Ever felt a “need” to be active on Twitter? Do you feel guilty for not publishing to your blog for a few days? Sometimes there can almost be a compulsion to keep feeding your social media accounts. Go away for a week, and you’re likely to see your blog readership reduced. Stop tweeting and watch the online discussion around your brand drop.
So, if you’re the “voice” of a business or tourism destination, how do you deal with that time when you just don’t have any content to post? Below are several suggestions on what you can do when your content well appears dry.
Reassess. Take advantage of the extra time you have right now to take a cold, hard look at what you’re doing online. Is it working? How do you know? Take a look at the kind of content you’re posting. Is one kind working better than another? Is one medium reaching more of your audience than another? Could you experiment with something new? Perhaps there’s a potential source of content that you haven’t yet tapped.
Listen. Social media doesn’t have to be all about broadcasting your content, and quite frankly, it shouldn’t. While you’re in this lull, consider placing additional focus on listening. What are people saying about you? Are they discussing your product or company? Are they complaining? Complimenting you? Inquiring? Who is saying these things?
Ask. When was the last time you asked the people who care about your company what they want from you? You may be making assumptions. Remember – building strong relationships with customers (and not just in an online forum) means making it about them, not just you. Ask for input, and you will receive it.
Experiment. One of the great aspects to social media and online communication in general is that you can experiment at little cost. Maybe it’s a new promotion, a new contest or a new feature on one of your social networking properties. That means you can test out ideas, stick with what works and discard what doesn’t. Instead of searching for that big idea to kick-start things, consider trying out a whole bunch of small ideas to see what works.
Plan. Do you have a content plan? How are you using each of the channels on which you have a presence? If you don’t have a plan for them, consider creating one now.
Mine. Just because you work in communications, marketing or any other function doesn’t mean you can’t look elsewhere for help. Whether you’re communicating online or off, you probably have a wealth of resources right under your nose. Ask around within your organization. Some of your biggest resources may be sitting there just waiting for you to find them.
Wait. You want to be heard. You want to build your community to get results. Remember though that people may not want to hear you as much as you want to be heard. Although results are absolutely critical, spamming people when you have nothing to say won’t help you to get those results.
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