of the creation right from the beginning, the manual mode allows the brand to participate more actively in strategic decisions. Even so, Intellux uses the information registered in the Brand Manual to suggest pillars, organize the editorial logic, and transform the user’s choices into a calendar ready for review, production, and scheduling.

1. Select the brand and choose the manual calendar

The first step is to access Intellux’s Editorial Calendar and start a new plan in manual mode. At this stage, the user selects the brand that will be used as the basis for the calendar, such as “Your brand,” previously registered in the platform’s Brand Manual.

This choice is important because the AI considers the brand’s information to guide the planning. Based on the registration, Intellux can understand positioning characteristics, tone of voice, personality, and communication preferences, using this data as the basis for the next stages of the editorial calendar.

2. Select the desired platforms

After choosing the brand and starting the manual flow, the user must select which social networks they want to publish on. Intellux allows choosing platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok, according to the channels that make sense for the brand’s strategy.

This step helps define where the content will be planned and later organized for publication. Since each social network has a different behavior, choosing the right platforms allows the creation of a calendar that is more coherent with the audience, the content format, and the communication goals.

3. Define the weekly posting frequency

Next, the user defines how many times per week they want to post. The manual calendar allows choosing a frequency from 1 to 7 weekly publications, giving freedom to adapt the planning to the brand’s routine, production capacity, and desired content volume.

The higher the selected frequency, the longer the waiting time for the AI to generate the content. This happens because Intellux needs to structure more ideas, better distribute topics, and organize a larger number of posts within the defined period.

4. Choose up to 3 main goals

After defining the frequency, the user chooses up to 3 main goals for that content calendar. This step guides the strategy and helps the AI understand what the function of the publications should be within the planning.

Possible goals include increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to a website or store, engaging the community, supporting launches, educating the audience, generating authority, strengthening employer branding, generating leads or conversions, and working on personal or professional branding.

By selecting these goals, the user indicates which results they want to pursue with the calendar. From this, Intellux’s AI analyzes the brand, interprets the requests defined in the flow, and begins developing content pillars more aligned with the strategic intention of the planning.

5. Review and configure the content pillars

After the initial analysis, Intellux presents the content pillars suggested for the manual calendar. These pillars work as strategic categories that organize the topics of the publications, helping maintain variety, balance, and coherence in communication.

At this stage, the user can review and adjust the pillars before moving forward. The platform allows controlling the number of posts per pillar, editing the information of each category, and customizing main and secondary topics according to the brand’s strategy.

Within the pillar configuration, it is possible to:

Adjust the percentage of posts per pillar by clicking the + or - buttons.
Balance the distribution of content among the suggested pillars.
Click the three dots to edit a specific pillar.
Change the pillar name, if you want to make the category more aligned with the brand.
Edit the main topics of each pillar.
Add, remove, or change secondary topics.
Save the changes before moving to the next step.

This step gives the user more control because it allows them to transform the AI suggestions into a more personalized editorial structure. This way, the calendar is not limited to automatic generation, it can be refined according to the brand’s goals, campaigns, and priorities.

6. Select the calendar validity period

With the pillars reviewed, the next step is to choose the validity period of the editorial calendar. This step defines the start date and end date of the plan, that is, how long the content will be organized within the calendar.

The choice is up to the user, but the recommendation is to work with periods between 7 and 30 days. This interval helps keep the planning practical, makes adjustments during the month easier, and avoids creating a very large amount of content without reviewing results along the way.

7. Review the final data

Before creating the calendar, Intellux presents a final summary of the new editorial. On this screen, the user can review the main planning information, such as the chosen brand, posting frequency, validity period, selected platforms, main goals, and content pillars.

This final review ensures that everything is correct before creation. If any information needs to be adjusted, the user can still return to the previous steps and correct what is necessary. If everything is right, simply click create and wait for the AI to analyze the final requests and build the calendar.

8. Create the calendar and track it in Editorials

After clicking create, Intellux transforms the configured information into a ready-to-use editorial calendar. The AI organizes the topics, distributes the posts on the defined days, and structures the planning based on the platforms, goals, frequency, and pillars chosen in the manual flow.

When the calendar is ready, it appears in the Editorials area, located below the main calendar. Each plan has a specific color, which makes visual identification easier on the screen. When accessing the editorial, the user can track progress, view the number of posts, and move forward with content production.

9. Open the tickets to review, add artwork, and schedule

With the calendar created, each post appears as a ticket on a specific day. By clicking on one of these tickets, the user can analyze the planned content, review the information, upload the corresponding artwork, and schedule it directly through Intellux.

This step completes the manual calendar flow, connecting planning, production, and publishing in a single environment. This way, the brand can go from a strategic idea to an organized calendar, with distributed, reviewed content ready to be published on the selected social networks.

Conclusion

Creating an editorial calendar for social media with the help of AI is a practical way to turn planning into routine, without depending on loose ideas or last-minute decisions. With a well-defined structure, the brand can organize topics, choose the best channels, maintain posting frequency, and adapt each piece of content to the audience’s behavior on each social network.

At Intellux, this process becomes simpler because the editorial calendar connects strategy, artificial intelligence, and scheduling in one place. Whether in the automated flow, where the AI generates the plan based on the Brand Manual, or in the manual flow, where the user controls each step with the support of the tool, content creation becomes more organized, coherent, and aligned with the brand’s positioning.

Try Intellux free for 7 days

Want to create your editorial calendar with the help of AI and organize your social media with more clarity? Try Intellux free for 7 days and see how it is possible to plan content, generate strategic pillars, review posts, upload artwork, and schedule publications in a single platform. Limited-time offer. Start your free trial now and discover how Intellux can make managing your social media easier.