If you’re a business owner or a freelance content writer, it’s important to have a content strategy. Without a solid content strategy, you end up wasting a lot of time managing your content.
By having a solid plan and sticking to it, you won’t have to spend time coming up with new ideas or scrambling to meet deadlines. One of the best ways to build a content strategy is to use a content planner.
A Sample Board to View
Whether you’re working alone or with a team, a good content planner can really boost your productivity. So, let’s see how this company uses a content planner to plan and publish its SEO content.
Click on this image to view this sample board, live!
A Free Template to Use
If you found this board interesting, here’s a free Template from Kerika that you can use to set up your own board in just seconds:
Click on this image to view the Template.
The rest of this article will walk you through the process of using this template:
Step 1: Gather resources
If you’re a serious content writer, you already know the importance of gathering resources before you start writing. After all, you need to have something to write about!
One of the best ways to manage your gathered resources is to use a Content Planner. A Content Planner can help you organize your thoughts and ideas, and it can also help you find new and relevant information to write about.
Step 2: Research Content Ideas
Before you start writing, you need to have an idea of what you want to write about. Make a list of content ideas that you think would be popular with your audience.
You can get content ideas by checking out your competitors, looking for news stories, looking for guest post ideas, and brainstorming ideas with your team.
Step 3: Drafting
Now it’s time to start writing your content. Keep your keywords in mind as you write and try to include them naturally in your text.
Step 4: Designing graphics content
Graphics in blogs capture your reader’s attention, communicate your message more clearly, and overall make your blog more visually appealing.
Once the article is ready, the next step is to add graphics to it. Graphics are important to capture your reader’s attention and make your blog more visually appealing.
Step 5: Integration/Schedule Content:
Once you’re finished writing, you need to integrate your content into your website. You can do this by adding a blog to your website or by scheduling your content to be published on your website later on.
Step 6: Promote Content
Finally, you need to promote your content. You can do this by sharing it on social media, writing guest posts on other blogs, or by paying for advertising.
Producing great video content is essential to a successful YouTube channel, but it can be a time-consuming task if you don’t have a proper process and workflow.
A very helpful tool for planning your content workflow is the Kanban board.
Kanban boards, like Kerika’s Task Boards, can help you plan and execute your video production process, ensuring that each step is completed in a timely and efficient manner.
In this article, we will show you how you can use Kerika to set up a great workflow and process for your YouTube video production.
A Workflow for You
This template will set you up with a good workflow. Each phase of this workflow is represented by a column; let’s take a look from left to right:
Click to view this Template
Resources
The cards in this column contain helpful resources for you to get started with. The first card, for example, helps you understand how to use video tags; the second card provides a guide for how to write a good video description. And so on.
Content Ideas
This is where you start to gather all your ideas for different videos. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, take a look at the first card in this column.
Create Video Scripts
When you have decided a specific topic you want to work on, move its card from Content Ideas to this column and start writing your script. (And there’s a card in this column with some really useful tips on writing a template for a script.)
Record & Edit videos
Use this column to track the videos you are currently working on: once your script is ready, move the video’s card from the Create Video Script column to this column. This helps you keep track of the videos that are currently in production.
Review Videos
Once everything related to a particular is done, move its card to this column. This will help you track videos that are finished, but you haven’t published them yet.
Schedule / Publish Videos
When you have decided when to publish a video, move its card to this column. This way you and your teammates know which video is when going live. Kerika will remind you if you scheduled a video but forgot to publish it.
Promote Videos
Promoting videos is essential to growing your YouTube channel: once a video is published, move its card to this column and create a checklist of where your videos should be shared and promoted.
Best Practices of Great Teams
If you are working just by yourself, you are ready to go. But if you are working for an agency or the Marketing department of a company, there will be others you need to get involved in this project.
Set up your Team Members
Kerika makes it really easy to organize your team: if there are people who will be actively involved in the video production, e.g. photographers or content writers, add them as Team Members on this board.
