Monday morning. Blog posting time. Blank screen. No ideas. Panic time.
If you’ve run a company blog, you’ve probably been there. No matter how well you build out a content plan, there may come a time where the well has run dry and the “just in case” reserve has been used up. No new customer case studies have been published, no product news to announce, no webinars or trade show events to talk up. What next?
Try adding in a set of recurring post topics to your regular posting schedule. These are simple posts, set for publishing on given days of each week (or alternating weeks, or 3rd Tuesdays…whatever works), with content largely pulled from outside the corporate firewall. Look at these as wonderful opportunities to point the blog lens outwards and participate a bit more in your user and industry communities. Here are five common types of recurring posts to consider adding to your own content plan:
1. Must Reads
Each week in your normal blog, industry news, and general online reading the research, bookmark articles and sites of particular interest. A hot new research report, an insightful blog post, key news about trends in your business, whatever they may be. Sign up for a social bookmarking tool such as Delicious, Instapaper, or use the Google Reader “share” function to capture them throughout the week, and then post on Friday or Monday a quick run down. It’s a great way to send some link love out – one of the best ways to get links back in – and it will provide real value to your regular readers, provided you stay on topic (no “oh so adorable” LOLcats, unless that’s the focus of your company).
2. User/Member Profiles
These go by many names: “Featured Commenter” “Customer Profile” “Star Contributor” and so on. They can be long and in depth, complimented by a podcast or video, or they can be quick and simple. On the latter, grab a headshot photo, some relevant info, a link or two as appropriate, and some nice words on their contribution to your community, support forums, blog, or success with your products (if they have approved a testimonial or case study). These work wonders for any company with an online community or forum aspect to their site, and they are a great way to showcase case studies or testimonials if you’re lucky enough to have a steady supply.
3. Employee Profile
Sometimes shining the spotlight back inside the company can do wonders for your brand. Develop a stock questionnaire, including some quirky questions – favorite customer story, most embarrassing day at work, what one thing you’d find on their desk, etc. Collect these plus a headshot photo from willing staff, and post these once a week or so. They add a degree of humanity to your blog and company, and help your readers and customers connect with your brand and team on a more direct and personal level.
4. New Content Digest
For content-heavy sites, especially if you churn new content on a fairly frequent basis, a fast, easy, and very helpful recurring post topic is the new content digest. Highlight new articles, whitepapers, case studies, releases, how-to’s, and so on. Keep it short and sweet, and link directly.
5. Old Content Salvage Post
Sometimes great content gets buried, even on well designed sites. Don’t rely on site search or your no doubt awesome SEO efforts to expose great pages, posts, articles, and the like – highlight the best of them in a recurring post series!
6. Forum Thread Of the Week
If you host a user or customer forums – support, ideas, feedback, self-help, etc. – consider flagging one thread each week that is either uniquely interesting or is drawing above average readership or participation. Write up a post to draw attention to it and invite your readers to participate. This is also a great way to highlight and celebrate a featured forum contributor (see #2).
Mix and match as appropriate, and plan ahead so you have a few of these in your back pocket come crunch time.
Remember, if you need help with your blog content planning, writing, or blog development, drop us a line!
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