# Restaurant social media content calendar template: weekly themes for a small café

*Guides · Mays Team · May 15, 2026*

![Mays cover card: Restaurant social media content calendar template: weekly themes for a small café — A theme for each day, planned once a month in an hour](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/blog__restaurant-social-media-content-calendar-template__cover.e65855f528.png)

The hard part of posting for a café isn't the posting. It's deciding what to post at 2 pm on a Tuesday when the rush just ended and nobody took a photo. A calendar makes that decision once a month instead of every day.

Our [Instagram guide for a new café](https://www.mays.app/blog/instagram-new-cafe-first-90-days) covers the account and the first 90 days, and the [short video guide](https://www.mays.app/blog/short-video-reels-tiktok-cafe-phone) covers shooting Reels on a phone. This post is the **calendar** that keeps it going after that: a theme for each day of the week, a monthly grid, and a short routine to fill it.

## Start with weekly themes

A theme per day means nobody starts from a blank page. Pick five or six that fit your café and keep them for at least a month. Here's a set to adapt:

| Day | Theme | What it looks like |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Monday | **Behind the counter** | Prep, the first pour, the bake coming out, the morning setup |
| Tuesday | **Meet the team** | One person, their favorite drink, how long they've been here (with their OK) |
| Wednesday | **How we make it** | A short Reel of one drink or dish, start to finish |
| Thursday | **What's new or seasonal** | A special, a menu change with its end date, a new bean |
| Friday | **Weekend plans** | Weekend hours, a pastry that's only on Saturdays, an event |
| Saturday | **Guests and neighbors** | Reposts of guests who tagged you (with permission), a local partner |
| Sunday | Rest, or a Story only | Something simple: the window, the empty café before opening |

Stories can run every day; feed posts and Reels follow the themes. If five a week is too many, keep three themes and drop the rest. A steady three beats an ambitious seven that stops in week two.

## The monthly grid

Fill it in once a month. Each cell gets the theme, a one-line idea and who shoots it.

**Month** ________ **Planned by** ________ **Posted by** ________

| Week | Mon: Behind the counter | Tue: Team | Wed: How we make it | Thu: New / seasonal | Fri: Weekend | Sat: Guests |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 2 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 3 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 4 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 5 |  |  |  |  |  |  |

Then add the dates that aren't weekly:

| Date | What | Post when | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | Menu change or seasonal launch | Day before and the day | Use the photo from the [menu change rollout](https://www.mays.app/blog/menu-change-rollout-checklist) |
|  | Holiday hours | A week before and the day before | Same hours as the door and Google |
|  | Local event or partner | Week before | Tag the partner |
|  | Anniversary, a team birthday (with their OK) | The day |  |

Holiday hours belong on your [holiday planner](https://www.mays.app/blog/holiday-hours-staffing-plan-template) first; the post repeats what the door sign and Google already say.

## The content bank

Keep a running list of ideas and a folder of photos and clips that haven't been used. When a day's plan falls through, you take the next item from the bank.

| Idea | Theme | Shot? | Used on |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Latte art close-up, window light | How we make it | Yes |  |
| The new grinder arriving | Behind the counter | No |  |
| Baker's first croissant of the day | Behind the counter | Yes |  |

Shoot extra on quiet mornings: three clips instead of one. Our [menu photography guide](https://www.mays.app/blog/menu-photography-phone-cafe) covers light and framing.

## One hour a month to plan it

1. **Look back (15 minutes).** Which posts did people save, share or comment on? Write the top three and the bottom three in the log below.
2. **Fixed dates (10 minutes).** Add next month's menu changes, holidays, events and hours.
3. **Fill the grid (25 minutes).** One idea per cell. Reuse what worked, in a new way.
4. **Assign the shooting (10 minutes).** Names next to each idea. The person on the morning shift is usually the best photographer you have, because that's when the light is good and the café is quiet.

## Who does what

| Job | Who | When |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Plan the month | Owner or manager | Last week of the month |
| Shoot the day's idea | Opener or whoever is named | Before the rush |
| Write and post | One person, the same one all month | Same time each day |
| Answer comments and messages | The person who posts | Within a day |
| Look back | Planner | Monthly session |

One person posts all month. Two people sharing the password means each one thinks the other posted.