They will be able to make changes to this board in real-time, as they get their pieces ready, and everything that they do will be instantly accessible for everyone else that’s on this board’s team.
Set up your Visitors
There are often people who need to be informed, but aren’t necessarily going to contribute in an active way. For example, there may be a product owner who needs to keep track of videos that are relevant to their product, or a senior manager who wants to be kept in the loop.
Add these stakeholders as Visitors to this board team: they will always have a real-time view of what’s going on, but they won’t be able to move any cards or make any changes (in other words, mess up with your careful workflow!) and you won’t have to keep giving status reports. That’s a double-win.
Understand the Workflow
In a Kerika board, every column represents a particular stage in a workflow, and every card represents a specific task (e.g. a video that needs to be produced).
Start at the top-left
Open the first card in the first column
Read the instructions inside
Check out any resources that are attached to the card
Take action.
Some tasks are best handled by you, and others should clearly be handed off to coworkers.
Update the cards as work gets done
A card can be assigned to one or more people, and this can change throughout the course of the project: something is initially assigned to you and then gets handed off to someone else.
As cards get worked upon, update the status of each card: start with READY, then IN PROGRESS, and so on. This makes it easy for everyone to always have a clear idea of where things stand.
Set due dates. This will help you make sure nothing slips.
Use Kerika’s chat instead of email: this will keep your communications quick and focused.
Move cards along the columns as the work progresses.
Get to Done
The team’s goal is to get all your cards all the way over to Done, on the right-end of the board.
Sometimes things that were initiated need to be discarded: maybe something turns out to be a bad idea? In that case, move the card to the Trash column. (If you change your mind later, you can always retrieve items from the Trash.)
Kerika gives you Resources
The Resources column, the first in this workflow, contains six cards to help you get started:
Kerika provides you with resources
Video Tags: Tags are important as they help YouTube algorithms understand what your video is about. This influences when your video appears in search results.
Video Description Template: one of the most important things you can do is create descriptive, keyword-rich video titles and descriptions. This will help your videos rank higher in search results and give your audience a better idea of what your video is actually about.
Video Thumbnail Template: Your thumbnail is what appears first on your YouTube channel and in the search results, so it needs to be eye-catching and representative of your video content.
How To Edit YouTube Videos Quickly: All successful YouTubers put a lot of time and effort into their editing because that is what helps them stand out from the crowd. This card has useful links, including some of the best video editing tools.
The Easiest Way To Write A Video Script: Writing a video script for YouTube can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. If you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you want to say it, the process can be relatively straightforward.
10+ Places To Share Your Video For More Views: Sharing your videos on other platforms lets you borrow their audience and show your content to people who might not have found it otherwise. This helps get more views and subscribers on your channel, which leads to more success on YouTube.
Start Generating Content Ideas
The second column is Content Ideas and it contains five cards:
How to Generate Video Ideas: content ideas are the basis for your YouTube videos, and without a clear idea, it is hard to plan, make, and edit videos that are engaging and effective.
This card will help you generate good video ideas. It gives you useful resources and a list of content ideas that you can use for your videos.
Your Video Ideas: Use this card to keep a list of video content ideas. Remember, no idea is too specific or too vague! Refer to this card when you need a content idea to work on.
Example Video (DUPLICATE THIS): This card will come in handy while writing your video script: it contains a template for writing content that you can duplicate for each of your content ideas and a checklist that divides the script writing process into smaller tasks.
(Example) Video Idea: Latest Smartphone Review is an example of a video idea that discusses the latest smartphones. This video needs a script to educate the viewers about the pros and cons of the latest smartphones launched this year.
(Example) Video idea: How to create a successful advertising campaign is another example of a video with tips on how to create an advertising campaign:
Create Video Scripts
This column contains two cards:
Create Video Scripts
The first card will save you time by giving you a ready-made format for scripts. It offers a clear and consistent structure for you to follow, which can help organize your script ideas and ensure that you tell the story in the most compelling way possible.
