Goodbye Tool Fatigue. Welcome, Single Content Collaboration Tool

<p dir="ltr">The &ldquo;lone creator myth,&rdquo; (not to be confused with the &ldquo;lone genius myth&rdquo;) needs to die.</p> <p dir="ltr">It does more harm than good.</p> <p dir="ltr">The myth propagates the belief that creatives are lone creatures, and only one person is behind a great body of work. It is untrue, and I bet you can relate as a content manager or agency lead.</p> <p dir="ltr">Creative processes (including content marketing) aren&rsquo;t supposed to be (and often aren&rsquo;t) solo affairs. The best content is produced when a group of people collaborate and work together efficiently. As clich&eacute; as it might sound, teamwork does make the dream work.</p> <p dir="ltr">Content collaboration is key to the success of any content team.</p> <p dir="ltr">To this effect, lots of project management tools have sprung up.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">They all claim to aid team collaboration. But most of these tools are not native to the content world and don&rsquo;t solve the full spectrum of problems a content team faces in terms of collaboration.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">It&rsquo;s why many teams rely on different tools to solve specific problems. Like Ahrefs or SEMrush for keyword research, <a href="https://slack.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Slack</a> for communication, <a href="https://www.notion.so/">Notion</a> for project/task management, and <a href="https://www.google.com/docs/about/" rel="nofollow noopener">Google docs</a> for content creation collaboration.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">In fact, a Getapp survey revealed that <a href="https://www.getapp.com/resources/project-management-software-features-report/" rel="nofollow noopener">97% of project managers</a> use two or more tools to manage projects because they don&rsquo;t get features such as task management (34%) and collaboration (28%) in just one tool.</p> <p dir="ltr">Unfortunately, bouncing around many tools can lead to your team members suffering from tool fatigue:</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/tool-fatigue.webp" alt="Tool Fatigue" width="1010" height="665"></p> <h2 dir="ltr"><strong>What Is Tool Fatigue?</strong></h2> <p dir="ltr">As the name suggests, tool fatigue is when people are overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools they are supposed to work with.</p> <p dir="ltr">A Pega survey of 35 global companies across 11 industries showed employees switched applications over <a href="https://www.pega.com/system/files/resources/pdf/demystifying-the-desktop.pdf?_rid=YToxOntzOjc6ImNvbnRfaWQiO3M6OToiQ09OVC04MzQ2Ijt9&amp;utm_source=emd&amp;utm_content=WFI-data-2018&amp;utm_medium=pr" rel="nofollow noopener">1,100 times a day</a>, and 35 applications per shift.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">That&rsquo;s a whole lot, right?</p> <p dir="ltr">You might be thinking, &ldquo;we don&rsquo;t use these many tools in my company,&rdquo; and you might be right. But whether 35 or 20 or 6, the point is that the use of too many tools hinders team collaboration and productivity.</p> <p dir="ltr">So what&rsquo;s the solution?</p> <p dir="ltr">Anna Kaley, and Maria Rosala, both User Experience Specialists with Nielsen Norman Group, succinctly captured it in this <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/digital-workplace-tools/" rel="nofollow noopener">piece</a>:</p> <p dir="ltr">&ldquo;When it comes to your digital workplace tools, more is not always better.&rdquo;</p> <p dir="ltr">In other words, you don&rsquo;t need more content collaboration tools. Just one tool that brings the entire content creation workflow under one roof is good. Workflows, as you&rsquo;ll soon see, help eliminate tool fatigue:</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/workflow-eliminates-tool-fatigue.webp" alt="Workflows Eliminates Tool Fatigue" width="1010" height="665"></p> <p dir="ltr">The content production process happens in three phases: Pre-production, mid-production, and post-production. Instead of using a multitude of tools for collaboration across these three stages, a workflow-specific tool like <a href="../../" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WriterZen</a> does the trick.</p> <p dir="ltr">But don&rsquo;t take that from us:</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/writerzen-is-reviewd-as-all-in-one-content-creation-tool.webp" alt="WriterZen Is Reviewed as All-in-one Content Creation Tool" width="1010" height="651"></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.g2.com/products/writerzen/reviews/writerzen-review-6479445" rel="nofollow noopener">Source</a></em></p> <p dir="ltr">Below, you&rsquo;ll see how WriterZen&rsquo;s Team Management feature can help you achieve three things:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Streamline your content workflow&nbsp;</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Enhance communication, collaboration, and creativity, and</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Scale content production for your team.</p> </li> </ul> <p dir="ltr">NB: Our Team Management feature is still in the works. Click the button below so you can be alerted once the feature is released.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/writerzen-team-management-function.webp" alt="WriterZen Team Management Function" width="1010" height="440"></p> <h3 dir="ltr"><strong>Pre-Content Production</strong></h3> <p dir="ltr">This is the stage where it all begins. In cooking terms, this is the meal prepping stage.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">Before writing any content, a lot of <a href="../../../academy/seo-content-strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">content strategy for SEO</a> is done in the background. This includes keyword research, topic discovery, style guide creation, etc.