How Wrike's Content Marketing Team Manages Projects in Wrike
Here at Wrike we eat our own dog food—or drink our own champagne, as we like to say—so we were able to quickly adapt our workflow to meet our evolving needs and increase our momentum. Let’s dig into how we manage content projects in Wrike!
11 Ways To Use Social Media To Find Project Management Resources (or just about anything!)
The web is an amazing resource for education, research, and discovery - if you know where (and how) to look. Of course, running a search on Google (or your favorite search engine) is one option for finding resources on project management or any other topic you’re exploring. But “page 1” of any search results page will show you links to pages housing content that search engine thinks is most relevant for your search - it may not be the best, newest or most interesting content out there. Social media sites can provide a treasure trove of resources that are completely different from what you’ll find in the search engines. In fact, you’ll not only find different project management resources in social media, but you’ll be able to: (1) explore them differently (e.g. visually, by “hashtag,” or in collections curated by others), (2) see varied types of media (e.g. pictures, infographics, video), (3) connect with the creators or the “curators” of the content, or (4) find groups of people actively talking about specific topics or industries. 11 Ways to Find Project Management Resources in Social Media See below for 11 ways to boost your marketing resource management in social media (or use these techniques to find information on just about any topic): PinterestPinterest is a great way to find visual content or even links to other types of content (blog posts, videos, etc.) One of my favorite ways to browse is by searching keywords and looking through boards, which are collections of content on a particular topic. Click here to find Project Management Boards on Pinterest QuoraQuora is a question and answer site where you can discover interesting conversation threads or ask your own questions about project management. Click here to see project management questions and answers on Quora TwitterTwitter is a constant stream of “tweets” on just about every topic imaginable. Hashtags are special tags that people place in their tweets to help with discovery. If you run a search on the hashtag #projectmanagement, you’ll find people tweeting about it and sharing resources related to project management. Click here to run a real time search on #projectmanagement on Twitter Or learn about the 20 Project Management Gurus to Follow on Twitter LinkedIn GroupsLinkedIn is a great resource for everything business - but sometimes it's hard to discover great content on a particular topic. One way to solve this issue is to join relevant groups where people congregate to talk about particular topics or industries. Click here to run a search on project management groups on LinkedIn FacebookSo you thought Facebook was just for baby pictures and vacation shots! Not quite. You can find project management groups or pages devoted to project management there, too: Click here to find Facebook pages related to project management Google+Google Plus has a lot of great business-related content. Posts are displayed in an easy-to-skim fashion and you can find companies or groups dedicated to your topic of interest. Click here to find project management resources on Google+ ListlyWe all love lists, don’t we? Well, listly has great lists of project management resources, tools, and websites. Click here to find project management resources on Listly Click here to see Wrike's lists on Listly WikipediaWikipedia is the famous and oft-quoted online encyclopedia completely created with user-generated content. It’s sometimes hard to figure out exactly what is available to you on Wikipedia. One way to discover new content is to look at categories. Click here to see the project management category on Wikipedia StumbleUponStumbleUpon is an interesting site that provides a great way to discover project management-related sites online. Click here to see what StumbleUpon has in the project management category RedditReddit is a popular social bookmarking site that covers a variety of topics - from the inane to the serious. It’s a mix of resources, reviews, and Q&As. Click to see what’s being discussed about PM on Reddit YouTubeFor online videos, YouTube is the undisputed leader. You can find video tutorials, tool reviews, and more. Click here to access Wrike’s YouTube account where we share tips on project management. Ready to get started?With these different social media sites and approaches for discovering content, you should be well-armed to find project management resources or information on just about any topic. What are your favorite ways to find new resources? Let us know in the comments.
