When you’ve been working hard to get all of your assets made ready to load up onto social media in one big batch, the last thing you want is to suddenly realise you can’t easily find which ones go with which post. There is definitely an easier way!
In this episode of Elevating Experts, Andy and Louise meet Captain Obvious and talk about meaningful labels, but here are some of our top tips:
- Keep names consistent across assets
- Save everything in well labelled folders easy to find
- Keep cross reference details in a spreadsheet
Here are some extra resources linked to today’s episode:
Effective labelling:
When labelling files, put a numerical value at the front to identify the episode number. For Example, instead of calling your file “Batch 3 episode 3 – How to make great labels” label it as “3.03 How to make great labels”. This way, when you’ve viewing the file as part of a larger set in a folder, they will appear in numerical order, which represents their place in your batch.
Sorting in folders: Let’s just say you’ve got five asset types and they’re called:
Educational Graphic
Meme
Reminder post
Pro tips
Easy hacks
If you follow the rule above and put the episode number first, you might still run in to trouble if you’re inconsistent in adding the extra detail of the asset type in to the label. Who wants to do all of that typing anyway?
By making a folder for each of these asset types, then placing the related files into their folders, you will always be able to quickly access the files in order when you’re working through your batches. The bigger your batches get, the more time you will save!
Use a spreadsheet:
Spreadsheets can be as simple or complex as you care to make them, but they are an excellent tool for keeping track of your data.
Not only can you write captions for the of the post types you’re adding your assets into, but you can add extra columns to tick off when something has been done. Not only a great database for everything you’ve done, which helps you to use them again later if you want to, but acts as a helpful checklist to show when you’ve completed each one. You can even add a date column to track the time between posts.
For more hints and tips to elevate you as an expert in your field, subscribe to our podcast Elevating Experts now.
We’d love to hear your feedback on how this has helped you!
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Elevating Experts is an Australian short form podcast series, with new episodes released Mondays, where we help content creators and podcasters by sharing tips to improve your skills & simplify your processes, and elevate you as an expert in your field!
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Contact us today to see if we can help you.
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That Entertainment Podcast | Adelaide Edition | Brisbane Edition
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About us: Louise Poole and Andy Le Roy.
Louise has worked in Australian commercial radio, media and broadcasting for over 20 years, in on air and brand management roles. Her CV includes hosting 973fm Brisbane, Queensland, morning radio announcer and music director for 8+ years, Content Director of Darwin, Northern Territory radio stations MIX 1049, Hot 100. More info about Louise Poole here.
Andy has over twenty years leadership experience, across a range of fields including broadcasting, aged care and telecommunications. His CV includes Darwin’s top rating drive-time radio program to managing a successful community radio station in Adelaide, South Australia, helping it to expand its community appeal by leading the station to innovate its content. More info about Andy Le Roy here
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Episode Transcript
Andy: you’ve been working hard to get all of your bits and pieces made to load up onto social media in a nice big batch, but suddenly you can’t find which ones go with which. There must be an easier way! I’m Andy Le Roy.
Louise: and I’m Louise Poole, and we’re giving you the insights to help elevate you as an expert in your field.
[Elevating Experts]
Andy: what you got going on there Louise?
Louise: well, I’m trying to figure out which image here goes with which caption for which episode… It’s all getting a little bit confusing
Andy: the more we go along this pathway of promoting our programmes on social media, it seems like we’re finding more ways to get bogged down when working with our batches. I think it’s time I introduced you to a friend of mine…
Louise: oh! Who’s that?
Andy: somebody we all know and love…
Sting: [captain obvious]
Louise: oh! hi there Captain Obvious!, I haven’t had to consult you for a long time!
Captain obvious: well Louise, it seems the time has come. Captain Obvious is here to teach you a thing or two about labelling.
Louise: fantastic.
Captain Obvious: I want you to have a look at how you’re naming things first of all. If you label things the right way, it makes them a lot easier to find in a word search, but also makes it easier for you to locate your files in your folders more easily.
Louise: I don’t mean to sound ungrateful Captain Obvious, but I think I’m already pretty good at labelling things.