</p> <p dir="ltr">With WriterZen, all this can be done in a fraction of the time it would usually take (and with fewer tools, too):</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/writerzen-is-reviewd-as-best-content-research-tool.webp" alt="WriterZen is reviewed as best content research tool" width="1010" height="1094"></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.g2.com/products/writerzen/reviews/writerzen-review-4919940" rel="nofollow noopener">Source</a></em></p> <p dir="ltr">You can find new topic ideas with our <a href="../../products/topic-discovery" rel="nnoopener">Topic Discovery</a> tool. Just input your keyword, and in seconds, the tool generates tons of new topics and ideas under those topics for you.&nbsp;You can also&nbsp;<a href="../../blog/keyword-research-workflow" rel="noopener">research the right keywords</a> to help achieve your content goals with <a href="../../products/keyword-explorer" rel="noopener">Keyword Explorer</a>. Again, enter your keyword, and scroll through the keyword data results to find a suitable one.</p> <p dir="ltr">WriterZen&rsquo;s Team Function feature can boost collaboration in this area by allowing you to add your team members to your team account. Employees are added as &ldquo;members&rdquo; and have access to all the projects in your team for transparency. So, the whole team can work together during this process.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">You can also onboard new writers or freelancers with this feature. Many companies have a clunky onboarding process, but WriterZen&rsquo;s Team Function has made it easier. You can even onboard a whole team in just a couple of clicks.</p> <h3 dir="ltr"><strong>Mid-Content Production</strong></h3> <p dir="ltr">The previous phase was for meal prepping.</p> <p dir="ltr">In this phase, all the ingredients are thrown into the pot and left to cook.</p> <p dir="ltr">Usually, content teams use Google Docs and a project management tool to navigate this phase, but WriterZen&rsquo;s <a href="../../products/content-creator" rel="noopener">Content Creator</a> - Project + Article management feature is encompassing.</p> <p dir="ltr">How does it work?</p> <p dir="ltr">It helps you manage multiple projects (and writers) simultaneously. Just create a project, and add the writers you want to work on that project.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">You can add details like completion date and priority level for the piece and leave notes for the writer.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">Each project has different status levels: writing, reviewing, edit required, and approved, and as it moves along, the status is updated. It is an easy way to know the progress level of each project under your management.<br><br>Instead of the writers, editors, and possibly designers collaborating in Google docs, they can use WriterZen&rsquo;s Content Creator. Once you make an edit/suggestion, the writer is immediately notified.</p> <p dir="ltr">So far, you&rsquo;ve seen how a single tool, WriterZen, can replace about 4 other tools:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">An SEO tool for keyword research &amp; topic discovery,</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">An onboarding tool,</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">A project management tool, and</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Google Docs.</p> </li> </ul> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/tool-for-content-creation-and-team-management.webp" alt="Tool for Content Creation and Team Management" width="1010" height="440"></p> <p dir="ltr">What about the third phase?</p> <h3 dir="ltr"><strong>Post-Content Production</strong></h3> <p dir="ltr">Back to our cooking analogy. Once the food is cooked, the next thing is to dish it and enjoy the meal.</p> <p dir="ltr">Likewise, once you and your team have collaborated to create content, you have to market and distribute it. There are a lot of distribution techniques, including posting on social media, sending the link to your newsletter, on-page SEO, etc.</p> <p dir="ltr">Hiring a social media or distribution specialist can help you distribute for the most part.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">For the remaining parts, like on-page SEO, WriterZen can help:</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/writerzen-review-on-g2-crowd.webp" alt="WriterZen Review on G2 Crowd" width="1010" height="792"></p> <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://www.g2.com/products/writerzen/reviews/writerzen-review-5089938" rel="nofollow noopener">Source</a></em></p> <p dir="ltr">The tool helps in content optimization by providing you with relevant keywords to include in your piece and rating your content based on what your competitors have produced.</p> <h2 dir="ltr"><strong>Help Your Content Team Perform at Their Best</strong></h2> <p dir="ltr">We started this piece by speaking on how the &ldquo;lone creative myth&rdquo; needs to die. Creatives can and should work together. It produces great work.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, we cannot deny that sometimes, creatives like to work in solitude.</p> <p dir="ltr">So in your bid to foster content collaboration, don&rsquo;t impede the individuality of your team members. There is a balance. They should be able to work as a team and also individually.</p> <p dir="ltr">Don&rsquo;t micromanage them under the guise of fostering collaboration. Give them autonomy. As Adina Timar, Head of Content at Userpilot remarked:<br><br><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/adina-timar-quote-about-managing-a-content-team.webp" alt="Adina Timar quote about managing a content team" width="1010" height="657"><br><br>Also, set S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based) goals for your team. This provides them with a clear sense of direction to collaborate better.</p> <p>Finally, lead by example. Don&rsquo;t disregard the processes you&rsquo;ve set up. It could result in chaos. Be a model employee and hold yourself accountable. They&rsquo;ll follow in your footsteps.<strong id="docs-internal-guid-e2a42f1c-7fff-7ee6-caf3-625d2da4f798"><br></strong></p> <p><img src="../../storage/photos/1/blog-3.14/tool-for-content-creation-and-team-management.webp" alt="Tool for Content Creation and Team Management" width="1010" height="440"></p>