Guest Blogging: Adding to the Mix

You may already have in place a communications plan. In that plan, you may have already established what blog articles you are going to post and when. However, you may have someone interested in guest blogging or you may have come up with a new idea for an article that wasn’t scheduled in your plan. Now you are thinking to yourself… “What should we do? Do we change our plan? Do we not allow guest blogging?” We have some ideas for you.

First of all, it’s ok to change the plan!

The articles that you thought you wanted to publish at the creation of your plan may not be relevant anymore. Replace some of the articles within your established plan with a guest blog or one of your new ideas.

Second, create features!

You don’t have to change from your plan other than adding an additional blog on a specified day. For example, we had a client who halfway through the year started to receive requests for guest blogs. Instead of replacing the blog ideas set forth in their communication plan, they simply added these guest posts as features published on Thursdays of each week.

Third, occasionally publish an additional blog!

When you do this, be sure to let your followers on social media know. Announce the special publication and link to the blog itself on each platform. Your content is valuable and your regular readers will be excited to see an additional blog post that week or month. You may have attended an event you want to write about, had an idea for a blog you didn’t consider before, something new within your field may have happened, or a guest blog is too good to pass up. Just promote it on any platform possible.

Finally, and most importantly, if you have set a schedule for posting, don’t change from it!

You can add posts throughout the week but don’t forget to post. Luckily, some blog platforms let you schedule out your blogs in advance. Once you have set a routine, don’t confuse your readers by not publishing.

Having new content to blog about is never a bad thing. Finding ways to publish that content may seem difficult at first, but there are ways to do it. Don’t be afraid to publish more information than you had originally planned. It is when you don’t have enough information to publish that you should reevaluate your communications blogging plan.

Take a look at your blogging plan to see if an upcoming blog is no longer relevant or could be replaced with different content. Happy blogging!

-Jamie