A-Z Glossary of Online Marketing Terms (Infographic)
SEO, SEM, CMS, PPC, CPM…. Many industries have their own language, but the marketing world takes the acronyms and buzzwords to a new level. For the uninitiated, the marketing terms glossary can be confusing, to say the least. To help you out, we put together this infographic with a list of common online marketing terms, from anchor text to vanity metrics. Check out the full infographic below to unscramble the online marketing code and never feel lost in the middle of important work conversations again. Share this infographic with fellow marketers with this embed code:
How to Set Up an Editorial Calendar in Wrike
Wrike is introducing more and more features to help marketing teams manage and track all their work in one centralized place. Our marketing team completely relies on Wrike to collaborate and get work done, so we're doubly passionate about making Wrike the best workspace for Agile marketers. One of the many ways we use Wrike is to track our blog's publishing calendar. For example, this post has been on our editorial calendar since March, and we've been tracking its progress from just an idea all the way through the publishing date today! Now we want to show you how we use Wrike as an editorial and marketing calendar, so you can efficiently manage your company blog, too. 5 Steps to Set Up Your Marketing Editorial Calendar with Wrike 1. Create a folder to hold every post that you'll publish on your blog. Our folder is called "Blog Posts". Every time you create a new task to write a blog post, make sure it's tagged into this folder. 2. Create a Custom Workflow that accurately reflects all the different stages that your blog posts go through on their way to being published. For example, at Wrike our Custom Workflow for our blog calendar looks like this: Sometimes, posts jump back and forth between "In Review" and "Writing", if the author has received feedback on their post for additional edits, and Wrike makes it easy to adjust your task to that back-and-forth workflow. 3. Create a Shared Dashboard to give your team visibility into the publishing schedule. We call our Shared Dashboard "Editorial Calendar". It will look like this when you're done with every step: 4. Now you need to create the two widgets for your Dashboard: a. One for all posts that have yet to be scheduled, e.g. "To Be Scheduled". These will be tasks in your folder without due dates. i. Create the widget by filtering inside your Blog Posts folder for tasks that are BACKLOGGED. ii. Also select all Custom Statuses you care about for this widget. At Wrike, we filter for 'planned', 'writing', 'in review', 'in design', and 'ready to post' because we want a list of everything that is definitely going to be published at some point. We leave out 'idea', since those ideas may never make it to the publishing calendar. iii. Once you've filtered for tasks to show only what you want to see in your widget, add the widget to your Dashboard! b. Now create a widget for your current publishing schedule, e.g. "Publishing Schedule". These will be tasks in your folder that do have due dates. i. Create the widget by filtering inside your Blog Posts folder for tasks that are PLANNED and MILESTONE ii. Also select all custom statuses you care about for this widget. At Wrike, we filter for 'planned', 'writing', 'in review', 'in design', and 'ready to post' because we select publishing dates before posts are fully ready. We choose NOT to show posts that are already 'published', but you can decide to show them if you'd always like to see previously published posts on your Dashboard. iii. Finally, make sure you organize your task list "By Date" to make sure the widget lists your tasks in the correct order, and then add your widget to your Dashboard! 5. Now you're all set up! When you're looking at your Dashboard, you can click the quick scheduling button on your task card to choose publishing dates. If you've set up your filters as described above, your task will automatically move from the "To Be Scheduled" widget over to the "Publishing Schedule" widget once you've selected a date. You can use the same button to quickly rearrange posts in your publishing schedule, in case new posts need to be added into the mix and things need to move around. It gives your marketing team the ability to stay agile. Note: Because our Editorial Calendar system uses task due dates to set publishing dates, we cannot use due dates to note when we'll be done writing, when editing needs to be completed, or anything except the final publishing date. If your team relies heavily on due dates to move work through every stage of your workflow, you will need to modify our process described above to fit your needs. More Tools to Make Your Marketing Team More Agile Learn more about how today's marketers are using Agile techniques in our survey report: How Marketers Get Things Done: The State of Agile Marketing in 2016. Then, start a free trial of Wrike to get your Agile marketing team running at peak performance.
