Getting and keeping your content organized can be a real problem with everyone’s busy lifestyles. We’re bombarded with way too much information on the internet and contacts we make through our professional and personal relationships. Sometimes it’s hard to remember to save things and later, remember where we saved them.
That’s where Evernote comes in. Evernote is a great resource for saving everything from simple to-do list to recipes, images and photographs and web pages we want read later. I’m a huge fan of using Evernote to plan and store ideas for content development.
10 creative ideas for using Evernote to organize your content:
1. Create swipe files of sales letters and emails you find helpful. Using the Web Clipper, capture web pages and write notes about a specific part of the page or an entire page/email. Maybe you liked the image for some reason. Or perhaps you wanted to simply save a section to use as a template for later.
2. Save images of brands you like. If you find a logo or image that really ignites a creative idea for your own business, take a snapshot of the image and store it in your notes. Share the image(s) with your graphic designer when you’re ready to create your banners, logos, etc. for various programs and products you create.
3. Create a customer persona. To give you ideas as you profile your ideal client for your niche, capture stock pictures you find on the internet, label them with a fake name and send it to your Evernote notes. Then, add even more details about the person such as where they might live, what they buy, what they read – characteristics you might find in your target market. This will help you as you create and write by keeping the image in front of you. *Note: be careful that you’re using images with the proper authority. You won’t want to share them or use them in your business content without paying appropriate fees, if applicable.
4. Create an Ideas notebook. Do you have a constant stream of ideas for projects going through your head? Are they related to your current content project or just random ideas? Either way, putting these ideas down in your Evernote notes and notebooks helps you stay focused on what you are currently working. Then when you’re ready, you can easily access the notebook for new ideas.
5. Save Pinterest pins for later access. If you love Pinterest, you could literally spend hours pinning or we have way too many boards filled with content that could be combined into fewer boards. Use Evernote to send new pins when you have free time.
6. Access your to-do list anytime. All your to-dos are in one location. You don’t need to have post-it notes spread all over the place, or notebooks and emails filled with what you need to do. You can easily create a to-do list for your entire day that includes both personal and work related tasks. Then you can access them from anywhere. Use Evernote reminders feature to receive an email for dated items.
7. Create templates for tasks you repeat. For example, a checklist template can be crated on Evernote for things like your daily blogging tasks.
8. Organize blog information into notebook stacks. For example you could have a notebook for blog backups, blog post ideas, blog links, blogs you like, and blogging resources such as plug-ins.
9. Email articles and pages to your Evernote account from your phone or tablet. Then file it into a specific folder with a tag. To designate a notebook, use the @symbol in front of the notebook name and the # symbol in front of the title for the tag. Use these for content curation, where you add your own comments and share your insight.
10. Save a list of your online tools. If there are certain apps or services you use to work with and edit content like Picmonkey or BoxShotKing, save the links in a note or notebook so you never have to remember exactly where to go. Keep the links in one place, especially if you have affiliate relationships with them and want to reshare the service.
Keeping your content organized doesn’t have to mean having stacks of notebooks, file folders and photos all over the place. With some creative thinking and tools like Evernote you can get your business well on the way to running more efficiently.
In the next Share Strategy Academy, I’ll be sharing my stockpile of even more awesome online tricks for planning content strategy. Be sure to get on the early bird notice list.