Hi @kayla.eggenberg! At Sprout we created a google form for intaking requests/recommendations. We made it clear while all requests were welcome, we couldn’t always accept them. We typically asked them for dates, links, copy, images and the priority. 

I hope you get some additional recommendations but wanted to share my experience! 

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the info that’s helpful! I’ve also used a similar form via Airtable for teams/people I don’t have a standing meeting with, that’s helpful to make it clear all requests are welcome but not a guarantee.

Agh! I 100% get this struggle and am glad someone else out there is experiencing multiple post requests, too.  I created a form in SmartSheet that people need to submit a ticket to if they want a post. Here’s a screenshot of the form attached. 

On my end, when someone submits a ticket, I get an email alert. I can see the request in Smartsheet (looks similar to a Google Sheet), and can communicate with the stakeholder via the Comment Box section. When I have completed the post request, I click a box that automatically notifies the stakeholder via email that the request was complete.

It has been a great system thus far, although I will say that asking non-marketing/social media people to input their ideal audience and CTA is like pulling teeth. I usually end up figuring those out on my own. :)

Hope that helps!
 

This was so helpful, thank you Emily!! Yes, the requests are definitely consistent so I’ve decided to put together a detailed collaboration process that will hopefully get ahead of the one-off requests. I love your idea of adding a promotion window start and end time!

I used to hold quarterly ‘brainstorm’ meetings with a representative from each cross-functional team letting me know their priorities for the upcoming quarter to help get ahead with planning. I’d have them further prioritize in a low/medium/high scale to help me determine which were must do’s vs. nice to haves. Might not be feasible depending on size of team but wanted to throw that out there! I love the form Emily shared, so helpful to gather all the need to know detail!

Thank you, Jackie! That’s a great idea to have a quarterly brainstorm session with stakeholders. The process I decided to go with includes a set number of posts per month for each department -- and each department has a stakeholder who I communicate about content with. Then I also have an Airtable form for one-off requests. Excited to see how it works out! 

I tend to field requests from folks who want publishing on social only to check off a box on a to-do list, so on that intake form shared above, I also ask what their goals are how a post will support that effort. Oftentimes, learning why the request was made will help you determine how much effort to put forth (1 quick tweet vs. multi-platform campaign, etc.)

Hi there,

I have a Social Media Microsoft TeamSite for my organization. Key stakeholders all have access to that site.  This is where I keep the monthly editorial calendar and relevant digital files that can be shared company wide. On that site, I host a social media content request form.  Similar to what Emily posted above.  I have several fields for them to complete -  Post Title, Content Type (e.g. Career Fair, Office Event etc..), Audience, What Social Channel (Twitter, Facebook), Publish Date, Content for each channel, and then the last field is where they upload their media. I set up to receive notifications as soon as someone completes the form. Also, it has a nice repository to hold all the media for all the requests I receive.

My challenge is to create a well-rounded content calendar and not the same content from the same organizations over and over again. Does anyone have a content frequency formula they use?

Thanks!

I describe social as the Wild West at our company. Our Asana project manager has been pushing for me to create a submission form but I asked to delay because I think that’ll put people off and I’m still in the gathering phase of who asks and what are the asks… I can ask questions and determine the best course of strategy, and educate the stakeholders why I think A is only a tweet, but B will go on LinkedIn and Twitter and C is just an Instagram story… and so on. I take requests via email, chat, social DMs, in meetings. We keep track of larger social media campaigns in Asana, and I have a regular “talk to social” task in every template (for webinars, trade shows, etc.). There’s a lot of “checking the box” without understanding what social can do for a campaign, so it’s nice to be a part of the team calls to gain the context. 

I use Notes in monthly edcal view as placeholders for post planning and when one-offs come in, I can respond quickly to see where I have space in my calendar for those additional asks. I try to be as accommodating as I can. And more importantly, provide feedback on post performance and share wins with other teams so when I make the ask (e.g. take photos at the trade show), they have seen the spikes in our engagement and I’ve earned their buy in. 

Hi Kayla,

Have you tried using Trello? At ICG we use the free version. When you get a request in, pop it into a card, give it an anticipated publication date and that’ll help you to assess and progress each content idea. Takes a couple of minutes at most.

We are a team of two and as well as looking after external digital content and communications inc websites, social, email, etc we also handle internal comms for which we have an internal social network (Spark, based on FirstUp).

We find that a large percentage of requests for a communication are actually targeting colleagues rather than external stakeholders. Having an internal social network has really helped us ensure that our external communications is focused. 

We moved away from web forms for requests as we found that only certain types of people in certain teams used them -- IT, Facilities, Compliance, Legal. The core of our business is made up of investment teams, a marketing and client relations team and we also have a thriving set of employee-led networks. Most people want to email, Teams us or pop over and chat. Having Trello let us focus the admin on tech at our end, rather than putting up a barrier for our employees.

One other thing that’s helped is that we have a business partnering lite system in our overall corporate affairs (communications) team. Someone in our team speaks regularly to each investment team to coordinate potential communications applicable to all channels -- not just, say, media relations or digital. Having a channel-agnostic view is essential these days.

Hope that helps. 

Chris