Blogging about local events is a great idea to focus attention on your activities. Unfortunately, those blogs go stale shortly after the event ends. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a way to recycle those old posts to bring new value to them again?
Can Dated Blog Posts Ever Be of Value Again?
When you blog about something such as a 4th of July show, a Mardi Gras parade, or a Christmas event, you have an opportunity to use those posts over and over again. It remains true that they will never really be evergreen, of course. Few people take interest in holiday promotion when holiday is six months away. However, the 4th of July will be back and so will all the other yearly events. That provides you with an opportunity to breathe value back into those posts.
When to Promote Event-Based Blog Posts
The key to a successful re-sharing of those old blogs relies on timing. You will want to promote them anew about 30 days or so before the event occurs again. The nature of the activity will determine variations in the adjustment of that date. If a Christmas parade happens the first week of December, you might want to break the “Thanksgiving barrier” and promote a bit earlier.
Promote Blog Posts Per the Schedule of Your Industry
Special circumstances will change the dating of your blog revitalization. For example, in the vacation rental industry, a leading time of 3 to 6 months is not a bad idea. That would make a Christmas post in July make sense. Just make sure to headline your re-sharing of the post with an explanation of why they should take notice now. “It’s time to book for December vacations!” With many rentals scheduled a year ahead of time, you could even try it in January. Label that one very well. Folks are a bit tired of Christmas once January gets going. A text-heavy promo might do better than a holiday image. Regardless of the challenges or the industry you work in, the promotion is worth it and you should have a timed promotion plan.
Your calendar won’t mind when you mark events a year in advance.
Use Technology to Help Schedule Blog Post Promotion
Modern technology has a very simple answer to the problem of stale blog posts. Digital calendars and planners serve the purpose fantastically. They’re nothing new, but not everyone uses them. A generation gap certainly applies, with adoption of the tech slower among the “more established” age groups. The revitalization of old blog posts makes digital calendars worth trying, though. A simple entry into a planner, such as Google Calendar, can create alerts that appear in your Gmail or which pop up on your digital device. Plenty of other digital planners and calendars are available that offer similar features. For the die-hard paper calendar users, marking your promotion dates when you buy the year’s calendar works just fine too. You will just have to make that little chiming sound on your own.
Use Social Media to Revitalize Those Old Blog Posts
Share your old blogs on all the relevant platforms such Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and so on. You should see a spike in views of that blog. Use the text space provided on the social media platform to explain why the blog is currently relevant. When you need to share them far ahead of the event date, explain to your followers why the should take heed. When the date is within 30 days, you won’t have to work so hard. Those old posts will get your followers reading your blog again. If the event has changed calendar dates, post the new dates.
Statistics demonstrate that once visitors arrive on a blog, they will often move on to read further posts inside the same blog.
Make Dated Blog Posts Serve You Again
If your blog is part of the main site for your business, and it should be, you will generate new interest not just in your blog but in your business. That’s the reason you have a blog on your site in the first place! Use those old, dated blog posts all over again when the time is right. You will take a previously wasted resource and breathe value into it all over again.