Captain Obvious: yes, well… you would say that, as many do… But let me show you a better way
Louise: I’m all ears…
Captain Obvious: can you see here how you’ve labelled your files with the actual names of what they are?
Louise: well, yes, how else am I going to know what they are?
Captain Obvious: well… you’ve done a great job at identifying the different types of assets and the name of the episode they’re for, but have you thought about adding the episode number to the front of your file?
Louise: um, if you have a look, I’ve got it a little bit further down the label here
Captain Obvious: yes, that’s OK, but if you put your episode number right at the front, when you go to the folder that contains your files, they will appear in the correct sequence so you can find the right episode quick smart.
Louise: oh! Actually, that works really well!
Captain Obvious: Yes. And I know it seems obvious when you see it, but it’s just one of those little things I like to do to make things a little bit easier
Louise: so I’ve got everything labelled now with the episode number at the front, but I’ve still got a lot of files here in my folder and I like to work with one asset at a time when I’m loading a batch of content.
Captain Obvious: well, something you can do here to make that a little bit easier on yourself is to make subfolders within your main batch folder. For example, if you look at the different types of assets you’ve got here- like your chalkboard graphic and sharable meme
Louise: Yes…
Captain Obvious: If you create a folder for each of these things it means then you can open up the folder for that asset and see all of the related files for every episode in the right order as you’re going
Louise: I really like this idea Captain Obvious, it means then that when I’ve got twelve social media pages open at the same time when I’m working on my batch, I can do one part of the post for each each step of the way to save time with repetition instead of doing full posts and having to go back into the folders every time
Captain Obvious: yes, and that makes things much quicker when you’re working in batches, which I know you love to do
Louise: yes we do! That’s been really helpful Captain Obvious, thank you so much! I can get on with my batching now and know that things will be much, much quicker.
Captain Obvious: one moment there there… yes you’ve done a tip top job relabelling all of your file names and separating them into their folders, but can you think of something else that will really help you to keep tabs on things?
Louise: I know you’ve been talking to Andy, and I think you’re going to tell me I need a spreadsheet.
Captain Obvious: yes! A spreadsheet is going to help you to keep it all in order so you can cross reference everything as time moves on. By putting everything into a spreadsheet, you will be able to keep tabs of what content you have covered across your series, and you will also be able to check things off as you complete them so you know which part of the batch you have done in case you need to put it down for a little while and come back to it later.
Louise: that’s a great idea! So now I’ve got everything labelled in a logical way as well as a document that helps me keep tabs of everything that I’ve made and will post. Thanks Captain Obvious! Oh boy, I can’t wait to recap this with Andy! See you soon Captain Obvious!
Captain obvious: Bye for now, Louise!
FX: Captain Obvious whooshing away
Recap
Andy: how did you go with Captain Obvious, Louise? Did he help you out?
Louise: well, I’m gonna do a little recap with you right now and go through exactly what Captain Obvious told me… First of all, he told me that it’s better to put the episode number right at the front of all of our labels so that when we are viewing our files they sort numerically. That means they always show up in the right order when we’re working with the batch
Andy: that’s a great idea!
Louise: how many times have we been trying to sort through some of our files only to find that we’ve forgotten exactly what we call the episode and had to retrace our steps to see which one was the one we went to be using? He said by making a folder for each asset type, we can then go to that folder when we arrive at that step in the batch and everything will be there in the right order for us
Andy: now I look at it, that is a really obvious thing that makes a lot of sense haha
Louise: that’s why captain obvious is called Captain Obvious… And the last thing he mentioned was your favourite thing in the whole wide world…
Andy: a spreadsheet!
Louise: yes! Captain Obvious says if we keep track of all of the assets in a spreadsheet as we make them, then we can not only refer back to that as a cross reference later, but we can also use it as a tool to keep track of which ones we have completed along the way in case we need to put things down halfway through the batch and come back later.
Andy: It sounds like you and Captain Obvious had a really good chat!
Louise: yeah… I get the feeling Captain Obvious is going to become a very good friend of ours…
Andy: Let’s leave a couple of examples in the show notes so everyone can see exactly what Captain Obvious means
Louise: next time on Elevating Experts, part one on how to get the most out of your interview.