Jake McNeely roars down the hill in Bellingham, WA.
Although I love writing about specific events to help organizations garner better attendance, I’m focusing more of my efforts on evergreen posts. Evergreen means that whenever a reader finds your post, it still applies, it’s still relevant, they can still take action on it now.
This morning I woke up to a 2-inch layer of fresh snow, an uncommon experience in the urban Bellingham, WA area. At the end of last winter season, when I wrote an article about sledding in Whatcom County for WhatcomTalk.com, I knew it would be useful for only another month. I had to take that in to account when looking at the article’s statistics. But I also knew that when I shared it again this morning, it would be read by fresh eyes, an entirely new audience than last season, and even those that might read it again would feel it was worth their time.
Some of the tricks I use to write evergreen posts:
- Don’t include specific dates, instead link to web sites and calendars that keep dates current. Refer to a month or season if appropriate.
- Make the piece informational and brief, including links to further information so that readers move forward from your post and not back dissatisfied.
- When writing the post, look a year or two ahead for the organization and make sure you’re not leaving out something big that would make a reader realize the content was written a year ago.
Of course, some posts need to just be about a specific event and there is no easy way to make them evergreen. But if that event happens annually or quarterly, don’t be afraid to borrow and augment your hard work next time. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
But if you’ve followed these tips and written your post evergreen, then its time to be strategic about sharing the content again. I think most of us will all admit that our memories aren’t what we’d like in the current climate of social media abundance. Its up to you as a quality marketer to know your catalog of resources, remember them and exactly where they are useful, and then choose just the right moment to share them again and again.