What are the best tools and methods for content collaboration and feedback?

I'm a fan of 'begin with the end in mind' approach - make sure that every stage is clearly laid out, with ownership at each step of the way. Where possible, try not to over-complicate the process. We use Asana for everyday BAU client tasks / project management, but it's easy to start micro-managing yourselves with too many steps for a small piece of work - recently we've started using Airtable and found it to be really useful when our (large, distributed and multi-skilled) team is creating multiple assets or multiple formats of client content.

Google Docs/Drive. With the volume of people that can be working on any project, all at different times, at different stages, different jobs/skills, Google Docs is a godsend as everything is to hand. Queries raised at any stage and resolution (if any) to these queries is clearly visible and 'time stamped' for those with permission to access or view these files. You can refer back to any stage at any time - everybody is on the same page and yes, pun is intended. It's all about visibility. :-)

Within my agency, we use Google Docs for everything. It allows me to collaborate with our writers and editors and then easily send the piece to the client for review. We never have to worry about versioning either, we're always working from the most up-to-date document.

We also use the Google Docs suite for collaborative working across our asset development (articles, blogs, thought leadership and scripts for videos and graphics) and also for our internal documentation, back office work. It's fantastic for real-time sharing and collaboration, and you can also invite consultants to share private folders where necessary. There are so many other tools to choose from these days - it can be quite bamboozling! For a mid-size agency, Google hits the spot. We're also using Notion for a content hub build - we're using that to host larger assets such as video and educational content. Hope that's useful!

Feedback is always a challenge for humans (not so much for AI bots!). We have a staged feedback expectation from clients reviewing our work for them - it's important to give a deadline and also to ask clients to aggregate feedback to ensure our content developers aren't to'ing and fro'ing, which sucks up valuable time and agency effort. Ideally we encourage direct and speedy feedback - even if it's negative - as it's best to know quickly if you're not hitting the spot. We've had one client who had SEVEN internal stages to their feedback collation... so we're now used to multiple reviews!

Make sure you've got your version control nailed before you start production. We've got many assets being created at any point in the agency, so ensure you've got a great naming protocol decided on - this will allow you to keep track of each piece of client work, the date of creation, version you are working on and the person who has worked on it. This will help you keep track of changes and updates - so you won't send the wrong version to the client! ??

It's making me feel tired reading about all of these tools we use... we are all bombarded constantly with information. We use Slack for internal messaging around project work, also group collaboration, phone calls and general chat. We also use Zoom and Teams for group calls, client calls and internal huddles... and good old email for everything in between. ??

We use Active Collab to streamline our content workflow and make sure our clients have insight into what stage each piece of content is at. The Kanban board shows the different statuses, which include: - Idea: This is a broad concept that still needs to be signed off. - In progress: This is where signed-off ideas are moved to alongside a full story brief and outline. - Researching: This is for articles we are actively working on, either interviewing experts or doing desk research. - Writing: This is the writing phase where we add our Google Doc link and add comments with updates and questions for the client. - Editing: This moves the piece over to one of our editors. - With client: The piece then goes to the client for sign-off.