In the era of social media, we have to ask ourselves how
fresh should postings be? Also, we have
to ask how committed we are to posting.
Good management provides conflicting answers.
Personally I am more on the side of commitment than of
freshness. This means a degree of
stockpiling of content to avoid gaps in posting. However, your profession may shift the
balance. For example, a news blogger
probably has limited opportunities to stockpile because “new” is the
business.
Managers usually do not work in an environment of
immediacy. We have the benefit of being
able to spend some time on preparing topics of interest – if we actually set
the time aside to do so. Starting a blog
to provide context and information to staff means preparing a few posts in
advance of the launch. This enables you
to be sure of sufficient content before starting, because some topics that seem
important in our mind fizzle when committed to “paper”. Then, rather than immediately depleting the
stockpile, write fresh each time you post.
When the time inevitably comes that you have excessive commitments, raid
the stockpile. Review and refresh your
writing and post.
Responding to comments on your blog and tweeting need to be
done in a much more timely way.
Depending on response frequency, set aside 10 – 15 minutes at the end of
the day to look at blog comments and tweets.
Not being present in your own social media is unforgiveable; consistency
in your practices sets expectations.
In the interests of transparency: my practice is to blog and
tweet weekly, except when on vacation. My
stockpile is minimal. Commitment and
consistency makes this work, according to the feedback I receive.
Responsiveness to comments is, indeed, a prime objective - being ignored feels rude, no matter the underlying reason. As for freshness, all I'd expect is that a blog not misrepresent itself. I had a large backlog my first year of blogging, from published and unpublished articles already written. Year 2 has been much more 'in the moment' (well, in the week) and a little sporty at times as a result!
ReplyDeleteI have just added my book review of Townie. Those are stockpiled, because I write them at the time of reading the book. Interesting to recognize long periods of drought when nothing inspires, followed thankfully by intense periods when everything is worthy of review. Not being a professional reviewer, I don't write about books that are not to my taste.
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