Most online businesses have blogs that’s why Asana for managing blog becomes an important software to use. Marketing managers post every now and then on different platforms to promote their business. Also, there are some websites that have a blog section for posting consistent information. So, whatever business you are managing, you probably have a calendar or a way to organize your blogging schedule.
What Is Asana?
Asana solution is an online platform and a project management tool. The platform is used by many marketing managers and even large companies to manage everyday tasks and large projects as well. Asana is a free platform with some paid features. Usually, most people use the free version because it already has enough features. As a single blog manager or a small team, the free version is very good and enough to professionally manage your work. However, if you manage a large company or team, you can upgrade to the paid version.
Features of Asana platform
Asana software is a powerful program with many features you will need in your work. Asana for managing blog features include:
Creating teams
Even if you opted for the free plan, you can create teams in Asana. The free plan allows for up to 15 members. Those members can view the same files and do the assigned tasks on the same project.
Friendly platform
Asana is very user-friendly and easy to use. It is an intuitive platform that people can use the first time without much help.
Integrations
Asana offers integration with more than one application or program. The most notable one is the Google account where you integrate your account with Asana and share files from your drive to the platform and vice versa.
Mobile application
Asana has an intuitive mobile application that is also free to use. You can download the application from the play store or App store on any mobile and use the app to manage your and your team tasks even outside the office.
Benefits of using Asana for managing blog
When you make use of all the features of the Asana platform, you can get a lot of benefits. Here are some of the benefits you will enjoy:
Consistent publishing
Asana allows you to manage your blog in a consistent way that makes you look professional. Even if you already have a content calendar, you might forget on one day to publish the blog post. With Asana, you have a more organized business calendar. Alternatively, you can sync Asana with Google calendar by following some easy steps.
Manage all blog aspects
Blogging is not just about writing the content and hitting publish. There are other aspects that you have to take care of as comments, replying to these comments, sponsored ads, and many more. Asana is a comprehensive platform that allows you to manage everything about your blog.
Grow your blog
By managing everything professionally and posting consistently according to a pre-made schedule, you have more chances of growing your blog and gaining more visitors. By extension, you will get more ads or referrals. So, you can achieve your marketing goals.
Asana interface
The interface is very easy to deal with and has lots of features to explore. We will give you a hands-on some of these features and what you can use them for. Later, you have to explore the platform yourself to use it in the best possible way.
Workspace
The first thing you will encounter on the platform is the workspace. This is where everything is located as the boards, columns, and cards.
Projects
Each user can create a number of projects with a due date for each project. Some projects can be ongoing like creating content for the blog. Others have a due date as a certain marketing campaign which ends once the goal is achieved.
One of the features of Asana is that it has templates for many projects. You might find a template for content writing that suits your needs. You will need to do some minor changes as setting up deadlines and renaming or adding tasks.
Columns and cards
Columns and cards are ways of organizing the project. You may choose to divide the project into columns and then include cards inside each column or just divide it into columns with no cards inside.
Tags
Tags do the same thing social media hashtags do. They categorize the tasks. So, it is easier to color code the tasks based on tags where each tag refers to the same set of tasks as writing, reviewing, or posting.
Conversation
Asana for blog managing doesn’t only give you a way of organizing tasks but also to communicate with team members. There is a conversation tab where you and all other people added to the same project can communicate together.
My projects
These are all the projects you have created. My projects include the old projects you have created and finished. Also, it includes projects that are still in progress.
How to use Asana for managing your blog
As mentioned above, Asana software has many features and can do a lot of tasks. To know how you can benefit from this marvelous software and make the most out of it, these are a couple of tips you can follow.
Plans and to-do lists
It is very easy to create to-do lists in Asana. These to-do lists can be as simple as a list written on a note, or they can be more professional where each task has a certain start and due date.
Asana has boards as the main umbrella where everything else goes under. A board can be the overall goal for a year or even a month. You can create more than one board for the same year.
For a blog, you can create an editorial calendar for the whole blog posts you have to write and post on your blog. You may also divide the calendar according to the category and color code to be easy to read.
