Blogger: Michelle Ule
Filling in for the traveling Mary Keeley–who needed to take a break from social media this week.
How do you take a break from social media without losing your momentum?
When I took a break last year from social media for my 2.5 week vacation, I used several tools to keep a current presence on-line.
Here they are.
Four tools to help a writer disconnect.
1. WordPress scheduling.
I love the schedule feature on WordPress.
For those who’ve never used it before, after you write your post, go over to the box on the right to “Publish Immediately.” Don’t let that scare you. Click EDIT.
A date box opens up. Put in the date, the time, click OK.
The blue box that says “PUBLISH,” this time will read “SCHEDULE.”
Click.
You’re done.
If you need to make a change in your post, do so and then click “UPDATE.”
I write two blog posts a week for my website and often guest blog. To prepare for my vacation, I had to write nine blog posts in advance and schedule them.
My NovelPastimes posts are written on Blogger–which fortunately allows for scheduling as well.
I like to write and schedule posts in advance, anyway, and I love this feature.
2. Facebook scheduling
In addition to my personal page, I maintain a Michelle Ule, writer page.
You can’t schedule posts on your personal page, but on “business” pages, you can do so.
Write the status and click on the blue POST.
A drop-down box appears and you can schedule a specific date and/or time.
POST.
Easy.
Hootsuite has two options for scheduling: one done right on the Hootsuite page, and the other through “bulk scheduling.”
This is a program you have to pay for, but I like it a lot (it’s a business expense).
I followed a tutorial done by Hootsuite and that’s what I suggest you do. Try this link.
It was a little tricky with the time and changing to a .cvs file, but it worked.
I found it easiest to set up the spread sheet by date and fill it in as I wrote the blog posts–putting them in at different times and days.
Hootsuite bulk will not allow you to use the same tweet twice, so that took creativity, but it was a wonderful relief to load them up and watch them tweet.
4. The true gift: Friends
Two days before I flew, my galleys for last summer’s The Sunbonnet Bride arrived.
I was able to complete them, but I wondered what I would have done had they come while I was gone.
I’ve written before about getting by with a little help from my friends . . .
In addition, my daughter-in-law serves as my Webmistress and has all my account passwords. When I run into trouble and am far away (or incapable), I can always contact her for help.
And why not?
They don’t call it social media for nothing.
What tools do you use to help you disconnect from your social media needs, your job, your work, your computer, your phone?
Tweetables
4 tools to help a writer disconnect from social media. Click to Tweet
Help for escaping social media for a vacation! Click to Tweet
Scheduling and friends: a vacation from social media! Click to Tweet
I’ve had a hard time scheduling my blog posts with Blogger. I’m not sure … maybe I didn’t select “publish.” After reading your post, I headed over there to see what I might have done wrong. It’s been a while since I tried to schedule a post. I sort of gave up for a while. But I’d select the date and time … that day and time would come and … nothing would happen. But I’m wondering if maybe I just saved and closed it. Maybe I never selected “publish.” I’ll have to try it again.
Blogger is weird, Shelli. Once you set a date and time and click ‘done’ on the scheduling box, you do have to click ‘Publish’…only, if you’ve done other stuff, the button that is usually marked ‘Publish’ can also say ‘Schedule’!
Andrew is right. You have to hit publish, which is scary, and then it tells you the post is scheduled. I wrote a post for them last week and missed that step, and the post didn’t appear.
Alas.
It will run at the end of this month instead, now that I scheduled it correctly!
I’ve done that too, Michelle.
* Also, you do have to check the time-zone setting; for some reason mine is on Pacific Time, rather than Mountain, so I have to keep that in mind. I have learned not to monkey with Blogger’s settings unless I have to. lerned that the hard way, I did.
Y’all are awesome! That helps so much. I’ll fiddle with it and see if I can make it work. 😉
I find Blogger easy to use, and have often scheduled posts. But there used to be a way to have my blog posts show up automatically on Facebook and now I must copy and paste them because the service that did it seems to have gone out of business. Do any of you know a way to do that now? ( I mean make the posts appear on Facebook, not go out of business.) 😉
I don’t take breaks. I can rest when I’m dead.
* Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards.
Well, there is that . . .
Glad to see you feisty as ever this morning, Andrew.
Thanks, Michelle. I do have to admit that being ‘here’ is getting a lot harder, both physically and in ability to focus.
Great post, Michelle. I’ve used WordPress’ scheduling option many times. I use Hootsuite sometimes, as well. It is very handy! And, I’ve scheduled Facebook posts for my personal page using Hootsuite as well. Very helpful.
*I’m so impressed that you can write 9 blogs ahead of time! I find my blogposts “come to me” maybe a week or two ahead of time. Every now and then I get more ahead, but I’ve never had nine in the queue! 🙂
*VERY practical post!
In that particular case, Jeanne, I was writing a lot of pieces on WWI and I would need a long string of them, so I saved up what I knew would be an easy crowd pleaser–animals in WWI. They were easy to write and break up into, I think, six posts.
I was covering familiar ground in my travels and wrote posts about the past trips, tools for the travel and so forth. It was wonderful to come home, too, and not to have to write a post the day after I arrived home!
Perhaps my next post for B&S should be about finding blog post ideas?
I have a long list . . .
Michelle, yes! I don’t have a hard time finding ideas now…unfortunately…but it used to be the hardest thing.
Yes, please! My posts tend to be more devotional in nature, but I’m always game for a new list of ideas. 😉
Jeanne, I used to stay a month ahead, but found that the comments to one post may plant the seeds for the next one. So now it’s really post-to-post.
