Cultivating Your Offline Community To Grow Your Online Presence
This article was originally shared in Issue 22 of Blogging Breakthrough Magazine (July 2018).
After nearly 5 years of working full-time in digital marketing, on top of more than a decade on social media, finding time away from the online world is challenging. This is something I’ve tried to be more conscious of recently but there’s still that looming dread and FOMO whenever I leave my phone on the dining room table before heading out for an uninterrupted dinner with my husband.
We spend so much of our lives online, blogging and running our businesses, that it can be easy to forget that offline time is just as important. But summer is the perfect opportunity to throw on “Do Not Disturb”, catch up with friends and take some time to re-energise away from a screen.
Mid-Year Resolutions
Does anyone else find New Year’s resolutions impossible to keep? While many find the start of a new year to be the perfect time to reassess, I find the whole week leading up to the beginning of January to be full of pressure and expectations. When I fail to keep the goals I’ve set for myself only a few weeks in, I feel like the rest of the year is going to be wasted because I have to wait until next January 1st to try again. But who decided that was the rule?
Even if you no longer run your life by an academic calendar, the summer months always seem to bring an air of “newness” and can be a great time to work on some mid-year goals. Did the first half of the year not go too well? That’s fine! Take some time to go over the details with a friend: what worked, what didn’t work, what would you like to accomplish in the next few months? When we spend so much of our day focused on our online community, it can be easy to forget those around us in our offline lives. Take this chance to have an accountability partner in your day-to-day life who can give you the little nudge that you need to get those goals checked off.
By working through a “mid-year check in” over the summer, you’re already setting yourself up for success. If you need some more guidance and structure for goal-setting, check out Powersheets. These can really help to guide your vision for the upcoming months by establishing clear goals and steps to help you get there.
New Season, New Skills
Have you always wanted to get to grips with Photoshop or finally crack what an email drip campaign is? Maybe you’ve seen flower crowns all over Instagram and would really love to learn how to make one, or you’d like to invest more time into styling your visual content. There are thousands of courses, books and tutorials out there for you to dive into on all of these topics.
It can be difficult trying to fit ongoing learning opportunities into our already busy schedules, but when we make use of summer’s longer days and rework our time from scrolling to studying, it’s surprising how much can be accomplished. Use those moments to try something new and pick up a skill that could save you time when blogging or running your online business. Check out courses in your local area if you’re interested in finding some like-minded people to connect with or even potential new customers. Whatever you choose doesn’t have to be time consuming. Spending just an hour or two a week over the summer months is enough to improve your skills in whatever area you choose!
Downtime and Catching Up
It may sound counter intuitive that spending some time away from the internet can actually help to grow your online presence. After all, there’s the algorithms to keep on top of and what if your audience abandons you if they don’t see your posts for a week or two? But when it really comes down to it, people want to see you for who you are, not just content for the sake of content.
Spending time away from constant comparison could give you the boost you need to get out of a creative rut and fuel your online growth for the next 3-6 months. The cliche of “my best ideas always come to me when I’m in the shower” is remarkably true. When you take time away from content calendars, blog post formatting and photo editing, you free up mental space for something new.
Offline time also doesn’t have to mean completely neglecting your online community. Turn those internet friends into “real life” friends and make plans to connect. Not only does this give you the chance to get to know these people better, it can also provide you with some crossover content for your blog or social channels and open you up to a whole new audience, who are already following your online friends and may be interested in following you as well.
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While the option to be connected to the rest of the world 24/7 is an immense privilege, remember that it’s perfectly fine to want to step away for a little while and enjoy the bubble of what’s immediately around you. Rest, recharge and get ready to power through the rest of the year!
