A true marker of good content management is flexibility. As comforting as having a plan can be, content sometimes needs to be adjusted ‒ especially in a crisis. 

The benefit of digital communication is that you can make changes pretty easily. However, hitting the backspace key is a lot easier than having to ignore the feeling of a well-laid plan going by the wayside. It’s easy to get caught up in a great strategy or timeline, but living or dying by it isn’t always necessary and definitely isn’t always the best choice. 

Just because you’d like to stick to your predetermined blueprint of ideas doesn’t mean the rest of the world is going to stick to their usual way of perceiving them. Messages take on a different tone in uncertain or unusual circumstances, meaning your inability to adjust could jeopardize how your intended audience views you. It’s crucial to be flexible and modify your social media, blog and any other content plans to fit the context of the current events. 

Rethinking your content plans could mean keeping the core of your message and just changing its approach so that it is more in alignment with what people are experiencing. It could also mean a complete rework of the content. Additionally, changing your scheduled content doesn’t have to be the only option; you could also halt all blogs, social media posts, etc. until you have time to step back and decide how to best move forward. You could even cut your content down. For example, if you usually do four or five social posts a week, taking it down to one or two posts could strike the perfect balance of being available and being completely dark. 

If the reason for content redo is due to a far-reaching emergency or crisis situation, such as our current battle with COVID-19, your content should ultimately point to how you can help. Because the rest of the world is either facing difficult times themselves and consumers’ minds are flooded with thoughts ranging from affected loved ones to their own what-if’s ‒ your general branded content could fall flat or be completely ignored. So, why not rise to the occasion and reach out to help? Use your platform and your clean slate of would-be content to do good and create a network for others.

We all have to rearrange and rethink our lives lately ‒ there’s no reason your content plans shouldn’t follow suit.