September 3, 2018 
Share This PostThis is a blog about ContentCal (as well as containing some darn useful info.) Feel free to contact us and we can make an introduction or, talk you through how we use it.
Plus, check out the work we do for agencies – out of hours support (moderation and community management). Thanks! Rebecca.
A couple of days back, stressed for time, I made a mistake. I tried to post an image directly into the Twitter tool. I know, I know, it was a rank amateur mistake, and in my defence this was only a cartoon uploading to my personal account, but still. I should have known better. So, once I was on the train and realised that it hadn’t uploaded, I did the job again, checked it, and moved myself back up the ranks to semi-semi-pro.
I don’t consider myself all that savvy when it comes to the technical side of Twitter, or the toaster, if I’m honest, but I’ve been in the game long enough to know that when I’m working on a social media post for a client, I need a good tool.
Now, over the years, I have to admit I have been serially monogamous to various tools, and plenty of them have had their problems. Usually this comes down to issues with Facebook’s, etc.’s API, especially whenever said API would change and the tool would no longer work. Well, we all need these little adrenaline fixes now and then, right? But a fix would be made, or new tools would roll around, and things would be groovy once more.
To me, the most important thing about any content tool is that it should make for easy collaboration. Take this blog for example. I woke up this morning at 4am due to a small error with the alarm clock (see my earlier note about technical prowess), drafted it while inhaling coffee, sent if off to the grown-ups at Strawberry, who snorted their coffee out of their noses, made 712 invisible corrections, researched some images and Shazam!
Remembering back to that media client, there was me, my team, my boss, my opposite number client-side, their team, their bosses etc., etc. Along the way, every one of them wanted to point out their personal preferences… The tools at the time, which they weren’t even using you’ll remember, weren’t great at organising stakeholder sign-off or creating any kind of audit trail. So, whoever was in charge would be deluged with emails, phone calls and general PITAs. Good times.
All this is to introduce the thrilling information that Strawberry are starting a partnership arrangement with a new tool provider called ContentCal. The goal, as always at Strawberry, is to make things better and easier for our clients, so that we can work collaboratively to get the perfect messaging out there every time. The big plus as we see it with ContentCal is that it makes forward planning and sign-off easy, allowing the bare bones of a social media campaign to be worked out, added to, developed and delivered seamlessly. I’ve barely begun fiddling around with it, and I’m a convert.
Naturally, it has all the metrics and analytics our industry loves, but as a content creator it’s that ability to float an idea, kick it around, work on it and refine it, all within the tool that will eventually publish it to various platforms that I like. No system is entirely fool-proof, but so long as it is decently Paul-proof I feel happier.
So far, we have been using ContentCal on our own social media and also, introducing clients to it. We’re especially keen on its clean layout and the flexibility of the channel option, which allows you to use the calendar to bring all your marketing avenues (including SEO) into one place via designated channels. And, the tool is always improving. The good folks at ContentCal are always keen to hear ideas and feedback – if they are not yet blocking my calls, I’d suggest that they need built in moderation tools, but this always seems to be the last thing bolted on with social media tools.