One of the most difficult things about running a social media marketing campaign, or being a blogger is taking a break. Unlike a 'normal job', if you are ill or if you have a holiday booked, you can generally leave the office with an out of office message on your email and forget about things until you get back. But what about when you know you need to post every day, you need to keep on top of your social media profiles and you don't want to lose your traffic?
I have had this problem myself recently. Having been quite ill for a while, it has been several weeks since I have had the chance to blog. Sure enough, in the meantime
- My traffic dropped
- I got hit by a wave of comment spam
- I missed commenting on some fantastic blog posts on my favourite blogs
- My social media profiles have faded
- And worst of all...I have got out of the habit of posting and reading and now feel like I have to start again.
It is no wonder most people who are involved in any kind of social media marketing wonder whether they have signed up for a lifetime job without any hope of a break, a holiday or just a day off sick.
The fact that my absence has brought about the above consequences has made me think very hard about how to avoid it again. We can't help it if we get ill, and everyone, but everyone, deserves a holiday now and then - so to insure against the losses which I have suffered, I recommend doing the following.
- Whenever you get a chance, write blog posts and save them somewhere on your hard drive or in your drafts. Ensure you always have 15 or 20 spare posts available to you at any one time. If you are overtaken by illness or you do want to go away, you can set you blog up so that your spare articles will get posted periodically, keeping your readers satisfied.
- Make friends. If you have made friends in the blogosphere, why not ask one of them to maintain your blog going while you are absent? I am sure no blogger is going to turn down the opportunity to get a little more exposure, and once again, it keeps your readers happy.
- Install Akismet or some other spam filter. That way at least you know all of the spam comments will be zapped before they can arrive on your blog.
- If you can, put a note up on your About page, or within your social media profile. Or Twitter saying that you are currently ill, or in some remote part of Mongolia without internet access and you'll be back on board soon. At least then your loyal readers know where you are
- Back comment. There is nothing wrong with commenting on a great blog post and writing about it weeks or months after it was posted. I know everyone says that the way to get noticed as a blog commenter is to be the first to comment, but I know that I tend to read the first and the last comments of most posts, so if you can't be the first, still make sure you get in there and say your piece.
- Be strict on yourself as you rebuild the habit. Habits can take anywhere between two weeks and a month to develop. Once you are out of the habit of posting, commenting, interacting and reading, you are just going to have to go back to square one and start again. You did it once, you can do it again
Now, I am off to put this into practice. And I am not going to let it happen again! Nothing like doing something wrong in order to learn a really good lesson.