I wrote our first ActiveRain post back in 2010. Since then, I've added over 4,000 more. A lot of those early ones were written with blogging training wheels, they didn't accomplish much! Maybe too close to a rant, no reason for a consumer to reach out to us, not a lot (if any) eye candy. There was still a LOT left to learn about blogging effectively!
So that brings to mind a question, should we purge old posts that no longer serve a purpose?
I can provide a rationale for leaving any posts that have a direct real estate tie-in: market reports, new listings, open houses, sold, etc. FAQ question style posts continue to serve their purpose too. Even if they're old, they at least provide breadcrumbs that tie you to your local real estate market.
But there are other posts that have long passed their expiration dates or for other reasons could easily be justified for removal. My experience has been that consumers find blog posts and don't read the date of the post and don't realize that blog posts are often like newspaper articles, accurate at time of writing, but subject to losing currency.
Should we keep posts:
Promoting small businesses that are no longer in business?
Even if real estate related that bring you undesired calls (there's a reason I don't write about sheriff's sales any longer).
Where the comment thread was hijacked?
Specific to ActiveRain of the past, and not the ActiveRain of today? How to posts can go out of date.
You have several options:
Delete the posts
Move the posts to Draft.
Leave 'em.
If you're worried about losing points, don't worry. If I'm remembering correctly, the scoring algorithm doesn't keep going back in history to see if scoring events are still there. If you've passed 6 months, moving a post to draft or deleting a post will not hurt your point totals.
Cleaning up your blog posts isn't necessarily a high priority task. A little here, a little there is probably the best approach vs. going all in for a massive review.
Of course, a better return on your time is writing NEW posts that reach your target audience.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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