What does everyone use to keep track of blog post ideas, assignments and schedules in a team setting? Excel, Outlook, Google calendar?

@michaelraia I use Excel a lot, but if the team has a collaboration platform like SharePoint, their calendaring function works well, and integrates with Outlook.

And, being visual, I also always kept a write-on wall calendar with ALL dates & deadlines in my office, and of course it was color coded.

But, despite all the means of sharing info, if the team is cross-functional, and they have other work priorities, actually getting the content on time was difficult.

 @debbielynnava I use Post-its, and index cards for ideas

We’ve been using a tool called “Trello” to manage team tasks and projects (it’s like digital note cards that are in stacks) and I realized after reading the replies from @debbielynnava and @joanmuschampfagnani that I could use it for blog planning as well. I just created stacks called “Blog Ideas,” “Posts in Progress,” “In Review,” and “Ready to Post.” When I come up with and idea, I create a card for it and drop it into “Blog Ideas.” Then, if anyone on the team is interested in writing it, they assign the card to themselves and move it from stack to stack until it’s ready to post.

@joanmuschampfagnani I color code too–neon Post-It notes, colored pens, colored rows and columns in Excel, etc.

@michaelraia Thanks for sharing Trello–especially since there is nothing to install or update, so a team can stay in sync no matter what device each person is using.

If you’re using a WordPress blog, you might also take a look at the Editorial Calendar plug in. In my day job I’m the marketing communications “department” for a company. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track my company-wide editorial calendar across our blog, newsletter, social media, press relations, etc… then transfer blog-specific information to this plug in to help manage blog post planning and scheduling among our blog authors.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar/

@michaelraia

My company started with excel and then we uploaded it to Google Docs.  This worked great for our company. It allowed everyone to see the document and make changes and suggestions.  Our ideas start from  group brain storm sessions to writing thoughts on a large whiteboard to Google Docs.  Once we established a system, our blog and newsletter content started to flow nicely.  We now have content planned for the next 5 weeks.  However, we always keep our ears to the ground to watch for time sensitive material.

Tweet me @GoOmnibeator check out our website http://www.omnibeat.com/surge

That calendar plugin is awesome! wow…

You’re welcome, y’all! Glad I could be of help.

When I really want to get strategic I like using a mind map.  This makes it VERY easy to see any “holes” that I haven’t yet covered. It’s also a great way to find lots of ideas.  

I’ve used a mind map to cover the main topic of a blog and develop the right categories.  And then have a mind map for each category to further develop content ideas.