This time of year adds a few extra items to our “to do” lists… if your business slows down a bit this time of year and you’ve found yourself wondering how to stay more visible this year while still taking time away, here are five simple suggestions.
1. Have a Basic Goal & Plan
Don’t just disengage and disappear! Create a SIMPLE plan for the next several weeks based on your goals for the next month or two.
What could your plan include?
- A theme or two that your content will be centered around (here’s how to do weekly themes: YouTube video)
- Holiday promotions or special offers you want to promote and a few ideas for blog posts based on that theme (some ideas here: holiday promotions)
2. Use the Schedule Feature
Everything from your ezine or newsletter, to your blog posts (here’s how in WordPress or use the Editorial Calendar plugin), to your social media can be scheduled in advance.
So take time now to write and schedule so you know your content will continue to flow smoothly while you’re away enjoying time with your family and friends.
Consider scheduling…
- A blog post or two a week (and look for opportunities to reuse your own content from other places for content on your blog, or feature guest bloggers to give yourself more of a break)
- An email a week for your list to stay in touch
- Tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn updates with HootSuite
What else can you schedule in advance? Look for ways to still be “present” the places that are important for you to show up, and find ways to create that content in advance and get it scheduled.
3. Outsource Smart
Which of the items on your plan and scheduling list might derail you because they take a lot of time or require things you don’t enjoy? Those are great opportunities to plug in outsourcers.
For example, inspirational and motivational quotes catch my eye on social networks like Facebook and Pinterest. I love to share them. Creating them takes time.
With the crazy busy holiday season, I decided to have some designed for me and thought I’d share a few. I love the way these turned out. Feel free to “pin” or share these on Facebook (you can find me here and share) if you’d like to spread a little motivation today.
And if you’re interested in having your own custom or semi-custom images created, I recommend Melissa Barham (use code “cookies” to get a holiday discount!).
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4. Co-Create
Have some fun by looking for ways to co-create the content you need.
You could:
- Write a collaborative post
- Do a written interview
- Host a G+ hangout with a friend, client or colleague
- Swap guest posts with a colleague
- Ask 5 colleagues to answer the same question and then compile the answers and allow everyone to use it as an article, email or blog post
What else could you collaborate on?
5. Leverage & Recycle
Create content once and use it everywhere. Whatever content you do take time to create this month be sure you’re using it well.
Some ideas:
- Turn your blog post into an email to your list (or email to your list into a blog post). Pull out snippets to share on social networks.
- If you create an ebook or report, pull pieces of it to use on your blog.
- Write a great response to a question via email or in a group? Edit a bit and turn it into a blog post.
- The images I shared above I’ll be using multiple ways on my blog, in emails, on Facebook, Pinterest, and more.
- Recorded a YouTube video? Share it on social networks and your blog. Or transcribe it and turn it into an article to share.
Look at every piece of content and ask yourself, “How else can I use this?”
For sharing on social networks, look for some of your more popular older posts and share them again (recycle!).
Your Turn!
How do you keep up with your business and stay visible during the holiday season?
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Great tips, Michelle. I love the WP Editorial Calendar plugin to schedule my posts in advance. Love the images you created as well !
Thanks, Melissa did a great job on the images. :)
And that’s one of my favorite plugins, too!
The use of the scheduling feature could be very helpful when it comes to planning and setting future goals for a blog. I think this is about the best takeaways of this post and bloggers should come to terms with it when planning for a holiday.
I have shared this comment where I found this post in Kingged.com – the content syndication website for Internet marketers.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/dont-let-your-blog-get-lost-in-the-holiday-rush/
Hey Sunday, it sure is. Scheduling in advance makes a big difference in staying consistent. :)
Hi Michelle,
As usual your posts are great and I get so much from them. I loved the ideas for getting ideas. :-)
The only thing that stops me from blogging more and learning more about it is other commitments that take up my time. This is not a secret fear as the “recommended next” box indicates. I have already jumped in head first and I am hooked — thanks to your November UBC challenge.
It’s always interesting to see what that “recommended next” box brings up. For some entrepreneurs it’s a reason to avoid blogging, worries over how much time it will take.
Congrats on diving in head first! :)
Great advice as always Michelle. You might want to add a plugin that lets others share your content. Would love to tweet this to my followers :)
You caught me – I’ve been uninstalling and reinstalling plugins tonight. :) Share buttons shall return momentarily.
Hi Michelle,
Wonderful tips you have here.
Having a clear goal and actionable plan is a must for everything. I also read an interview with former Mashable senior editor Charlie Whiet and he encourage spending in order to promote your blog/blogs. I guess the same goes for outsourcing. Even if we can do anything, we should learn to seek help from others.
And speaking of graphics, I created a blog post a few weeks ago about online online tools that can help you make awesome graphics easily.
I like it! Planning about the holiday rush. I never thought about this after reading and comprehending articles that talks about the holiday. I like the idea about scheduling and planning your social media in advance. One smart way to make your job easy and planned that won’t make your audience bid goodbye at the end of the holiday season.
I found this post shared on Kingged.com, the Internet marketing social bookmarking site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.
Valuable content, Michelle. Two tips I’ll use right away are to get in the practice of using a theme and co-creating for fun and to lighten the load. I just produced my first video and will be incorporating this as well. Delegating tasks that aren’t essential to the main mission are key–kudos to you for demonstrating the wins of outsourcing.
Great post. And don’t forget to delegate tasks so your business will run smoothly even while you’re on vacation