3 Tools To Manage Your Editorial Content Calendar

Editorial calendars aren’t new. They’ve been in use, in some shape or other, for at least as long as we’ve been publishing newspapers. Whether they’re simple or complex, the usage of editorial calendars can help you to:

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How To Set Up An Editorial Calendar

What’s the fine way to install a piece of writing calendar? There’s no easy solution to this. When I worked as a magazine editor (a long, long time ago), our annual editorial calendar consisted of thirteen sheets of paper. One small one had our issues for the year, and there had been 12 bigger month calendars for us to devise each trouble. Even in the case, you’re the usage of a piece of software or online device, that type of approach can nonetheless work.

Tools To Manage Your Editorial Content Calendar

You see this on-line all of the time. When there may be a big enterprise event coming up, like announcements from Apple, Google or Microsoft or Content Marketing World, the relevant blogs are flooded with associated content before, during and after the activities – and you’d better trust they had all of it deliberate out. Depending on your niche and publication frequency you can determine to prepare content seasonally, month-to-month or weekly. For instance, if you’re in retail, you will need to plot in advance for content material referring to big sale durations like Black Friday.

Editorial calendars don’t simply assist editors; in addition, they assist writers. When each person is aware of what they’re running toward it less complicated to get the proper form of content material. And editorial calendars are not just about making plans content; they may be additionally approximately monitoring it because it moves thru your editorial workflow.

Does team size matter when considering your editorial calendar solution? I assume it does. If you’re running your own weblog, with an occasional guest author or two, then it may be enough to use a simple spreadsheet or even a piece of paper. But if you’re handling a hectic site, are running with a large crew of writers and editors, or are producing multiple content material sorts, then you may want a much better editorial device (even if that is a more complex spreadsheet).

Types Of Editorial Calendars

As an author, I’ve worked with other human beings’ editorial calendar solutions for the past 11 years and my completely unscientific survey of the solutions they use boils down to 3.

Each has execs and cons. The spreadsheet approach is beneficial because most of the people have access to a few type of spreadsheet tool. However, it is able to be a chunk cumbersome for managing large amounts of content and it may be hard to get an at-a-look view of the way content is shaping up.

WordPress plugins are beneficial due to the fact they integrate with software program you are already the use of and they usually encompass a calendar view. However, they vary in functionality, as you will see underneath.

A software program device may be easier to apply for huge amounts of content material, but you cannot constantly guarantee that everybody could be acquainted with it. However, many web-based totally editorial calendar tools include a calendar view which is highly helpful with content visualization and making plans.

Using Spreadsheets To Manage Content

Here’s how some of my clients have organized their editorial spreadsheets (sorry, I do not have permission to share the real sheets with you).

One consumer makes use of an unmarried sheet in a spreadsheet, with columns for title, class, date, reputation, image, uploaded, published. On the same sheet, there’s a separate section for monitoring ideas. Another has columns for the keyword word, creator, status, put up kind and very last URL.