The card also includes guidelines for things like video titles, introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. It will help you follow industry-standard conventions and make it easy for you to read and follow later on.
The second card will help you write a script that keeps your audience interested and engaged in your content, and this card shares some of the most useful tips to help you with it.
Record & Edit Videos
This column contains two cards:
Record & Edit Videos
The first card helps you understand keyword optimization, which is an important aspect of creating and promoting YouTube videos.This will increase the number of views on your videos, ultimately leading to more engagement.
The second card has useful tips to improve the overall quality of your videos and make them more professional-looking.This will increase the chances that viewers will watch your videos all the way through and even share them with others. Overall, video editing is an important part of creating successful videos on YouTube.
Review Videos
As videos are ready, drag the video card here and assign them to the folks who will be reviewing them, and change the status of the card to NEEDS REVIEW. If you need feedback by a certain date, set the Due Date on this card so people understand its urgency relative to everything else that’s going on.
Schedule & Publish Videos
When a video is ready to be scheduled for publication, move its card here. This makes it easy for everyone to know what the publishing queue looks like.
Finally, Promote Your Video
When you promote your videos, you are essentially making people aware of its existence and inviting them to visit and subscribe. This can help attract more viewers and subscribers, which can in turn help your channel grow and become more successful.
We have some tips for you in this template.
Tips for Promoting Videos
Like what you just read?
Here’s the template: just one click, one the USE TEMPLATE button, will set you up with a new Kerika account and your first board, in just seconds.
Click to view this Template
You can try everything free, with your entire team, for 30 days.
A product launch is a critical moment for any company. It is the moment when a new product is introduced to the market and becomes available for purchase. A successful product launch can drive sales, create buzz, and generate excitement for a company and its products.
But before you launch your product, there’s a lot of preparation that needs to happen. Here’s a quick guide to launching your product successfully.
Click to view this Template
Pre-launch preparation.
As you prepare for your product launch, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, you need to make sure that your product is ready for launch.
This could include collaborating with team members, creating a mock for a press release, finalizing the product name, planning media outreach and pitching, briefing experts and analysts, and more.
Check out the pre-launch preparation of this company.
Pre-launch Prep
Internal preparation documents:
Before launch day, you have to create an Internal preparation document that outlines everything that needs to be done.
It will help you stay organized and on track on the launch day. This prep document could be about what problems your product solves, building a buyer persona, and creating a growth strategy framework.
Internal Prep Documents
Create internal content.
This could include creating scripts for product demos, product battle cards, and creating content for talking points. This will ensure that your team is prepared for the lunch and ready to answer any questions that come up about the product.
Create Internal Content
Create external content
This is the content that will be used to promote your product, like product images and videos, content for the knowledge base, blog content, in-app messages, email announcements, landing page, etc.
Create External Content
Pre-launch internal & communication
Make sure everyone on your team knows about the product launch and what their role is. This will help prevent any confusion on launch day. This could include preparing the sales team, customer support team, content training, and PR team.
Pre-Launch Internal Training
Pre-launch logistics.
This includes things like sending internal calendar invitations, updating staging/test versions, and sharing the launch day schedule. Basically, everything needs to be done to make sure the launch goes smoothly.
Pre-launch Logistics
Launch day execution.
On launch day, make sure everything is ready to go. Do a final check of all your content, make sure your team is prepared, and then go live!
This includes pushing website updates, making landing pages, product pages and FAQ pages live, sending email announcements, pushing press releases, publishing a knowledge base, etc.
If you’re a business owner or a freelance content writer, it’s important to have a content strategy. Without a solid content strategy, you end up wasting a lot of time managing your content.
By having a solid plan and sticking to it, you won’t have to spend time coming up with new ideas or scrambling to meet deadlines. One of the best ways to build a content strategy is to use a content planner.