* Also, I’ve found that it’s nice to have a few ‘utility posts’ available, for when I really can’t write coherently.
I’ve found that too, Andrew. So, there is something to be said for not being too far planned for posts. But, sometimes, it would be nice. 😉
Me either, Jeanne. I think the most I’ve ever gotten ahead was 3 posts … and that was once. 😉
I’m typically writing at the deadline, but it’s so helpful when I have a bunch of ideas to write them immediately and “salt” them away as Andrew observed.
I’m in a particularly dense writing and life time right now and not having to think about the blog for two weeks was really helpful. That ends tomorrow and I’m back to the creative mode, but I like to have some ready to go.
One of the tricks is to look at long posts–I typically write about 600-700 word posts–and see if I can break them into two posts or maybe more. That’s always a joy when the opportunity arises.
I haven’t recycled many over the years, but sometimes I can reformat and refocus old posts into something different, which is helpful and not cheating as far as I’m concerned.
I suppose I could even pull up an old one and discuss how wrong I was . . . if that has ever happened! 🙂
Revisiting old posts is something I’m finding useful, because as circumstances change, so too does my perspective.
* Faith is one of those; early in the process, my faith was quite different, and far less robust than it is today. Going back and saying, “these months have changed me” is humbling, but also quite necessary if I’m to have any meaningful message.
So glad I’m not alone, Shelli. 😉
Michelle, this has given me a lot to think about, and what I’m about to say…if you have time, I’d like your thoughts.
* How we handle ‘breaks’ is really a measure of professionalism. I liken my blog to a store…people have to know where to find me, but they also have to know the ‘hours’. I owe them that.
* It does leave room for a short break, if it’s needed. My very best friend…who is a member of this community…will run a post for me if I simply can’t, and has. It’s like putting a sign in the window…”Sorry, had to step out for a bit, but I will be back.”
* As for holidays and special events, the same paradigm applies. A store owner would not be open on Christmas, but if she’s smart she will put up a Christmas display, something nice and uplifting for those who might come by.
* I think we have to remember that blogging isn’t self-expression. It’s a reaching out, and when other people reach back, we need to be there for them when we said we’d be…even implicitly.
Excellent points as always, Andrew.
Yes, the website is a business “shop,” whether you sell anything or not. I wrote recently that running a blog is like having a child–you’re never really out of earshot of things you need to do. The website is the same thing, requires constant maintenance (another blog post idea for the future).
BUT, even we’re all entitled to a rest from time to time–even, according to God, every seventh day. (I don’t, for example, do laundry on Sundays and try to avoid writing work on that day as well). I think it’s helpful to step away from the keyboard and actually live–if nothing else, I brought back a handful of blog post ideas and a book idea from that vacation. So, score.
Here at B&S, we take the last two weeks of December off–we close the office except to process final checks on December 31 and put the blog on a reduced capacity–often running favorite old posts. We note that at the top of the blog, and let them run.
While I was on my aforementioned vacation, I checked in from wi-fi to wi-fi, but I didn’t worry if I wasn’t up on the latest happenings and really felt free to enjoy myself, my surroundings and, most importantly, my family. Score again.
You know, banks used to insist tellers take two consecutive weeks off–both for the teller’s sake but also because that enabled the management to learn if something was being cooked in the books.
Doesn’t really apply to my blog, but it’s an idea . . . 🙂
Great thoughts, Andrew.
I switched from a blog to a website in February, and I post once a week, for now. I’ve streamlined my posts from whatever was on my mind, to subjects more focused to my readers and platform, “brand-building”, if you will.
I don’t have everything connected on my phone, and use it to…wait for it…phone people. Unless they’re under 25 and don’t know what the numbers are for.
I do text, but to people under 25.
And in summer, when we go one “vacation” with Hub’s family, there’s no cell service where we get to spend almost every. waking. hour. with his extended family.
Every.
Waking.
Hour.
It’s good that I get along with most of them. Ahem.
And that there’s electricity to power my laptop which I bring to get all kinds of work done. Hubby thought of that. “I’ll tell them you’re working. Just visit Mom for a cup of tea then disappear. She understands. You’re welcome.”
And she does. I adore her.
It IS a good two weeks of very little contact unless I make that possible. I quite like the freedom of not worrying about anything out in the world.
Shutting it all off and stepping away makes for a better me. Saturation isn’t good for anyone.
So, if you need a break? Plan ahead, then take one. It may take work, but it’ll be worth it.
Umm…might be better to say that saturation isn’t good for most people.
* I simply don’t do breaks or vacations. They bring out the worst ‘me’ there is. It’s probably a psychosis, but it’s MY psychosis.
It isn’t a vacation when you really love what you’re doing more than what you’d do “on vacation.”. It’s a deprivation.
Nothing psychotic about that.
It’s worth it, frankly, just to give your hands a rest. One year I told my husband the only thing that was helping my arthritis-induced pain was two weeks in Europe.
He didn’t buy it for a regular routine . . .
What is up with that, eh? Of course it’s good! As a fellow arthritis sufferer, we should form a committee to study the healing properties of Rome. You in, Michelle?
I’m under 25! 😉
Yessssssss, you *are*, aren’t you??
Tilts head and grins.
And so am I.
What tools? Hmmm…when we went camping with our 3 boys and new puppy…I just left and didn’t worry about it. I do know how to schedule blog posts though, so I could do that.