## The rules for staff and reviews

- **Ask before you post a person.** Team members and guests both get asked first, every time. Don't post minors on the team without a parent's OK.
- **Staff reviews need a disclosure.** If your team posts about the café as fans, the audience should know they work there. The FTC's Endorsement Guides say a connection between an endorser and the business that *"might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement"* and that the audience wouldn't expect *"must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously"*, and that this applies *"equally to employees posting their own reviews of the product on retail websites or review platforms"* ([16 CFR 255.5](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/section-255.5)).
- **Don't ask the team for reviews without a disclosure.** The FTC's rule on reviews makes it a violation for a manager to ask employees for reviews when the reviews then appear without a disclosure and the manager didn't tell them to disclose ([16 CFR 465.5(c)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/section-465.5)). Our [Google reviews guide](https://www.mays.app/blog/first-50-google-reviews-replying-when-new) covers asking guests the right way.
- **Music.** Business accounts have limits on music; the [short video guide](https://www.mays.app/blog/short-video-reels-tiktok-cafe-phone) explains them, and the [music licensing guide](https://www.mays.app/blog/cafe-music-licensing-sound-atmosphere) covers what plays in the café.

## The post log

Write down what you posted and what happened, in your own numbers from the app's insights. No benchmarks needed: you're comparing your café with itself.

| Date | Theme | Format | What it was | Saves | Shares | Comments | Profile visits | Keep doing? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

After two months, the log tells you which themes to keep. Drop the one that never moves, and give its day to the one that does.

## Where Mays fits

Mays doesn't post to social media or keep a content calendar; you post from Instagram, TikTok or Meta Business Suite. What Mays does is make sure the photos get taken and the plan is written down:

- **The day's shot as a task.** In **Tasks → Templates**, add a **Daily** template with one task, "Today's theme: photo or clip", with a **Photo** answer, assigned to the opener's role. Staff tap **Take Photo** in the app, and the photos land in one place for whoever posts. See [Creating a checklist template](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/create-a-checklist-template).
- **Fixed dates on the schedule.** A menu launch or event goes in the schedule's **Events** row, so the team sees it and the person shooting knows what's coming. See [Schedule events and birthdays](https://www.mays.app/help/scheduling/schedule-events-and-birthdays).
- **The rules in one place.** Your themes, the photo rules (ask before posting a person) and the disclosure rule for staff go in a **Knowledge Base** article. See [Knowledge base basics](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/knowledge-base-basics).
- **The same content in the café.** With the **Digital signage** add-on, the photos and vertical videos you post can play on your own screens, in a playlist with your menu boards. See [Signage media and playlists](https://www.mays.app/help/food-safety-devices/signage-media-and-playlists).

## Plan it once, post it every day

Pick your weekly themes, fill the grid in one hour a month, name who shoots each idea, and keep a bank for the days the plan falls through. The calendar does the deciding, so the posting takes five minutes.

[**Start your free trial**](https://go.mays.app/register): 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or [book a walkthrough](https://www.mays.app/book?from=blog-restaurant-social-media-content-calendar-template) and we'll set up your daily photo task with you.

## Related help articles

- Tasks & checklists: [Creating a checklist template](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/create-a-checklist-template) — Build an opening, closing or cleaning checklist once as a template — groups, tasks and answer types — and Mays turns it into your team's task list in the app.
- Tasks & checklists: [Task answer types](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/task-response-types) — Every task has an answer type that decides how staff complete it. Tick a box, take a photo, enter a number or text, pick an option, record a location, count stock or fill in a form.
- Team chat: [Photos, files and sharing in chat](https://www.mays.app/help/team-chat/photos-files-and-sharing) — Send photos, videos, voice notes, files, your location, GIFs, tasks and Knowledge Base articles in chat, and share photos, text and links into Mays from other apps.
- Scheduling: [Schedule events and birthdays](https://www.mays.app/help/scheduling/schedule-events-and-birthdays) — Mark catering orders, inspections and other one-off days on the schedule, with a morning reminder for that day's staff. Birthdays show on the schedule too.
- Knowledge & training: [Your knowledge base](https://www.mays.app/help/knowledge-training/knowledge-base-basics) — Keep your SOPs, recipes and policies in one place. Admins and managers build folders of articles and documents on the web; the whole team reads and searches them in the app.
- Food safety & signage: [Signage media and playlists](https://www.mays.app/help/food-safety-devices/signage-media-and-playlists) — Upload the images and videos your screens show, then put them into playlists: the order they play in and how long each image stays on the screen.

Canonical: https://www.mays.app/blog/restaurant-social-media-content-calendar-template