Whether you’re working alone or with a team, a good content planner can really boost your productivity. So, let’s see how this company uses a content planner to plan and publish its SEO content.
Click to view this live Template
1. Gathering resources
If you’re a serious content writer, then you already know the importance of gathering resources before you start writing. After all, you need to have something to write about!
One of the best ways to manage your gathered resources is to use a content planner. A content planner can help you organize your thoughts and ideas, and it can also help you find new and relevant information to write about.
2. Research Content Ideas
Before you start writing, you need to have an idea of what you want to write about. Make a list of content ideas that you think would be popular with your audience.
You can get content ideas by checking out your competitors, looking for news stories, looking for guest post ideas, and brainstorming ideas with your team.
3. SEO optimization
Without SEO-optimized content, your articles and blog posts will never be seen by search engines, and you will never get the traffic you desire. Therefore, you need a solid SEO strategy.
4. Drafting
Now it’s time to start writing your content. Keep your keywords in mind as you write and try to include them naturally in your text.
5. Designing graphics content
Graphics in blogs capture your reader’s attention, communicate your message more clearly, and overall make your blog more visually appealing.
Once the article is ready, the next step is to add graphics to it. Graphics are important to capture your reader’s attention and make your blog more visually appealing.
6. Integration/Schedule Content
Once you’re finished writing, you need to integrate your content into your website. You can do this by adding a blog to your website or by scheduling your content to be published on your website later on.
7. Promote Content
Finally, you need to promote your content. You can do this by sharing it on social media, writing guest posts on other blogs, or by paying for advertising.
From the moment a new hire walks in the door, they start forming opinions about your company culture, their role within the organization, and what it will be like to work for you. That’s why when it comes to hiring new employees, first impressions matter.
When done correctly, on-boarding can help new hires feel welcome, valued, and prepared to do their best work. But when done poorly, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. Here are a few tips to help make your on-boarding process as smooth as possible:
1. Start with the background check
Before you bring a new employee on board, it’s important to run a background check. This will help you verify that the person is who they say they are and that they don’t have any red flags in their past that could negatively impact your business.
A background check can also give you peace of mind that you’re making the best hiring decision possible. To know about a candidate, you need a process that ensures the new employee is the right fit for the job. Check out how this company conducts a background check for its new employees.
Click to view this live board
Check one business reference
When it comes to bringing on new employees, it’s important to do your due diligence and check their business references. This will help you get a better sense of their work ethic and what they’re capable of.
Check one business reference
Check one personal reference
Personal references can give you valuable insights into an applicant’s character, work ethic and overall suitability for the job. They can also alert you to any red flags that might not be apparent from their resume or cover letter.
Asking for personal references is a simple but effective way to screen applicants and make sure you’re making the best possible hiring decision.
Check one personal reference
Check applicant’s resume/CV for completeness & accuracy
While on-boarding a new employee, it’s important to check their resume or CV for completeness and accuracy. This will help you ensure that there are no discrepancies in their work history.
If you find any inaccuracies, be sure to follow up with the employee to get clarification. It’s also a good idea to run a background check to verify the information on the resume. By taking these precautions, you can help ensure a successful on-boarding process for your new employee.
Check applicant’s CV for completeness & accuracy
Confirm that applicant has all claimed academic & professional qualifications
It’s always a good idea to confirm that an applicant has all of the claimed academic and professional qualifications before onboarding a new employee. This can help ensure that the individual is qualified for the role and can help avoid any potential issues down the road.
There are a few ways to go about doing this, such as contacting references or requesting transcripts. Take the time to do your due diligence and it will pay off in the long run.
Confirm that applicant has all claimed academic & professional qualifications
Credit Checks
Credit checks are an important part of the onboarding process for new employees. They help employers to verify an applicant’s identity and to ensure that the person is who they say they are. Credit checks also help to determine an applicant’s financial stability and to assess their risk of defaulting on their financial obligations.