Key Findings on How to Succeed in Managing Internet Marketing Projects
Want to know what it takes to successfully manage online marketing project? Rich Byrd, the President of Fast Forward Marketing, Wrike’s new client, and Nic Bryson, Wrike’s VP of Customer Care, are sharing their key findings and long-term expertise on how to best keep projects and your team organized: Break a project down into discrete, clearly defined tasks, instead of having one complex task. This will sharply reduce the chances of team members misunderstanding what they were supposed to do on a project. One project is to have neither too many nor too few tasks. Divide your project into subprojects with 5 to 15 tasks to detail just enough things that go into its successful completion. Put all tasks in one place. This way, you’ll make sure the areas of responsibility aren’t blurred, and two people aren’t both working on the same task on some days, while on other days, no one is. Assign tasks whenever possible to a single team member. So there will be no question as to who is responsible for it. To back the assignee up and make task completion easier, use the descriptions and comments. Request a status update on uncompleted tasks with approaching deadlines – this is a one-click action in Wrike, so it won't take long, and it will help you to avoid neglecting tasks. Set up dependencies and reasonable durations for tasks to easily see when a project is getting stuck on something. I love the ease of seeing what’s holding the project up and adjusting these things on Wrike’s timeline! Work backwards from the hard deadline. If your project has a strict due date, start from that and move back on the timeline to when various tasks must be completed in order to meet the overall deadline. Big thanks to Rich for his excellent input. Experiences are best when shared, so if you too would like to share your best project management practices and tips with other Wrike users, let us know, and together we’ll think of a creative way to feature it in our blog. ”— Rich Byrd, President of Fast Forward Marketing Boutique marketing company, specializing in websites and Internet marketing for small businesses and startups
3 Tips for Maximizing LinkedIn's Connection Tools
LinkedIn is not just a social network for keeping up-to-date with colleagues and clients, it's also a powerful business connection tool that gives you the ability to communicate directly with industry influencers, job candidates, and prospective clients. But it only works at its best if you invest a little time in optimizing your profile and learning the ins and outs of its powerful features. We put together a slideshare to describe some of the not-too-obvious ways you can use LinkedIn to connect with anyone. Tips include: Did you know that if you are in a LinkedIn group with someone, you can message them directly even if they're not in your network? And no need to pay for InMails either. Simply join groups where your much of your target audience congregates and you have an easier way to contact prospects. Find a target's colleagues by checking out the "People Also Viewed" column on the right side of the profile. More often than not, the people listed there are coworkers or clients of the target. You can sometimes find a person's direct email address, even if it's not listed anywhere in their profile page. The secret is to click "Send InMail." Some people choose to show their email addresses in the "Contact Advice" area right next to the message box. For the complete set of 10 tips for optimizing your profile and using LinkedIn to connect with people outside your direct network, check out the slideshare: Unleash the Secret Power of LinkedIn Do you have any LinkedIn tips to share with us? We'd love to learn more from you. Hit the comments! Photo by Juliana Coutinho - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/10217810@N05
Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post (Infographic)
Blogging may seem like one of the easier ways to market your product or your service, but if you’ve ever found yourself staring down a blank page, you know it’s not as simple as it looks. There are many factors that go into a successful post, from length, imagery, subheads, social sharing messages, and much more. Whether you need help getting started with this special type of content marketing, or just want an easy way to keep track of blogging best practices, iSpionage has the perfect cheat sheet. The infographic below includes all the details you need to write an article that’s sure to attract and engage your audience, from a gripping headline and hook to the perfect call-to-action — and everything in between. Infographic by iSpionage Further Reading: 4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success How to Use Wrike for Content Planning 10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing “Engine” (Infographic)
65 Essential Tools for Digital Marketers
Marketers are a busy bunch. Every day they manage a slew of projects, campaigns, and clients, all while coordinating efforts with other teams and immediately reacting to change. The right tools can make a marketer's life a lot easier, but with the overwhelming number of options, where do you start? Take a look at our list of top marketing tools and marketing project management software that will help you build leads, opportunities, and revenue. Inbound & Content Marketing Inbound & content marketers work to attract, nurture, inform, and entertain potential customers to earn their business and loyalty. They examine how today’s consumers make buying decisions and place helpful, interesting content at each stage of that process. Hubspot's inbound marketing platform Up Close & Persona to help generate marketing personas A/B testing tools like Optimizely to analyze and tweak your current inbound strategy Google Analytics to examine where your traffic is coming from