By Cara Latham

Summer time and the living’s easy. For the most part, that is. While most of us take vacation to spend time with our families, head out to the beach, take a cross-country trip, or just get out of the office, there is one thing to remember – the Internet, specifically the creatures on it, are not taking a break.

Admit it. You’ve checked that BlackBerry, Droid, or iPhone a few times on your days off – a few times more than you (or your spouse) would like to admit. Even though my last post came at the end of July, I have used social media every day while this blog sat here collecting dust over the last three weeks.

But my lack of social media updating, my lack of connectivity, and most importantly, my lack of content, may have curtailed some of the progress I was making.

Exhibit A: my Twitter following. Expecting regular tweets on a daily basis and occasional links to social media and communication tips on my blog, my followers had been used to seeing my username in their news feeds. Because I took three weeks off, I lost about 40 of those followers. Without followers, how can you be a social media expert?

I’ve discussed the idea of consistency before: any business will only stay afloat if its employees are dedicated to that consistent online presence. So remember that while you are hitting the snooze button on your day off, your followers are logging in to check your content and finding nothing. Do yourself a favor and plan ahead. Schedule some content using tools like Hootsuite. Pre-write some blog entries and schedule them for a later publishing date. Just don’t ignore your blog and your readers.

Lessons learned. Now I can shamelessly turn it into a blog post here! Seriously, though, it is important. “Providing relevant, interesting and valuable content on a consistent basis is the foundation of an effective social campaign,” writes Robert M. Caruso on bundlepost.com, a site dedicated to social media management.

“Posting and sharing or retweeting content is at the core of what we do in social media and social media marketing,” he adds. “Whether it is something you wrote, photographed or video you shot, or similar content you post for your friends, followers and fans it matters. Posting consistent content on focused subjects can also positively affect your Klout topics and ultimately your score.”

To read his full entry on social media content, click here. I highly recommend checking out his entire blog. It has a bevy of good information.

While I won’t be able to blog as often as I’d like (I have started a new job – one that combines my social media and writing skills), I am not going to break that rule again. With that, I say, I’m back, and I cannot wait to re-connect with you, my readers!