If content marketing is part of your business plan, it is important to publish content on a regular basis. Many organizations fail to see ROI from their content marketing because they don’t create a plan for getting everything done. An editorial calendar can help you do this as it helps with advanced planning, outlining tasks and allowing others to coordinate efforts. This post will show you how easy it is to use Trello as an editorial calendar.
In previous posts, we have discussed how useful Trello can be to the modern enterprise. Another way Trello can be utilized is as an editorial calendar. News sites like Mashable, ReadWrite, and The Changelog all use Trello to keep their content pipeline full and fluid. Speaking from personal experience, it can be difficult to deliver valuable content consistently. However, when using Trello, it doesn’t feel like such a difficult mountain to climb. Take it from Lauren Moon, a member of the Trello team and frequent user, “creating a Trello board for an Editorial Calendar is an intuitive and visual way to store, overview, and organize content.”
Content travels from the left to right across our lists as it makes it through the editorial process. The final destination is the “Published” list. There are many ways to set up your board because different teams will have different editorial processes. This means not all boards will have the same lists. The first board shown above is how Lauren and her team go through their editorial process, and the second is how we do it here at Anant. Make sure you build a board that fits your team’s process. Our Editorial Calendar lists are as follows, from left to right:
Resources
This list is made up of resources that might be helpful to new team members and apprentices. Here they can find information on the editorial process and how to compose posts for our readers.
Planned-Month
The Planned-Month list is the start of our editorial process. Ideas that we have planned for this month are added to this list, whether it may be for a personal post or a post that will be written by another team member. While this is not where most of our ideation takes place, it is a good place to present the particular ideas we want to push forward this month.
Similar to the Trello team, each idea is its own card, and on the back is usually a description of the idea. This is also where one of our labels gets added, to further describe what type of content will be included in the post to other team members.
Write Rough Draft
At this point in the editorial process, a team member must take ownership of the card. This is done by assigning a member to that card. Once the card is yours, you’re free to begin writing the rough draft. Further research and development also occur during this stage of the process.
Rough Draft Written
Once the draft has been completed it moved to the Rough Draft Written list. This is a transition list where the writer does their preliminary review of their post. When satisfied with their review, the writer sends it off to the next step in the editorial process.
Cards usually have a checklist of mini-tasks that lead to the completion of the post. Writers can also leave updates in the comment section for other team members.
In Review
A card that has been sent to the In Review list is ready to be reviewed by another team member. All posts must be reviewed by at least one other team member. When the card is in this lane, the writer is responsible for mentioning a team member in the comments and letting them know that there is a post ready to be reviewed. Other teammates not mentioned can also review the post if they see its corresponding card in this list.
Published
The final stage in our editorial process is publishing the blog post and getting it to our readers. Our designated team members make one final review of the post and then publish it. Once completed, they are responsible for moving the card from the In Review list to the Published list.
The team at Trello put together a sample board that can help you get started with the basics. If you have any questions or know any other useful tips to implement when using Trello as an editorial calendar send us an email!
