Sometimes pushy social partners can be too much!
Cross blogging is a wonderfully advantageous tool for small business owners. Not only is it free, but it keeps your blog diverse, and introduces your brand to new audiences. Even more advantageous is the mutual understanding of sharing each other’s articles and products on different social outlets. Just having someone you can count on to consistently give a shout out to your company is nice. It shows your audience that you’re popular in the community.
However, when you have over 10 social partnerships going at once, you’re bound to get some pushy partners in the mix. People who have a very specific idea of how the partnership should be approached, and tend to lash out when things don’t go according to plan.
Here’s how to handle troublesome social partners:
You don’t need to accept every proposition.
If it’s public knowledge that your blog accepts guest posts, you have the potential to get a crazy amount of article proposals in your inbox. Although you’re likely to get a lot of really great, well-thought-out articles that follow all of your blogging guidelines, you’re also going to get some pretty bad pieces of writing. I cannot emphasize enough: you do not have to accept every single submission. You don’t want poorly written articles on your blog and you don’t want to waste a large amount of time editing a piece that’s too far gone. You want your blog to be a reputable place for readers to gain information, and you don’t want to distribute your time to unnecessary extra work. It’s not your job to teach someone how to write.
Keep a separate folder.
If you’re like me, you get hundreds of emails a day. Keeping a separate email folder for social partners has proven to be very useful. Even if you don’t have time to read through emails as you get them, make a point to put them in the right place. That way, when you do have time to go back and tend to them later, you’re not digging through your emails trying to pick out your guest posters and social posters.
Set aside a certain time to deal with partners.
Personally, I like to set aside a chunk of time to deal solely with guest posters and social partners. Depending on your load, this could mean once a day or once a week. To edit and post as you go will only amount to you never getting any other work done. Unless it’s someone’s job to specifically edit your blog and interact with social partners, it’s just not feasible to take things as they come. Either begin or end your day with editing and posting, or designate one day a week to tackle everything head-on.
