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Content publishers track deliverables and collaborate with authors, managers, clients, and other stakeholders to ensure content is published on time.
WordPress is the favorite of content publishers. It is proven by the fact that 62% of all Content Management Systems (CMS) websites are powered by WordPress.
However, collaborating on content in WordPress can be challenging.
In this article, we have shed some light on those challenges and how they can be solved by using a couple of WordPress collaboration plugins.
Let’s start by understanding a bit more about the roadblocks.
Biggest challenges for WordPress content publishers
WordPress content publishers are the common point of contact between the content development team and the stakeholders. Here are the three crucial problems that they go through while publishing any piece of content.
1. Collaboration through the content production process
After the draft has been created, the publisher has to collaborate with the stakeholders and the clients. In many instances, they have to revert back to the writer and make necessary edits.
This often means a combination of the following.
- Long email chains.
- Screen-sharing review calls.
- Multiple edits throughout.
This pushes the deadlines even further and delays the process.
2. Version management of content
Even though many content management teams use services like Google Docs, there are multiple versions of a document. For instance, the file shared by the content writer is copied and then shared with the client.
These different versions are managed by the publisher.
When the client shares their feedback, suggesting some changes, the process has to repeat. The writer will make the edits which will be shared with the publisher. Then, the content publisher will share it in a different copy with the client.
This process is complex for organizations that don’t use collaborative services for co-editing at all. In those scenarios, files are edited on local devices and are shared via email.
Before you know it, there will be multiple versions of the file with everyone in the loop.
3. Last-minute edits before publishing
Every WordPress editor and content publisher knows the pain of carrying out minor edits before the content is made live. This is common when content related to market surveys and statistical reports is written.
Last-minute edits are also to be entered into the draft document and have to go for another round of review.
This can be time-consuming for a few reasons.
- Information might get buried in long email chains.
- Minor edits are hard to point out, so reviewers (clients and stakeholders) might take longer than necessary to sift through the document.
- They have to send their approval. If more people are involved, it will take more time.
The above problems may appear small, but have huge consequences on the content publication process.
- Delayed delivery of the content.
- Bad content quality due to collaboration issues.
- Lower ROI on published content.
Fortunately, there are a lot of plugins that make content collaboration on WordPress much easier for publishers.
Let’s take a look at the plugins that will make these problems vanish.
Useful WordPress collaboration plugins for content publishers
WordPress has over 59,000 plugins, and many of them help improve teamwork.
Below are a couple of WordPress content collaboration plugins that publishers should use and the benefits they can look forward to.
1. Multicollab – Save time and resources through direct collaboration and precise feedback
Multicollab is a one of its kind WordPress collaborative plugin that every WordPress content publisher will find useful. It can be used for WordPress collaborative document creation, editing, and commenting.
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It saves time by allowing clients, stakeholders, managers, writers, editors, and publishers to collaborate on content directly on the WordPress editor. Take a look at how it works.
There is no need for sending feedback via email with long text snippets explaining the suggestion. All you have to do is select the text and click on the “comment” option and use the “@” symbol to share feedback.
Apart from saving time in the content creation process, it reduces the number of apps in the loop. The content writers can create the content directly in the WordPress editor and collaborate with clients. Also, there is no need to open the email or any messaging app to get feedback.
Multicollab also helps clients and stakeholders share actionable feedback. Below are two examples of feedback that content publishers receive via emails and text messages.
- “The introduction needs a bit of rework where the statistics were mentioned.”
- “The introduction news to improve. The statement after the statistic doesn’t capture the importance of the problem. Think more about our value proposition and reframe the inference from the data.”
The first content review is vague and the writer will have to contact the client or stakeholder again to understand them clearly. The second one is more detailed but it takes a lot of time to write and read.
Now imagine the content piece is too large. How many hours does one reviewer have to spend giving feedback? How many hours does the writer have to spend going through all the feedback from all the reviewers?
That is just one review cycle.
Even with services like Google Docs, you will have to deal with multiple versions of the file. Not to mention, last-minute edits will still be a hassle. The best solution is to get feedback directly on the draft of the WordPress real-time content editor.
Multicollab, the WordPress real-time collaboration editor, solves that problem. It enables clients and stakeholders to give precise feedback on content directly on the WordPress editor.
You can select a section of a text and let the author know what needs to be changed. You can also take a look at the comment history to see any and all previous comments.
Take a look at how smooth the process becomes.
This ensures that the information goes only to the concerned individual. For instance, the client doesn’t need to know the comments related to the internal writing process. However, they can take a look at it if they wish to via the comment history.
Direct comments provide clarification making WordPress collaborative document editing smoother. As it is a WordPress real-time collaboration editor, authors can make direct edits on the WordPress editor, taking care of the version management issue.
So, Multicollab saves time, and money and improves content quality by:
- Making communication direct during content development in WordPress.
- Removing additional apps like Google Docs, Slack, and Gmail from the process as it allows collaboration inside WordPress.
- Allowing clients and stakeholders to give precise feedback.
- Helping collaborators avoid repeating mistakes through comment history.
The best part is that Multicollab has a free version that offers all the essential features to collaborate and can upgrade for more advanced features.
2. WP Project Manager – Increases productivity through task management
WP Project Manager helps you manage tasks while collaborating on content.
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You can create tasks and assign them to your colleagues for a more streamlined workflow. If there is an area of confusion, you can add comments underneath each task to iron out the details easily.
Creating projects and adding collaborators to them takes mere seconds. If they are not already added to your WordPress website, you can send them an email invitation.
It is helpful to content publishers as they won’t have to message every single collaborator to let them know what the next steps are. They can directly assign a task and they will receive an email notification.
Task management during WordPress collaborative document editing will become simple for content publishers because of this plugin. Take a look.
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Everyone involved in the content development on WordPress will be clear about their responsibilities which will increase productivity. This improved functionality of WP Project Manager makes it handy for a lot of professionals who work on WordPress.
That’s a wrap
WordPress collaboration plugins will help publishers solve their biggest problems related to feedback, collaboration, and version management.
We hope that by using the plugins above you will improve your content production and publishing process.
Get Multicollab now and make your content publishing process fast and efficient.
