Jonathan Gaby
As a social media marketer you might be wondering, “How do I get everything done and still enjoy life with my friends and family?”
Even still, as social media marketers, there are so many steps that our work has to take that it’s scary to think that something might fall through the cracks or get forgotten when news breaks or you are thrown in reaction mode.
Smart and successful social media marketing professionals know that in their business or agency it’s all about the workflow. In this post I’m going to tell you about using a tool called ClickUp to create workflows and help you stay in the driver’s seat of your work.
Before I do, I want to quickly introduce myself. I’m Jonathan Gaby, fellow professional marketer and podcaster. I have trained with various productivity tools like Evernote, Asana, and now I’ve worked through all of ClickUp’s certification levels, from novice to expert. And, by way of disclaimer, I will be writing about features that might require a subscription or paid account to unlock some functionality.
What’s a workflow, and what’s ClickUp?
Simply defined, a workflow is a series of steps or processes that one or more people take or go through to achieve a result. You can have a workflow for content creation on blog posts, social media posts, YouTube videos, TikToks, and more.
ClickUp is a software solution that offers a user and her team a wide suite of tools to capture workflows and projects so that she can keep track of everything in her business or work. The software boasts that it’s one app to replace whatever else you might be using: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and more.
ClickUp organizes itself into the following hierarchy:
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First you have your Workspace. Think of this as your entire business or company.
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Next, you have your Spaces. Think of these as different departments of your business or company. You can have Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Technical, and more in your business. For Social Media Marketers like us, we might just need one space for marketing.
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Then, you have Lists. Lists function as a way to collect similar work. For us, that might mean creating a list for blog posts we will write for our clients or company, and a list for social media content (you might even organize it by type of social media, i.e. a list for Facebook posts, a list for TikToks, etc.)
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Another way ClickUp organizes itself is using Folders. Folders group lists together. If you’re heavy in client work, you might organize using the folder to put the lists (Blog Posts, Facebook, TikToks, et al.) for each client together.
There are lots, and I mean lots of features that ClickUp has for their users. For the social media marketer, you will love ClickUp’s Calendar View to act as your content calendar. If your work includes events marketing like conferences, you’ll want to check out ClickUp’s take on Gantt Charts to make sure everything is going according to plan to the first Keynote Presentation. ClickUp’s List View will help you keep track of everything based on statuses you set for tasks and work.
What can social media marketers use ClickUp for?
I think I’ve already mentioned what social media marketers can use ClickUp for, but let’s take a deeper dive, shall we?
If you manage a team, you can use their Block View function to assess your team’s bandwidth and how everyone is managing their workload.
ClickUp has this neat Docs feature, too, that can be used to document your processes and could be used to keep your many style and brand guides in one place to reference for your many clients. You could even use ClickUp to keep some of your digital assets (logos, graphics, etc.) inside there, too.
In terms of collaboration, ClickUp could replace your Slack or Teams chat if you use their Chat View feature. You could even invite your clients to view your progress if you invite them as a guest to their folder.
Approvals are a cinch with ClickUp because you can annotate graphics and documents with corrections or edits.
You can also make your work easier and streamlined through creating task templates. Task templates are standard processes that you go through to do work. Probably the most popular template for social media marketers could be a blog post template.
ClickUp can even help you track time. When you or your team work, you can log the amount of time a person spends on a task or project. This can help you with billing and also with optimizing processes and streamlining your work.
How can you get started?
To get the most out of ClickUp, I’d recommend first sitting and writing down your current workflows.
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What do you do now that you’d like to put into ClickUp?
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What is your process for creating a blog post?
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How do you approve social media content before it’s posted on the web?
Gather all your processes and procedures and have them at hand before you sign up for ClickUp.
Next, sign up for ClickUp. You can start with a free account and add your team to your workspace. Then, you can build out your system according to the hierarchy above.
The next thing to do is to just use the software as much as possible. Create your task templates, create your lists, and use the Docs feature to put in your internal company documents.
If you’re changing systems or adopting a new one, the key is to just use it as much as possible. You’ll get more out of it the more you put into it.
ClickUp has great resources for those getting started here: How to Get Started with ClickUp™ Create Your New Workflow with ClickUp™.
Jonathan Gaby @JonathanDGaby
I am a marketer based in the Cincinnati area, with experiences ranging from retail, hospitality, and professional services. I will soon graduate with a masters in marketing from UC.