Planning Your Month with the Strategy Calendar
Overview
The Strategy Calendar is a month-at-a-glance view that helps your team plan a full month of content one day at a time. Each day on the calendar shows a status badge so you can see at a glance what's Planned, Scheduled, Posted, Skipped, or still needs attention. A progress bar at the top of the page shows how far along you are for the month.
Strategy is available on paid plans. If your team is on the Base plan, the Calendar opens in the standard day-view instead.
Before You Start
- Make sure at least one social account is connected in Team Settings > Social Accounts. Strategy uses your connected accounts to pre-fill the right platform when you plan a day.
- Set your post frequency in Team Settings > Post Frequency. Days that have a posting frequency set will be picked up by Strategy as candidate days for the month.
- Only team members with Editor, Admin, or Owner roles can plan, schedule, or skip days. Viewers can browse the month but cannot make changes.
How to Open the Strategy Calendar
- Click Calendar in the left sidebar.
- If your team is on a paid plan, the page opens directly in the Strategy view. The grid shows the current month, with a small status badge under each day.
- Use the arrows at the top to move to the previous or next month.
Day Status Badges
Each day shows one of the following statuses so you always know what's left to do:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Empty | Nothing planned yet. The day is open and waiting for a decision. |
| Planned | You've picked content for the day, but it hasn't been scheduled to a social account yet. |
| Scheduled | A post is queued and will publish at the scheduled time. Platform icons show where it will go. |
| Posted | The post has already been published. |
| Skipped | You chose to skip this day. Nothing will publish. |
| Locked | The day is too close to publish time to change. Edits are limited. |
| Failed | A scheduled post failed to publish. See Troubleshooting below. |
Topic Planner
Below the calendar grid, an expandable Topic Planner panel helps you decide what to post about each day. It shows topic suggestions tailored to your practice focus and posting history.
How the Topic Planner works
- Click the Topic Planner accordion below the calendar to expand it.
- Browse Recommended Topics — cards suggested based on your practice focus and streams.
- Use the search bar to find specific topics, or click Browse Streams to add topics from partner content streams.
- Each topic card shows the topic name and source. Click a card to assign that topic to a day or view its heatmap.
Topic Heatmap
Click the heatmap icon on any topic card to open the Topic Heatmap Drawer. This shows when similar topics have performed best historically — helping you pick the ideal day and time to post about that subject.
Topic Strips on the Calendar
When topics are assigned to days, small colored pills appear on the calendar grid showing which topic is planned for each day. This gives you a visual overview of your content variety across the month.
Suppressing Topics
If a suggested topic isn't relevant, click the dismiss icon on the topic card to suppress it. Suppressed topics won't appear in your recommendations again for this month. Suppressions reset each month.
Planning a Day
- Click any day on the calendar. The right-hand panel opens with planning options for that day.
- Choose one of the four options:
- Partner Library — Three curated recommendations from partner streams your team subscribes to. Pick one to mark the day as Planned.
- Record a Video — Three topic ideas designed to be recorded in the Social Cascade Teleprompter app. The day is marked Planned with a script ready to record.
- MyStream — Pick from your team's branded content library (videos, images, and posts you've previously saved or imported).
- Skip This Day — Mark the day as Skipped so it doesn't show up as missing in your progress bar.
- After picking an option, fill in the post details (caption, platform, time) and click Schedule to move the day from Planned to Scheduled.
- To go back without saving, click the back arrow at the top of the right panel.
Editing or Replacing a Planned Day
- Click a day that's already Planned or Scheduled. The right panel opens with a summary of what's scheduled.
- Use Edit to change the caption, platform, or time, or Replace to swap in different content.
- To clear the day and start over, click Reset day. This is only available on Planned days that haven't been scheduled yet.
Tracking Progress
- The progress bar at the top of the calendar shows the percentage of your monthly posting days that are Scheduled, Posted, Locked, or Skipped.
- Days outside your post frequency (for example, weekends, if you've set frequency to weekdays only) are not counted toward the total.
- The progress bar updates immediately when you plan, schedule, or skip a day.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The Calendar opens in day-view instead of Strategy | Your team is on the Base plan, which doesn't include the Strategy Calendar. | Upgrade your plan in Team Settings > Subscription. Strategy is included on all paid plans. |
| I can't click any of the planning options | Your role on the team is Viewer, which has read-only access. | Ask a team Admin or Owner to upgrade your role in Team Settings > Team Members. |
| A day shows Failed | The scheduled post couldn't publish — usually because the social account became disconnected, the platform rejected the content, or there was a temporary outage. | Click the day to see the error detail. Reconnect the social account if needed (see Reconnecting an Unlinked Account), then re-schedule the post from the day panel. |
| A day is Locked and I can't edit it | The scheduled publish time is too close — we lock changes shortly before publish to avoid race conditions. | Wait until after the post publishes, then delete or replace it from the day summary if needed. |
| Partner Library shows no recommendations | Your team isn't subscribed to any partner streams, or all recommendations have been used recently. | Go to Streams in the sidebar and subscribe to a few partner topics, then come back to Strategy. Recommendations refresh as new partner content is published. |
| Record a Video shows no topic ideas | Your team hasn't completed setup in the Teleprompter app, or your Practice Focus isn't set. | Open Team Settings > Practice Focus and pick the focus that best matches your work. See Choosing Your Practice Focus for details. |
| Topic Planner shows no suggestions | Practice Focus is not configured, or no streams are subscribed. | Set your practice focus in Team Settings > Practice Focus and subscribe to at least one content stream. |
FAQ
Q: Can I plan content for past days?
A: No. Strategy only lets you plan days in the current month going forward. Past days are read-only and show their final status (Posted, Skipped, or Failed).
Q: What's the difference between Planned and Scheduled?
A: Planned means you've chosen content for the day but haven't picked a publish time yet. Scheduled means the post is queued and will publish automatically at the time you set.
Q: Does Strategy work on mobile?
A: The Strategy Calendar is designed for desktop. On smaller screens you can still see the month grid, but the day-planning panel works best on a tablet or laptop. The Social Cascade Teleprompter mobile app is the right place to record videos for days marked Record a Video.
Q: Can I have more than one post on a single day?
A: Yes — once a day has been scheduled, click the day again and use Add another post from the day summary. The day status reflects the most advanced post on that day.
Q: Do suppressed topics come back next month?
A: Yes. Topic suppressions are per-month. When a new month starts, all topic suggestions reset and suppressed topics may reappear if they're still relevant.