What’s Your Business Blogging Strategy for the Summer?

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June 24, 2010 By 8 Comments

We celebrate Midsummer (Midsommarafton) on Friday here in Sweden. It’s a day in Sweden when families get together to eat pickled herring and potatoes, strawberries, indulge in a glass or two of snaps and start singing. Where I live you can usually hear the clinking of glasses, laughter and song from midday onwards.

midsommarafton business blogging strategy

No one wants to work after 'midsommar'


This week everyone I know has been trying desperately to get work finished because most of us want to be on holiday from midsummer to early August. For six weeks Sweden closes down. Offices are pretty empty and people flock to the country and their summer house, many go abroad and Stockholmers like to go out to the archipelago to potter around in their boat and relax.

For small business bloggers and online content marketers summer’s a difficult time. Typically you see a dip in traffic to your website – even though many Swedes take wireless dongles and their laptop with them to the country.

So what do you do with your blog for the summer? Let it lie – and potentially watch international traffic dwindle?

Do you recycle old posts, best of lists, or reduce your posting schedule. Bringing in guest bloggers is a nice idea if you’re a small business, or you can divide the posting schedule up between your team to keep things ticking over. Perhaps give a few people who don’t normally blog during the year a chance to try it out.

It’s a tricky one.

I’m personally in two minds and at present I’m thinking of reducing the number of posts over July, considering taking in a few guest posts, and concentrating on relaxing. Oh, yes, and working on a few secret projects!

Help me out here!

First off, I’d love to hear how you’re going to approach the summer and managing your blog. What’s your plan? Have you got a strategy in place?

Secondly, if you’re looking for a bit of extra Google juice and would like to guest post about online communications, crisis management, marketing and PR, I’d love to hear from you.

For the record, I’m officially in the office until June 30th. After that, the world’s my oyster – for a month. The vacation is fast approaching.

Filed Under: communication strategy
About Jon

Marketing and Communications Consultant. Head of Jontus Media. Podcaster. Life-long Liverpool FC supporter. Guarded by basset hounds.

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  • freelancerant

    The Midsommarafton is quite a contrast to our Sant Juan's holiday we celebrate today out in Spain. Everyone buys all the fireworks they can and light them up the night before until sunrise. That and the all-night music and fiesta!

    I'm not one to take a whole month off or even scale business down a notch, especially since it is growing and I don't want to lose the momentum. That said, I'm also not one to miss out on summer activities either so it's a matter of cramming fun and play together. It makes for up and down weeks but I'm handling it fine (so far).

    Unfortunately blogging becomes a casualty in the process. Now I'm dedicating more of my free time and planning out those blog post WAY ahead of time so that continues without a serious lag.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Johnny, That sounds more like New Year's here.

    I know what you mean about keeping things going. I'll personally be working on a few things that I haven't had time to do during the last six months, but it's also a time to recharge one's energies. It's difficult to find balance. Especially, when blog marketing is such a key part of your business model.

    Planning is a great idea. Now I just wish I had five more minutes to do that!

  • ginidietrich

    As an American, I cannot tell you how thoroughly envious I am of your six weeks of vacation! To have the entire country be on holiday at the same time is phenomenal! I keep joking I'm going to move to Italy, but I think you've just talked me into Sweden instead.

    But, because I'm American, I don't have to worry about (worry?) blogging during the summer. But I am more than happy to give you a blog post or two to help you!

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Gini, The downside is the 120 days of snow we had on the ground this winter! And the fact that the sun and summer can last about 4-6 weeks. There’s a reason Ingmar Bergman films are the way they are. rnrnThis year I’ve got the point where I’m going “I’m opening an office in France/Italy in summer 2012.” Seriously. The dark can be so oppressive. But I know what you mean about US holidays. They’re not enough.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Gini, The downside is the 120 days of snow we had on the ground this winter! And the fact that the sun and summer can last about 4-6 weeks. There’s a reason Ingmar Bergman films are the way they are. rnrnThis year I’ve got the point where I’m going “I’m opening an office in France/Italy in summer 2012.” Seriously. The dark can be so oppressive. But I know what you mean about US holidays. They’re not enough.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Gini, The downside is the 120 days of snow we had on the ground this winter! And the fact that the sun and summer can last about 4-6 weeks. There’s a reason Ingmar Bergman films are the way they are. rnrnThis year I’ve got the point where I’m going “I’m opening an office in France/Italy in summer 2012.” Seriously. The dark can be so oppressive. But I know what you mean about US holidays. They’re not enough.

  • http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

    @Gini, The downside is the 120 days of snow we had on the ground this winter! And the fact that the sun and summer can last about 4-6 weeks. There's a reason Ingmar Bergman films are the way they are.

    This year I've got the point where I'm going “I'm opening an office in France/Italy in summer 2012.” Seriously. The dark can be so oppressive. But I know what you mean about US holidays. They're not enough.