make your blog content work harder

i don't know why i want to open this post with a crockpot pun, but i do.

blog posts are not a "set it and forget it" type of thing.

there, that's out of my system.

is your blog content really giving you the most bang for your buck? think of the time and energy that goes into a blog post. if you're photographing food, fashion or products, there is time spent preparing the shot, adjusting your lighting, stirring the soup so it's just so, putting on another layer of blush so it'll pick up on camera... you get the idea. then you write your post. you edit your photos. you post your photos to instagram, twitter, facebook. you link your post in facebook groups and let everyone know about it. exciting, right?

and a week later, that post is gone to the dreaded blogging purgatory, never to be spoken of again. but oh, look, you've got a new one! so it's ok, right?

nope. not cool, blog bros. we've gotta do better. the number one mistake i see bloggers making is not promoting the ever living daylights out of their existing, and *gasp* old content.

remember this: you worked hard on your content. it should be working hard for you, too. 

your blog post has crazy longevity. that cute sweater look your posted last october? it's still relevant next september when everyone starts chattering about pumpkin spice. you should be referencing your old content in other blog posts and linking to it, tweeting links to old blog posts, posting your old favorites on facebook, and any other way to make all content on your blog as relevant as possible. the time you invested in creating that post should pay off for months to come. content from a month ago is still content, and there are plenty of folks who follow you who happened to miss it, or would be happy to see it again.

to make sure you're getting the most out of your blog content, use the tips below to utilize social media in order to reap the most benefits (pageviews, engagement, etc.)!

1. create a checklist for every blog post

are you sharing each post on social media? this is a good place to start. however, go way beyond one simple share! create a checklist of to-do items for social media every single time you hit 'publish'.

an easy way to keep your content pumping out steadily is to create a list of types of social media promotions to create. using a social media scheduling tool like hootsuite or buffer, schedule a post to be shared on facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc. routinely for the forseeable future. for example:

after a post is published, head to your social media scheduling outlet of choice. write up some promotions and schedule them all just after your post is published. for example, your promotional checklist for each post could include....

• 3-5 promotions for the day the post was published
• 2 promotions the next day, or the day after
• a promotion the next week, i.e. "check out my post from last week..."
• a promotion in two weeks
• a promotion in a month
• a promotion in six months

2. stay on top of trends and holidays

your content is relevant for longer than a day. a week. a month. even a year. if you made a post about margaritas, that post is relevant for every single national margarita day forever and ever (february 22nd, by the way!). take advantage of this!

trends on the internet are here and gone before we even realize 95% of the time. how is your content relevant to a trend? even if it's a stupid meme from youtube... can you tie in your blog posts in any way? even if it's by making a bad pun? (i've done it). get on twitter, do a quick fact check to make sure you aren't promoting a blog post using a trend or hashtag you're not completely familiar with (um, remember that time diogorno pizza made a fool of themselves? click here.), then get to it!

3. create less, promote more

you probably have content you've completely forgotten about. take a dive into your blog archives and pull out a post you haven't talked about in years. you can even blast a link out to talk about how far you've come and how you can't believe your photos were that bad. guess what? it's still a pageview and potential engagement and/or sympathy tweets ("omg, your photos really were horrendous. love what you're doing now, though!").

if you're feeling the pressure to crank out a ton of posts each week, really step back and examine what is and isn't working about this process. do you have a ton of great posts to chat about, but you aren't taking advantage of this fact? is creating new content a real pull for your blog, or do your pageviews stay the same if you just promote old content more, and write less? strategy, folks.


overwhelmed? here's a super easy way to get started: pick an old blog post every week for #tbt (throwback thursday!) and post it! use the #tbt hashtag and bask in the memories. "remember when i made a soup in my dark kitchen and photographed it with flash? mmm, red mush. yeah, me either. here's a link though. #tbt"

do you utilize your old blog posts to your advantage? how would this affect your social media strategy?