When the weather turns cold and people find themselves inside more it’s a great opportunity to put those cozy, hot chocolate drinking web surfers to work! What do I mean: the cold – especially very harsh and snowy days that come out of no where, like last week in Boulder – gets people on their computers. They chat, watch videos, share and read; they get on Facebook, they tweet, and scroll through all the content they missed from earlier in the week. Essentially, snow makes for a lazy day attitude and this is a great, if not best time for businesses to push some unscheduled content into your, and across their social media platforms.

Understanding that weather is a factor in upping web traffic is a great potential to realize and capitalize on. I can attest: content last Tuesday and Wednesday, the days that the Flat Irons got heavy snow, were three-times more engaged with than the rest of the week’s content on the platforms I manage. On those days, noticing that traffic was up compared to normal, I began posting nonscheduled and creative content throughout the day. I could see that users where there and I fed them content: event promotions, tips, links, and fun things to make them engage.

As the weather drops, be sure to keep an eye on your analytics to see if people have been browsing your websites! (photo by / Gavin B. Griffin)

When the users are there take advantage before they sign off. Creating a community around you or your brand takes engaging users when they want to be engaged, and forcing content into people’s streams is never a bad thing, but it’s always better when they are looking for things to fill up their time with the internet! The same goes for rain, or too hot of a day; weather is the driving force behind people being inside or outside, and your company can benefit. All in all, what is the best way to take advantage of the weatherman’s update: make sure you check the weekly weather and have an action plan for those days that it takes a turn for the worst, and driving people onto their couches.

Here are 3 easy-to-implement tips for creating a weather-relevant piece of content for your users:

1. If it’s snowing, jive off that vibe and mold your content into feeling warm, staying inside, or even just a question like: “What are you doing on this cold day?”
2. Visuals are always the best way to grab a reader’s attention and make sure they are relevant. Don’t make the picture of a summer day when the weather outside is below freezing.
3. Offer the reader something that goes beyond your brand promotion and give them a fun piece to engage with: a recipe, a craft project, or a good place to spend the snowy afternoons.

Gavin B. Griffin Director of Business Bloggers