(Optional) Credit Checks
2. Get the necessary paperwork
Make sure you have all the necessary paperwork in order before the new employee starts. Here is a good example of how a US-based company collects all the necessary paperwork upfront from a new employee. The paperwork includes the W-4 form to calculate taxes, the I-9: form to verify the employee’s identity and eligibility to work in the US, the direct deposit form, and the employee handbook acknowledgment.
Complete the necessary paperwork
3. Set clear expectations from the start.
New employees should know what is expected of them in their new role, and the best way to do this is to set up an Orientation Program and Schedule mandatory training sessions.
Orientation Program
The Orientation Program is a great opportunity for employees to learn more about their role, and ask questions and get to know their colleagues.
For the Orientation Program to go smoothly, choose a date and time that work for both you and the employee. You’ll want to make sure the program is informative and engaging. If your new employee feels welcomed and comfortable, they’ll be more likely to hit the ground running and be productive from day one.
Schedule Orientation Program
Schedule mandatory training sessions
Training sessions for compliance and regulation are important for several reasons. First, they ensure that new employees understand the company’s policies and procedures from the day one.
Second, they help to ensure that employees are up-to-date on any changes in the law that may affect their job.
Finally, training sessions provide an opportunity for employees to ask questions and get clarification on any points that are unclear.
Schedule mandatory training sessions
4. Make sure they have all the information about their team and department.
New employees should feel informed about their role, the company, and the team they’ll be working with. In the following example, the HR has organized a team lunch. This is a great to way to introduce a new employee, this gives a employees get to know each other well.
The department is also getting introduced to the new employee, and this is just as important. So a formal announcement about the new employee, helps existing employee know them better.
Prepare departmental announcement
And last, but not least, don’t forget a Team Lunch on Day One!
According to researchers at Ladders, 25% of professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022. Remote jobs skyrocketed from under 4% in 2019 to 9% in 2020 alone. This means that working from home is here to stay.
With this change in the job market demand, distributed teams have become more common and will continue to be adopted by small and big businesses alike. The need to secure company and employee data is important given the rise of internet scams. It is advisable to have all team members engage in security awareness training to have them prepared against malicious hackers and phishing sites.
Here are measures distributed teams can take to protect themselves and the company from a security breach.
Public Wi-Fi
Avoid using public Wi-Fi, especially from unknown service providers. If you must connect to a public server ensure you have a VPN installed on your computer to prevent hackers from monitoring your internet activity.
Social engineering
Social engineering uses manipulative techniques to gain confidential information that can put an individual or company at risk of cyber-attacks. Hackers have gotten smarter over time creating the need to be cautious mainly when workers use their own devices for office duties. Here are tips to save you from falling victim to such scams.
Be suspicious if an unknown person asks you for information, they shouldn’t have access to it. All workers have team leaders they report to or team members that handle specific company data. If someone aside from the usual team member is asking for such data, be alarmed and report it to your team leader.
Pay attention to emails. It can be daunting to always have to check an email sender to be sure you’re not under a phishing attack, but it can save you from putting your company at risk. Look out for grammatical errors and the sender’s email address to be sure they aren’t impersonating your company’s or an employee’s email.
Beware of heightened urgency. Resist the rush to perform an action if you are feeling pressured to perform a certain action. Creating urgency is a common tool phishing scammers use to make their victims act fast. You should be more suspicious if the person is trying to make you ignore a mandatory security protocol.
Always hover over links to see where they lead. Don’t be quick to click links and open attachments sent to you from new contacts. Offerings of things that are too good to be true are not true. An example is an email congratulating you on an iPhone in a competition you never attended.
Never download unauthorised software or plug in an unauthorised drive or USB to your device.
Setting passwords
Most websites will tell you to create an 8-character password that contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols that should be changed every 90 days. However, cybercriminals now use technology that allows them to crack an 8-character password in 4 hours. That’s why you should be using strong password management.
