Content development and distribution
General content development workflow
For most individual pieces of content (or content series), the development process will be as follows. Note that all posts will require some amount of customization depending on the audience, topic, and purpose of the content.
Content development and distribution is tracked in our Editorial Calendar in Asana.
Planning
Post concept is developed/approved by Editorial team
Ashley/Jason
Post concept is developed/approved by technical lead
R&D
Preliminary deadline/timeline set
Ashley
Drafting
Post is outlined/drafted by author
Post Author/Ashley
If graphics are required, they should be commissioned/collected during this phase
Ashley/Justin
Review
Technical posts: Fact-checked
Jason B., R&D leadership team
Partner Content: Sent to collaborators for review
Relationship owner (Aaron, Jason, Ashley, etc.)
All Content: Post is proofread and optimized for SEO
Ashley/Justin
Distribution Checklist is added to post draft
Ashley/Justin
Scheduling
Finalized post & graphics uploaded to WordPress
Justin
Social posts are uploaded to HootSuite
Justin
Additional distribution collateral/messaging finalized
Ashley/Jason B.
Distribution (See Distribution Checklist for complete activities)
Send internal, collaborator & community notifications
Ashley/Jason B.
Submit link to appropriate channels (e.g. Reddit, HN)
Ashley/Jason B./Author
Post to self-submission syndication channels (e.g. Opensource.com, Dev.to)
Ashley/Jason B./Author
Add to nurture campaigns
Ashley/Ty/TBD
Performance Evaluation
Review performance at next monthly review cycle (Content Strategy Mtg)
Ashley/Jason
Queue additional social reposts/resubmit to syndication channels as needed
Ashley/Justin
Product content workflows
There are several kinds of recurring content coming from the Product team. These have their own creation & launch processes:
Monthly product releases
Every month the product team drafts a release announcement for alternating product and quality releases. Blog post copy and any relevant screenshots, images, or videos should are shared with the Editorial team ahead of the 16th of every month.
Blog Posts
These posts skip ahead to the Proofread & Distribution Prep stages of content creation and should be scheduled as close as possible to the 16th.
Monthly Newsletter
Using the release copy as a template, the Editorial team [Justin] will draft copy for the monthly email newsletter. This copy is passed to the Marketing Ops owner [TBD] to upload into Marketo for sending. A test email is sent to Justin & Ashley for final approval before the email is scheduled.
Integration releases
Integrations and plugins are not released in cadence with other product releases, but are often critically important to the adoption of Mattermost by users.
Spotlight/round-Up plugin blog post
In order to highlight releases, we’ll do an additional integration release announcement between product releases (the first of the month or closest business day). About two weeks ahead of launch date (or earlier), Aaron R. will flag plugins that will be highlighted in the next integrations launch.
These posts can be focused around a single “spotlight” feature or compile multiple new/existing plugins that fit a specific theme. Content will be repurposed for an email sendout to subscribers that will follow the same workflow as the Monthly Newsletter.
Ex.) Jitsi Launch: Compile the 3 posts about Jitsi (technical, thought leadership, feature spotlight) into a single roundup highlighting this new plugin.
Ex.) CI/CD Plugins: To highlight the new Nimbella plugin, surface several other popular CI/CD plugins and write about how they can be leveraged separately or together.
R&D demos
Weekly feature demos given during the weekly R&D meeting (Thursday) are edited and repurposed to be posted on YouTube and shared on our social media channels the following Tuesday. Each demo will yield several 2-3 minute demo clips.
Branding and workflow TBD.
Distribution checklist
Every new piece of content developed and launched by Mattermost will require some amount of distribution to ensure that it reaches its intended audience. While every content launch will require some degree of customization, most will adhere to the following process.
Social launch
Post link on social channels. Social content queueing is handling via Hootsuite. Social posts should include an image, link, and hashtags.
All content: Twitter
Recruiting and Buyer persona content: Twitter, LinkedIn
Company updates and big news: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Internal/collaborator notifications
Send thank you note to collaborators with link to Tweet to share
Share internally/with community with link to Tweet to share
For sales collateral:
Share additional collateral with sales/CSM/support teams
Case study/use case slides with quotes & talking points
Link sharing
Post link on Hacker News
Post link on subreddits. The following are subreddits that we have shared content on in the past. Please review subreddit-specific posting requirements BEFORE posting any content.
/r/Mattermost
/r/opensource
/r/golang
/r/reactjs
/r/kubernetes
Syndication
Repost to syndication channels
Dev.to
HackerNoon
DZone
Opensource.com
Github Readme Project
Glassdoor.com
Additional activities
Add to Mattermost nurture campaigns
Submit links to 3rd party mailing lists, such as Pointer.io
Distribution template
During the Review phase of content creation, a copy of the Distribution Template will be added to the Draft. The Editorial team will use this template to draft social copy and develop a distribution plan for that individual post.
Social Posts
Draft copy for 3 social posts here, including hashtags
Artwork/Graphics
Link to social & post art or graphics here
Internal & collaborator messaging
Draft internal messaging here
3rd party forums & roundups
What link sharing sites/forums/email lists should this post be posted to?
3rd party syndication
What communities should this post be submitted to?
Other campaigns
Should this post be added to existing nurture campaigns?
For a copyable template and examples of this Distribution template, visit this Google Doc.
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