Navigating a New Normal: 10 Tips for CoSchedule Customers to Adapt to Worldwide Changes
The current state of the world has changed the way many of us work. You—our valued customers—are relying more on CoSchedule now to work well together and be on the same page.
So far, we’ve heard dozens of stories like this:
"Because we already have CoSchedule in place, I can lean on it as our team is now remote. I can use this change to make my team more reliant on CoSchedule to do our daily work. I don't have a desk phone anymore, so I can spend less time on phone calls and more time in CoSchedule doing the work."
A common theme you’re sharing with us, is that remote work is becoming a new normal—at least for the time being.
At CoSchedule, we’re in the same boat, so to say, and have been working from our homes in an effort to keep our team members healthy, protect our family members, and help our communities thrive in these uncertain times.
So here are some tips, advice, and best practices we’ve found helpful that we wanted to pass along to you to help you get through these days with confidence and optimism!
1. Get all of your work into one place for easier communication.
It’s hard enough to communicate what marketing is doing when you’re in the same building as stakeholders and team members. Especially as you adapt to a new environment, maintaining a centralized place where all marketing activities are shown can help everyone get on the same page without phone calls or meetings. If you haven’t done so already, integrating your tools with CoSchedule is a very good way to begin seeing everything in one place. Here are a few integrations we highly recommend:- Blog and content management tools like WordPress and HubSpot.
- Email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, and ActiveCampaign.
- Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Recommended Reading: How to Maximize the Value of Your CoSchedule Calendar with Integrations
2. Review the day’s priorities each morning with your Home Dashboard.
Use your Home Dashboard first thing in the morning to quickly get up-to-date on your daily priorities. You’ll find all your tasks that are due for the week, important notifications like when someone comments on a project you’re contributing to, as well as the ability to quickly find the last project you were working on. It’s the perfect place to start your day and ensure you’re staying productive.
3. Show team tasks during daily standups to get everyone on the same page.
Working from home can cause some collaboration hurdles, but it doesn’t have to. This is the perfect time to start implementing daily standup meetings where each team member discusses…- What they did yesterday.
- What they will do today.
- Any roadblocks that are hindering their productivity. (Children aside)
BONUS TIP
You can also use the Team Dashboard in CoSchedule to highlight everyone's tasks and help people stay on the same page.
4. Talk through project progress with comments.
Adding comments directly in a CoSchedule project helps changes and updates stay visible to all contributors. This is helpful to make sure everyone is working with the most up-to-date information. You can use the discussion tab on your project to mention people using the @ sign and attach updates or changes using the attachments feature. We recommend using the “like” feature as a way to inform the other person that you’ve seen their comment.
5. Pause all of your social messages in one fell swoop (if needed).
Whether it’s a global pandemic, a company crisis, or a national emergency – you might need to take a different approach to your social media activities. CoSchedule allows you to quickly pause all of your previously scheduled social messages so you can adapt and share more appropriate messaging. To pause your scheduled social messages,- Step 1: Go into Calendar Settings and find Pause Social Messages at the bottom of the page.
- Step 2: Type PAUSE into the confirmation box (we want to make absolutely sure this is what you want to do).
- Step 3: Click the resume button when you’re ready for things to go out as you had planned.
5. Celebrate weekly wins in an end-of-week retro.
End-of-week retros allow your team to sync and celebrate things that went well. This not only gives team members a platform to discuss things they accomplished during the week, but it also builds a sense of togetherness in a time where you’re not able to be together in person. We recommend scheduling this meeting as the last thing you do on Friday. You could even recommend team members bring their favorite beverage (adult or otherwise) to the video meeting. ?6. Table projects easily with your Idea Bin.
Some of your work, such as in-person events, may need to be rescheduled at a future date. If you don’t know exactly when these projects will be rescheduled, this is a perfect time to use your Idea Bin. Simply drag your project from the calendar into the Idea Bin so you can maintain the complete record of your work while keeping your calendar as up to date as possible.
Bonus Tip: Add a tag like “On Hold” to these projects to easily find them later on.
7. Use the mobile app to stay updated even if you’re offline.
We know, you might have kids, your schedule is a mess, you’re trying to do everything you’re used to but in ½ the time. The CoSchedule mobile app now allows every user to visualize their tasks, projects, and calendar so everyone can easily provide updates on where they’re at with important projects.
8. Use Bulk Upload to revise your social strategy.
If you need to pivot your social strategy on a dime it can be helpful to write social messages in a spreadsheet and use the Bulk Upload feature to create a ton of new social messages with the click of a button. To use this feature,- Create a new social media campaign in CoSchedule.
- Click the “Upload” icon on the left.
- Download the CSV Template to start bulk writing your messages.
- Once you’ve populated the spreadsheet with social messages, click the “Upload CSV file”.
9. Become a better marketer with these free resources.
If you find yourself with a spare hour due to a canceled meeting or tasks that can’t be completed due to your remote work situation, we’ve got some free resources to help you become a better marketer, fine-tune your marketing strategy, or brainstorm ideas for when things get back to normal. We’re making the CoSchedule Academy Pro completely free for CoSchedule customers through May 31, 2020. You’ll find courses like:- SEO for Content Marketers
- How to Implement Agile Marketing Practices
- Brand Strategy 101
- and more.
