Editorial Calendars Work: Part 2

Picture

In the last post, we talked about editorial calendars and why they promote and inspire efficiency.
 
Today, let’s talk more in-depth.
 
We’ve already covered the obvious fact that an editorial calendar is part calendar—it includes the cyclical work of reaching out to clients, including launches and events and routine touch-point opportunities.
 
But the crucial work of the calendar is to provide a space to associate launches, events and routine touch-point opps with relevant content:

  • Invites, RSVPs, reminders, updates, follow-ups
  • Postcards, letters, emails, Q&As, seminar series, slide decks, educational opportunities, volunteer queries

 
And the even more crucial work of the editorial calendar is that it allows—and really demands—a correspondence between content and production. Each calendar includes:

  • The person responsible for producing/proofing the content (who’s writing this?)
  • The relevant audience personas (who’s this for?)
  • The content’s destination (where is this going? An email, a blog, a white paper, an ebook?)
  • The relevant workflow and associated notes (is this in-progress, complete, posted?)

Lots of programs offer editorial calendar templates or plug-ins, but we like Google Sheets and Trello.

Google Sheets is easy, intuitive for the average Excel user, and basically universal. (Trello is more aesthetically pleasing [and visual people often claim that it’s easier to use]). But with a little front-end customization, you can ensure your Sheets reflect content, author, audience, etc. at little more than a glance. (We use separate tabs to manage current content, scheduled content, and our ideas for the future, too.)
 
Whatever medium you choose, any editorial calendar is better than none. With the right denotations and assignments, it makes the hard work of getting stuff done much easier.

/by