and how customers are interacting with your website Content discovery tools like ContentGems, Scoop.it, Triberr, or Trapit Collaboration tools like Wrike for brainstorming, writing, peer editing, and task delegation Online publication tools like Paper.li, Flipboard or Kuratur to organize and distribute your content Disqus to respond to readers who comment on your blog Tools to help recruit and recognize brand advocates, like Influitive Graphics & Multimedia Did you know that YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network? As the content landscape grows increasingly crowded, more marketers are turning to engaging visuals and videos to grab customers' fleeting attention and stand out from the competition. Video platforms like Brightcove or Vidyard Webinar platform like GoToMeeting or BrightTALK Piktochart to create infographics Canva to make instant graphics for web or print Slideshare, List.ly, YouTube, and Pinterest accounts for distributing and curating content AdWords for Video and YouTube TrueView for creating video ads Search Engine Marketing & SEO Search engine marketers increase a site’s visibility in search results pages, either through search engine optimization (SEO) or paid advertising. SEO experts determine the top keywords that people are searching for about your topic or market and then include those keywords in strategic spots on the website and blog. Google Keyword Planner to find top keywords, as well as long-tail and niche keywords Yahoo Search Marketing or Bing Ads to post ads on search results pages, blogs and websites Optimization, reporting and link building tools like Moz, Raven SEO Tools or SEMRush Social Media Marketing & Social Advertising Social media networks help marketers increase brand awareness, engage with customers, and direct traffic to the company website. Marketers package and post updates readers will want to share, manage online communities, and run paid advertising campaigns to reach new customers. Social media accounts or pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. for sharing internal and curated content Sprout, Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule social media posts, determine the best times to publish, and discover the most popular types of posts Followerwonk breaks down followers into specific demographics Mention and Social Mention track where brands — or certain keywords — get mentioned across the web, including social media sites, discussion forums, and blogs NinjaOutreach identifies influencers based on keyword. Filter by tags to find bloggers, influencers, and companies to refine your search Sprinklr or SocialBakers analytics tools to determine click-through rates, cost-per-click, and overall reach and engagement Viral Content Buzz account to share stories that interest you, and earn tweets and likes on your own content Mobile Marketing Mobile is overtaking desktop internet usage, as more customers are defaulting to digesting content on smartphones and tablets. And because people carry their devices with them, marketers can send personalized messages directly to them via SMS, push notifications, in-app ads, QR codes, and more. Digital Advertising Alliance Principles to check opt-in and privacy guidelines MailChimp Mobile to manage your MailChimp email campaigns while on the go Mogreet Express or Textus.biz to exchange SMS messages with customers Mobile ad creation and distribution tools, like Huzzah Media and Adagogo Location-specific mobile marketing tools like MobSav and Thumbvista Mobile app creation and testing tools, like BuildFire and TestFlight Email Marketing & Marketing Automation 82% of consumers open marketing emails, and 66% of them have made a purchase as a direct result of an email. In order to attain that success, email marketers must send helpful, relevant messages to recipients and respect customers’ inboxes by not sending spammy emails. AWeber, MailChimp and Constant Contact are popular tools to manage email marketing Hubspot, Marketo, ExactTarget, Eloqua, and Customer.io are marketing automation tools to help with email campaigns as well as other marketing channels MailChimp's subject line suggestion tool to refine your all-important subject line copy Email Spam Test checks to make sure messages are compliant with applicable SPAM laws See how the email looks on various clients and devices with Litmus The marketing landscape is constantly shifting as new strategies and tools arise. Stay ahead of the curve with these 6 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch.
10 Skills Required for Great Digital Marketers (Infographic)
"Great men are not born great, they grow great." —Mario Puzo, The Godfather Being a great digital marketer is partially intuition and the ability to speak the language of your audience; but a larger part is continually studying and learning new skills to make sure your marketing team is evolving at an equal pace with the ever-changing digital world. Below are 10 skills you need today to go above and beyond in digital marketing. Take a look, and see what you can improve. Follow a project management methodology Understand SEO best practices Communicate with technical staff and upper management Be able to create or provide direction on creating a digital marketing strategy Understand email marketing best practices Manage your marketing staff and the costs incurred to provide the best outcomes Evaluate your social media options Be able to continually provide business justification of your projects Understand Google Analytics to interpret and communicate data, metrics and marketing analytics Know and drive the entire team toward your project goals Source: Premium IT Solutions What else does it take to be great at digital marketing? If you've worked with great marketers, or you've honed your own skills year after year, share your wisdom in the comments. What does a great digital marketer need these days?
