Many bloggers try to write posts ahead of time, thinking that by getting ahead of schedule, the lack of deadline pressure might allow them to catch careless mistakes that they’d otherwise miss. For some of us, an Editorial Calendar can also help manage those posts that are written in advance to be scheduled to appear on designated days.
But once you have the post written and then once it’s on your calendar and scheduled to run, it’s important to stay aware of what you have scheduled for when.
Last year, I wrote about how scheduling Facebook posts and Twitter updates might require monitoring in the case of breaking news. Many businesses do this; one of the oldest examples I can think of is the airline industry when it comes to advertising: whenever there’s a notable plane crash, airlines reportedly will make some emergency phone calls to get their ad schedules off the air. Why? Because they don’t want to appear insensitive by advertising flights in the middle of a plane crash situation.
Last week was a perfect example for my weekly Twitter chat, #Bloggab. I had fellow blogger Heather Solos set to appear as a guest last Monday. But in the middle of the day, we learned the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri had come to a decision about whether to recommend charges against Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown. We could have continued with the original plan and conducted the chat as scheduled.
But Heather raised a valid concern: given the notice this news event would have, and the valid chance there could be violence depending on which decision was reached, could we appear insensitive if we went on with the chat?
There was at least that possibility, so it was decided that we’d hold off for a week.
I think it was the right call.
But it was also a good reminder that bloggers who write ahead and plan ahead have to be ready to change plans.
Because of the change, I was able to move the post originally intended for today down a week. So I could write on this topic today.
Life happens. Your blog should always be ready to roll with life’s punches just as its writer must be!
