What Did I Miss??

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia

Every now and again, I come across a blog that has a lot of really good information. You know the kind  of blog I'm talking about...where almost every single blog post has a chunk of actionable information that you just have to implement in your business ASAP. This week, for me, that blog is Anything Goes Marketing.

And, if you're anything like me your initial experience with the blog goes something like this:

1. Read several blog posts and take notes (or add to implementation file).
2. Scroll back through a few months worth of posts to see if the blog content REALLY is that good
3. Realize, "Yeah, it's THAT good."
4. Panic.
5. Start wondering how far behind you really are (quickly eye number of months/years in archive)
6. Start thinking about how much sleep/TV/navel-gazing you're willing to give up to get caught up.

Well, you'll be happy to know that I've come up with a really great system to help you get all caught up with an interesting blog's content that ensures you don't miss a morsel of helpful ideas.

But, there's a catch...you have to have some semblance of order in your business and life already. I'll take you through the process that I went through with the Anything Goes Marketing blog and you'll see what I mean:

1. I determine the day of the week. Many of you may know that I only engage in social media activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays (for the most part). This helps me stay sane and make sure I don't annoy my readers/followers with idle chatter. So, if I find myself staring into the face of a happenin' blog on a Wednesday, I add it to my list of social media to-do's for Thursday. This way, I don't interrupt my day with social media "stuff" and I feel comfortable knowing that I have made space in my schedule to review the new-found goldmine. I can continue with the rest of my day as planned because everything is in order. (Do you see why I say you have to have some order in place already?)
2. When the appointed day comes, I examine my list of business priorities and, because this blog is a blog about marketing, I note which of my priorities are marketing-centric. Sometimes my focus is on ezines. Sometimes it's marketing funnels. Sometimes lead generation or landing pages. I jot down my areas of focus.
3. I conduct a search on the blog (using the blog's search tool or Google's Advanced Search) for my priority marketing topics. e.g. "lead generation".
4. I also look to see if the blog has a category or cloud tag item devoted to my topic of interest.
5. I bookmark the search results and the list(s) becomes part of my social media reading list for the week.

When I approach content-rich blogs/podcasts/webcasts in this way, I feel more in control of my time and energy. This process also ensures that I only focus on the topics that I can use in my business right then -- as opposed to studying topics that may very well be engaging and helpful, but probably aren't immediately useful.

P.S. Can you see how absolutely critical keywords, categories and tags are for your blog posts?

Comments

[Chad Horenfeldt]

Well it's 12:15 AM and I just happened on this blog - will be here for a while! Lena - thanks so much for the kind words. I'm surrounded each day by the best and brightest marketers. Seeing what they're able to acheive is inspiring and I wanted to share my learnings with others.
@chadhorenfeldt

[Klyde Beattie]

I think I know how you felt with the 6 step reaction. Great blog.

[Lena L. West]

@Pat:

You're more than welcome - and thanks for the kind words. I don't know if most people would call me funny...crazy, yes....funny? :)

Thanks for reading and commenting...hope you get some sleep soon...I know the feeling,

Lena

[Pat Morello]

Navel gazing?? You are too funny. 4am, can't sleep--speaking of content rich blogs! Well, now I'm off to further explore this newest Lena nugget. This was not the way to get sleepy, but thanks for the info.
Pat