Technology Tools for Real Estate

“Do as I say, not as I do.”  That’s a refrain my dad used from time to time and I guess it was his way of admitting that he was far from perfect.  In the same fashion, I also say that I’m not perfect when it comes to handling social media over the holidays.

Blogging presents the biggest problem; when I’m taking time off, I don’t want to have to write and research articles.  Fortunately, there are ways to work around that.

One solution is to blog in advance.  In WordPress, for example, you can write an article today and schedule it to be published automatically at some date and time in the future.  My article Blog While You’re On Vacation shows you how to do it.  To make this option work, of course, you’ll need to write all of your vacation articles ahead of time.

Alternatively, you can rerun articles you’ve written previously.  TV and radio shows do it all the time so that media stars and their staffs can take vacation.  If Oprah can show reruns, why can’t you?

Another option would be to find one or more guest bloggers to write in your absence.  Guest writers can sometimes bring a fresh perspective to your blog and help keep your readers engaged.  This option assumes, of course, that you can find someone to write your blog who isn’t also planning to take some time off.

In the end, I did none of these things.  Instead, I took a break from Twitter and only posted brief Merry Christmas and Happy New Year messages on my blog.  But if social networking is about establishing and maintaining connections with friends and clients, is that the best approach?