Editorial calendars include dates, assigned team members, posts to be written, and any other requirements as a photoshoot for the post.
We will get to the part related to dividing the content plan in the next point. However, for now, make sure to include everything in your content calendar or plan. Also, if an idea suddenly pops up in your mind, write it down in your plan.
Luckily, you have an Asana mobile application where you can access everything from the mobile. Once you have something to add, open the application and write it immediately before you forget it.
Schedule tasks
The most basic thing you can do with Asana is to schedule tasks. Like any other work management system, Asana has the scheduling feature where the project manager can assign scheduled tasks and set deadlines for each task towards a large goal.
Prepare the list
To use this feature, first of all, write down all the things you have to do. Even small things matter like checking your email or whatever-related is to your business. Come up with the list and then divide it into smaller lists, so, everything becomes organized and easy to find.
Make sure you include things that you always forget to do as part of your to-do list. You might not do all the tasks yourself, but you have to include everything on the list to know how you will divide work between your team.
After that, divide the list of tasks according to the priorities. Make sure that the workload is divided equally on days. Now, we know it is difficult almost impossible to become very precise in this division task. However, you need, at least, to make sure that you don’t have a totally full day and another completely empty day.
Create the schedule
The above steps are all done before getting to the Asana platform. Now, with the fun part; creating a schedule on Asana.
First, open the platform and create an account if you don’t have one yet. This step is essential to get access to all Asana features. Go to the board option where you can create a list for each day of the week.
Create columns that will act as the list of each weekday. You can name the columns with the weekdays, so, your team members will easily find the required tasks of each day. Note that this is not a must that you create a column for each day. It is just an idea to organize your work, you may come up with your own idea that suits your work.
For each column, there will be a set of tasks. These are named cards in the Asana platform. Under each column, there will be a set of cards and sometimes there will be repeated cards for tasks you should do more than once a week.
The idea of cards is that they allow you to write text inside. This way, you can include all the details of your tasks inside the card. For example, if the task is to write a blog post, you can include ideas or points you will write about in this blog.
Also, you can include links or files that are related to the same task. Some people prefer to write headlines only, while others love to get very detailed especially if the task is managed by more than one member.
Another feature here is that you can create lists inside the card. If the task is divided into other subtasks, you can create them and set a separate deadline for each subtask.
Track projects
After you have scheduled tasks, it is time to track the achievement of these tasks. But first, you need to assign tasks.
Create a team
As a project manager, you can easily add people to the same project. As we mentioned earlier, with the free plan, you can add 15 members. You may upgrade if you want more members on the same project.
Creating a team is as easy as creating an account. Get every member in your team to create an account on Asana using his/her email. Next, open the project and add people by writing their email or username.
Assign tasks
For each task or subtask, you will see an option for assigning the task. You may assign a whole card or even a whole column to one team member. Assign the tasks appropriately and add the deadlines for each task as you agree with your team.
Follow up the tasks
You will receive notifications for each task marked as done (You can choose not to receive notifications and check manually on Asana).
For a blog, typical tasks include content writing, reviewing, posting, checking the comments and replying to them, managing the paid ad, and processing the payments. Some managers will create plans ahead of time (maybe months ahead) and follow up with this plan. Others prefer to create weekly plans. This is completely up to you. The thing is to follow up the tasks as there is no point of creating a plan without following it.
Manage your customer relationship
You can go further by creating a pitching CRM (customer relationship management). This is done in the same way as doing the other aforementioned tasks. You can create a separate column or card for writing down the list of customers or collaborators you want to contact or keep in touch with. You may divide them according to any common aspects between those customers.
For example, create a column for contacts you have already talked with or pitched, another column for those you still need to contact, and the third column for those who replied. There are millions of ways you can manage this process. Figure out the best way that suits you and your team to manage this process.
Asana for managing blog is a very powerful tool you can rely on for all your blog tasks. With the integration feature it has and all other features, you can get very professional with your project management and get things done in a more organized way.