It is the second week of production for the Breaking Down PR social media campaign. I will admit, this week has been trying. I like to budget my time accordingly and Asana has helped me better understand what is important in helping the success of a project management plan. The devil is in the details, and unfortunately; I missed the mark for this week. According to an article from Digital Project Manager, by Ben Aston, “Project management is important because it ensures what is being delivered, is right, and will deliver real value against the business opportunity”. As I sit here writing this blog, I feel disappointment knowing that this week, I wasn’t able to add to what I had originally planned for the second week of production. However, after reading articles such as Aston’s, I’ve realized, sometimes it is okay to not always have something to show, but as long as you spent your time still adding value in someway.
For the first week of production, I created a brand image and a style guide and started a list of trustworthy sources for content. I was feeling proud of myself! This week I was meant to deliver my Target Audience Report, Competitor Analysis, outline the Content Calendar, and create my first mock post, accompanied with a complete list of trustworthy sources to be used for content. Here I am at the end of the second production week, with only a few of those artifacts 100% completed for this week. Due to very unforeseen circumstances that occurred later in the week, I unfortunately was not able to completing all that I wanted to. As I said before, I enjoy budgeting my time. In the beginning of each week, I try to dedicate at least two hours a day to continuing my research while also making time to add to my bibliography. The middle of the week is when I start the process of creating the artifacts needed by the end of the production week. The weekend is where the bulk of my time is dedicated to finishing up all artifacts for the campaign. While planning is something I enjoy, there is no remedy for the unexpected things life will throw at you.
The Power of Review
Asana did save me, especially in the beginning of the week. I was able to still commit a solid amount of time in research, add to my bibliography, start a rough draft of a content calendar broken up by topics, created my first mock post, and finish my project journal (click here to view) for the week. Although I was thrown a curve ball early Friday morning with my weekend plans of finishing my todo list, I was reminded of something extremely important the day before. Thursday evening I had the pleasure of speaking with colleagues who are also on their own journey of content creation. The topic about setting realistic expectations with manageable tasks and time management came up. I remember someone explaining how they may have added too much to their list for the week and how they were not revising and reworking their time to accommodate the many artifacts they required of themselves. I didn’t think much of it as I was convinced I could achieve my own goals set for the Breaking Down PR campaign. Now here I am only a few days later, typing out all the different artifacts I wanted to have done in a weeks time, and realizing that amongst the other obligations I am invested in, I ask myself; are my weekly goals realistic?
I was already more than half way through the second week of production, and after hearing my colleagues speak about their own shortcomings, I decided to review everything from the first week of production up until everything I did Thursday and I am happy that I did! According to Productive Flourishing writer, Charlie Gilkey, says; “systematically reviewing your plans helps you dial in your strengths and weaknesses such that you leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses”. If I did not take the time to review, I would have ended up disappointing myself in the end. I was convinced that my methods worked but as I looked closely at my journal entries and my Asana board, I realized that time could have been spent better.
The Power in Reflecting & Revising
I found that I was focused more on adding more new research than actually taking a minute to digest and figure out what is actually beneficial to this project. I was finding so much information, I just wanted to do everything! After reviewing and reflecting on my past experiences and what I have done so far with this campaign, I realized that I need to stop wanting to create and research all these other components. This campaign is something I want to last for awhile. I feel as though I forget that I don’t need to necessarily rush into so many other components. There is information I was finding that does not have to be considered until later on in the life cycle of the campaign. This reflection helped me in revising my calendar and setting realistic expectations to help bring this campaign to life.
I decided to no longer hold off on the weekend to create my artifacts for this campaign. Rather than dedicating most of my time to research and adding to my bibliography, I am now going to equally share in the time for both research, creation, and revising. For example, I’ll dedicate four hours a day to this campaign. Within those four, I will dedicate an appropriate amount of time needed to complete each of the three different parts of production. This will allow me to optimize my time efficiently. I also believe if I were to run into a matter that would take me away from my campaign work like this week, I can easily stay on track knowing that each day I have dedicated a portion to what needs to be done, which only get’s me closer to my goal of full completion. Unlike this week where unfortunately I had prioritized certain smaller tasks rather than the bigger ones, and then couldn’t tend to the bigger tasks by the end of the week due to an unforeseen circumstance. By guaranteeing time each day on each artifact no matter how big or small the task, will get me closer to completing it gradually rather than focusing on the bigger tasks in a days time.
The Little Victories
I have to remember there are some the little victories this week and they still count! Now that I have reworked my plan for the upcoming weeks, I do believe I’ll be in a much better position if anything else comes up. One of the little victories this week would be the completion of the Breaking Down PR Instagram color pallet (no, not a makeup color pallet). An Instagram color pallet is the tone or look of a users collective file. Rather than looking at the single photo, it is when someone is looking at someones whole profile with all photos displayed. Dayana Mayfield from MavSocial, suggests; “to get your potential new audience to click “Follow” in the first place, you have to catch their attention. Even if your photos look brilliant when viewed individually, they could be a jumbled mess when seen together”. Which is exactly why I proceeded in researching color and decided upon the brand colors that I did which ultimately helped me with the color pallet. Each post on the page will incorporate these colors in its background, so collectively it creates a visually pleasing esthetic to the viewer. I absolutely enjoy researching and creating this one! The topic of color, color phycology and how it can play an important role on Instagram is vast. Which is why I plan on making a separate post that dives into exactly why and how I was able to create this color pallet for the Breaking Down PR Instagram page (Click here to view). A few other victories this week was that I was able to make my first promotional image (click here to view) and create my first post (Click here to view), along with my first promotional story post (click here to view).
Even though life got hectic near the end of the week, I was able to still produce important artifacts needed for this campaign. While my competitor analysis, and target audience report remain unfinished, they both have a good amount of work added to it already. Asana allows users to fix the status of each task, which is a huge help in planning! While I was able to mark everything else for this week as, on track and completed; the other two artifacts are now updated to at risk, with a completion date for later afternoon today. I am taking the small victories, and allowing myself to grow along this journey!
Thanks for reading!
-Austin
The Media Relations Nomad 