Social Media Monday—The Worst Thing You can do When You Take a Day Off from Blogging

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Social Media Monday

We all know consistency is an important part of social media, especially with blogging. But our digital life isn’t the end all be all of all life. It's just one small part. Because of that, there are times when we aren’t consistent—either by choice or by circumstances. And that’s okay, life happens and we all need some time off to regroup and recharge.

This past week was just such a time for me. Friday evening our middle son got married. It was a joyous celebration, and I chose to experience the whole of it—unplugged.

So when the time comes for you to make that choice, I’d like to share the very WORST thing you can do when you take a day off from blogging.

Don’t post an apology.

Don't post an apology.

That’s it in a nutshell. But in case you’re curious, here are the reasons why.

If you’ve been following my directions, you have a way for your audience to follow your blog through email and RSS updates. The last thing you want to do is clog your audience’s inbox with false hope. And that’s what an email update that turns out to be an apology is. Here’s the scenario that you’ve unwittingly set up:

• Your audience is expecting a post, they get an email from you.

• They open the email and instead of the post they expect, they get an apology and a notice that there’s not going to be a post today.

• OR even worse, they don’t click on the email. They choose to go directly to your site, and instead of the post they’re expecting, they get a short apology stating that there’s not going to be a post.

Don't waste your audience's time.

Both scenarios result in wasted time and energy for your audience. Wasted time and energy is also frustrating, especially during the holidays when time is at a premium. So don’t apologize or announce there’s not going to be a post. If you want to apologize, do it at the end of your next post.

Under the heading of don’t waste someone’s time. You also shouldn’t spend a lot of time explaining what happened to make you decide not to post. Let’s face it, life happens to all of us. Your audience gets that. Don’t waste their time on a long explanation. Just pick up where you left off.

So I’m curious. Am I the only person who gets irritated at wasted time? I appreciate the sentiment that a blogger has in wanting to apologize and warn me that there’s not going to be post. But I’m not watching any single blog that closely. If there hadn’t been an apology in my inbox I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. I wouldn’t have unsubscribed or even been irritated even if I had noticed. I get that life happens. But I trust a lot of the blogs I follow and don’t read them in email, but go directly to the blog. When I get there, expecting a post—because I got an email notification—I feel cheated and irritated. If that happens too often, I have even unsubscribed.

What about you? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

And don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

TWEETABLES

The Worst thing you can do When You Take a Day Off from Blogging – via @SocialMedia Mentor @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Is there an unpardonable sin for blogging?Maybe…but it’s not what you think – via @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)