Origin of the #Hashtag in Social Media (Infographic)
There's a global phenomenon in town, and it seems like it's here to stay. Yes, I'm talking about the hashtag. It existed under the alias "Octothorpe" long before Twitter was born, and it has recently risen to prominence as an easy way to insert yourself into any online conversation. What is the hashtag? Where did it come from? How do you use it? Find out why you keep seeing that little symbol in your feeds with our latest social media #infographic: Like our hashtag history? Share it on your blog with this embed code: Wrike Collaboration Software Read next: Will Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic)
Your Guide to Top MarTech Conferences in 2015-2016
Conferences are perfect opportunities to make networking connections, stay abreast of industry news and trends, and learn new tips and best practices to apply to your business. If you're looking at your calendar to plan which events and conferences you'll attend in the upcoming year, here are 11 top martech and adtech conferences to consider (in no particular order): 1. MarTech This international conference series is the flagship event for marketing technology (the martech definition, FYI). With 1,200 attendees at the 2015 event, marketing strategists and technologists discuss how emerging tech is impacting marketing as a discipline and its potential for improving companies' bottom lines.When: March 21-22, 2016; San Francisco 2. AdTech AdTech brings marketing and technology communities together to share strategies, build partnerships, and examine the future of the martech industry.When: Dates vary by location (worldwide) 3. Programmatic I/O This is the world’s largest conference focused entirely on programmatic media and marketing. It brings together hundreds of marketing executives, media agencies, and tech providers to discuss the future of marketing automation technologies.When: October 29, 2015; New York 4. SM2 Innovation Summit This conference from the Mobile Marketing Association covers emerging technologies that are poised to unlock the full potential of mobile marketing. Past speakers include execs and leaders from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Mashable, Microsoft, and more.When: September 28-29, 2015; New York 5. AdMonsters OPS The OPS conference is focused on digital ad operations and technology. Keynote sessions with industry leaders and journalists from companies like Mashable, Forbes, Yahoo, Advertising Age, and Bloomberg Business, plus sponsored sessions hosted by marketing ops tech and service providers.When: 2016 dates TBD 6. FutureM This 3-day conference is packed with over 100 speakers, 50 sessions, and 2,500 attendees. FutureM looks at the concepts and innovations on both the near and distant horizon.When: October 6-8, 2015; Boston 7. Ignition: Future of Digital Pioneers in media and technology industries, from Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to Bethany Kota, share their insights into what’s in store for marketers and business leaders.When: December 8-9, 2015; New York 8. Marketing Operations & Technology Summit Note: attendees are vetted and limited to marketing professionals who control multi-million dollar enterprise budgets. While the conference hosts keynotes and speakers like any other, the real value is in the time set aside for strategic group discussions with fellow marketing operations leaders. Because you help set the agenda for these discussions, you’ll leave with actionable takeaways for your business.When: October 18-21, 2015; New Orleans 9. WebSummit This major technology conference attracts over 22,000 attendees each year from all around the world. Among the 800 speakers are CEOs and execs from top companies like Pixar, Slack, Adobe, Cisco, LinkedIn, and more.When: November 3-5, 2015; Dublin 10. SXSW Interactive SXSW Interactive spans 5 days of presentations and panel discussions featuring leaders in emerging technology, networking events, and special programs showcasing must-see technology and ideas. Past keynotes include execs from GoogleX, Lyft, SpaceX, and 3D Robotics.When: March 11-16, 2016; Austin 11. The Next Web Listen to 20 curated keynotes, plus fast-paced, 5-minute intros to 100 exciting new startups to get a snapshot of future tech innovations. Past keynote speakers include Kevin Rose, Michael Arrington, David Allen, Kevin Kelly, and Alexis Ohanian.When: November 18, 2015; New York What did we miss? Have you already blocked off your calendar for any of these martech conferences? Did we miss a few? Let us know which conferences are worth attending in the comments below! Wrike for Marketing Teams Find out how Wrike's work management app can help your marketing team exceed customer expectations and get more done.
Why Social Media is a Top Priority for CMOs in 2015 (Infographic)
It's no secret that social media has permanently altered the marketing landscape. But eight years after Facebook opened its doors to businesses, many marketers are still trying to perfect their strategies and learn how to expertly navigate both emerging and established networks. According to a recent survey, this isn't likely to change in the coming year: social media is dominating CMOs' priorities for 2015. These three factors are driving CMOs' focus on social media: 87% of CMOs say social media is the most engaging medium for real-time content, over video and blogs. As a result, CMOs are devoting a full 21.4% of their total marketing budgets to social media efforts. Respondents admit social media is poorly integrated with their overall marketing strategy. (3.85 on a scale from 1-7.) Curious about how budgets are shifting from traditional to digital marketing this year? Or how content, analytics, and consulting fit into CMO plans for 2015? Take a look at the full infographic below: Source: Ciceron What do you think? Do you agree with these CMO priorities? Let us know in the comments below! Related Reads: 6 Top Marketing Trends for 2015 Will Your Company's Social Media Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic) Origins of the Hashtag in Social Media (Infographic)