Instead, use a 12–16-character password with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. You can create a passphrase using multiple small words like “tiNyTombSPoon.” Combining your passphrase with numbers and special characters is advisable for added difficulty. Complex passwords like this should be changed every two years.
Never save passwords to browsers. Never share your passwords with anyone or log in to your work accounts with public computers. Ensure you use a unique password for each account, you can use a password keeper if necessary.
Always use two-factor authentication for all your accounts. Never use the same passwords for your personal and work accounts. Make sure to separate your personal and work life.
Security awareness at home
In a world of distributed teams, it is normal for workers to spend more time at home than in an office. Here are measures that can be taken to stay safe when working from home.
Never grant anyone access to your desktop unless you sort the remote connection. Always be careful of remote desktop inquiries. Never give out your login details to anyone over email or phone without consulting your supervisor.
Don’t respond to non-company numbers or messages regarding an issue when you didn’t open a ticket.
If you will be filling your data into any websites while working, ensure they begin with https://
Ensure your Wi-Fi router is secured with a strong password. Always restart your router frequently.
Keep your working devices out of the reach of family and guests. Use a different internet network for work and family or guests.
Only use company-approved USB sticks. Never use unencrypted USB sticks to connect or charge your work device in public places.
Never leave your work device unattended. If you aren’t actively using your device ensure you exit your work screen and lock or close your device.
Security awareness in videoconferencing
All virtual meetings should be cyber-safe and not open to the public. Links to video meetings must not be shared on public sites. Ensure all meetings require passwords to join. Avoid starting a meeting without the host – rather create a meeting room.
Enable host-only sharing, accept one user at a time, and lock the meeting after all the participants are in.
Other security measures
Avoid using your personal computer or smart devices for work. Ensure your operating system, antivirus and apps are updated frequently.
Beware of phishing links sent to your email. Alert your family members on using your devices without your supervision.
Beware of pop-ups on free movie sites and apps asking you to install software from unverified sources.
Conclusion
Although it is impossible to be 100% secure, raising awareness of the cybersecurity risks and taking all security measures stated above is key to preventing a security breach that can lead to catastrophic events. Ensure each team member is properly oriented on security measures to employ and things to look out for to prevent getting hacked.
We have added an exciting new feature: if you were previously using Trello, you can import that data, completely, into Kerika!
We have been testing this as a convenience feature and based upon positive feedback we have expanded this for everyone.
New users will be offered this as an option when they set up their Kerika accounts:
How new Kerika users can import boards from Trello
All users will have this option whenever they want to create a new Kerika board:
All users can import from Trello when creating a new Kerika board
We built this feature because we have heard from many people switched over from Trello and really liked Kerika’s user experience, features, and support. In the past they had to manually recreate their work inside Trello; now that’s all automated!
Everything is handled nicely: your Trello cards, lists, people, task details, etc. come over. Once you are done, a single click can then send out invitations to all your old Trello colleagues to join you in Kerika.
An Account Owners can now designate other members of their Account Team to be Account Admins, which will allow these people to also manage the subscriptions and membership of that account. This can help where the actual ownership of the Kerika account is someone from outside the user community, like a purchasing department.
Managing Account Admins can be done from the Manage Account screen, by the Account Owner:
Manage Account screen
Once you are in the Manage Users screen, select one of the Team Members on the account:
In the Team Member details dialog, select TAKE ACTION:
And select Make this user an Account Admin:
There’s a confirmation step, since Account Admins have tremendous power over the Account:
Confirmation Step
And your new Account Admin is set up:
Account Admin Added
An Account Admin can set up other Team Members from that Account to also be Account Admins.
Account Admins have a lot of power over the Account; they can:
Access any board
Add people to, or remove from, any board
Change people’s roles on any board
Add people to the Account and buy subscriptions
Change the subscription plan
So be careful who you add as an Account Admin!
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