With a little planning when you’re away attending a conference you can continue publishing your blog and promoting on social media even if you’re a team of one.
By: Eden Hensley; Photos by Brooke Dennis for Alt Summit
Wondering how you can stay on top of your online content and social media when you attend a conference? We’ve got you covered!
Plan Your Blog Content
If you’re not using an editorial calendar (and social media calendar), you may want to for the days you’re at the conference. By mapping out your subjects, you’ll ensure that you don’t become laser focused on conference content or omit a time sensitive topic. An editorial calendar also allows you to space out any content you want brands to see before meeting you. Too sudden a shift in programming can look forced or worse as if you’re not sure of your blog’s focus.
The biggest gotcha when you’re scheduling blog posts and promoting those posts is that your shortened links may not be correct. Because the post isn’t live yet, your URL shortener can’t verify if the link is to the content you expect, to something else, or to a 404 error. The next biggest gotcha is that the preview photos may not be what you expect—especially when it comes to Facebook. I get around this by uploading a horizontal photo from the post into Facebook and scheduling the Facebook update to go live after the post is live
7 tips for planning your blog content and setting up your social media posts before you hop on the plane for your conference.
Preplanning What You Share on Social Media
Depending how you use your social media channels, you may not be able to take a break when you attend a conference. Trying to post live can be a recipe for disaster—a reliable Internet connection is never guaranteed and connection speeds are often incredibly slow.
Here’s how you can maintain your social media:
- Schedule your Instagram posts ahead of time. With Latergramme and Publish you control when your content posts to Instagram. No need to worry about sharing a live image from the conference at the same time you’re sharing one from your queue.
- Schedule your pins or get a mobile platform in place before you leave. Don’t forget to pin your scheduled blog posts; just keep The Rule of Ten in mind when you do.
- Use either Buffer or Hootsuite, both tools have free and paid options, to queue up evergreen content for Twitter. Want your broaden your reach? Pick evergreen content with subjects related to the sessions you’ll be attending. Remember to maintain a mix of content by following The Rule of Three.
- Determine if social media is working for you. If you don’t have time to preplan your entire social media presence, start with the platform referring the most traffic to your website. If you’re not comfortable focusing on just one platform, find the days and times of your highest engagement and fill those. If you have more time, add more content.
