To successfully market your brand online with social media, you must be consistent. Engaging, creative, relevant … yes, all of those, too … but above all else, being consistent is what will help you establish your online presence and help you effectively market your brand online.

So, you create an editorial calendar and start posting great content …

Then there’s an emergency. Maybe it’s a health crisis — you or a family member has to have surgery or has an extended illness. Maybe it’s a natural catastrophe — a flood, fire, or a tornado.

And suddenly, your carefully planned social media marketing campaign is derailed.

It happens to the best of us …

It happened to me recently when I had a hysterectomy. I have an editorial calendar. I know the topics that I’m going to write about to position myself as an expert and establish my authority on social media marketing and online engagement marketing.

I have ongoing social media clients for whom I create and schedule content several weeks to a month in advance. The same timeframe applies to my engagement marketing work with clients.

Unfortunately, that advance timeframe did NOT apply to my own social media marketing.

I had very little prepared in advance of my surgery. My doctors told me to expect at least a two-week recovery period. So I did even more client work in advance … I made sure their online marketing was not in any way affected by my own health-related downtime. But I didn’t do the same for myself.

I figured that I’d be able to do a little work while I was recovering. Enough to keep my own social media marketing efforts up and running.

I was wrong.

And, in fact, I had complications that extended that two-week recovery period into four weeks. That’s a long time to be silent when it comes to social media.

All because I hadn’t planned far enough into the future for my own marketing.

But it didn’t have to be this way …

It wouldn’t have happened if I had taken care of my own social media marketing like I had my clients’. I should have created and scheduled content for at least the predicted two weeks that I would be down. Even a few posts a week would have been better than the complete absence of any new content.

It all comes down to being properly prepared.

I’m prepared for life’s emergencies. I have emergency supplies and first aid kits in my home and in my car. But I didn’t have an emergency kit for my social media marketing.

Do you?

Preparing for an emergency …

I’m currently in the processing of preparing a social media marketing emergency kit. If you’re handling your own social media, and even if you outsource to a third-party expert, you should, too.

Here’s what I’m gathering together:

• Links to a few relevant articles that I can share
• Evergreen content that I can post anytime
• Inspiring or thought-provoking quotes
• Relevant photos or graphic images
• Random questions to ask my followers

And thanks to a friend’s suggestion, I’m going to store these emergency “supplies” in an app like Evernote (Google Docs is another option my friend suggested), where I can have mobile device accessibility, if necessary.

I didn’t have this kit put together at the time of my surgery. As a result, I had about three weeks of social media silence. Not good!

However, I intend to make this a valuable mistake … it has taught me the value of being prepared to ensure that my social media and engagement marketing doesn’t suffer during life’s emergencies. And I won’t make the same mistake again!

Did I say “mistake”?

I believe that mistakes are learning experiences in disguise. Consider this …

“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” - Theodore Roosevelt

“All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.” - Winston Churchill

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” - John Powell

What about you? Are you willing to learn from my mistake? I hope so!

Leave me a comment if you have other strategies for keeping your social media marketing going in the wake of a personal health emergency … or any type of emergency for that matter. I’m always happy to learn from you, too!

Until next time …

Michele Peterson, owner of Exactly Write, is a professional freelance wine copywriter and social media expert who is focused on helping businesses in the wine industry increase their online visibility, credibility and profitability. She is currently accepting new clients and helping them engage with their audience through social media networking and exceptional web content.

Visit www.WineCopywriter.com/Services for more information and to get started.