Managing Your Social Media over the School Holidays
Social Media Management Schedule
With the School holidays upon us, it is that time of the year when many of us parents running small businesses need to close down for a few weeks, or run at minimal capacity, while we try and juggle keeping the kids entertained and aim to enjoy some of the holidays with family and friends.
However, there is no “break” with our on-line activity, social media is always ‘on’ it is 24/7, 365 days a year. Even though you and your employees are on holidays; your customers and online audience don’t stop checking their social media accounts. In fact, it has been proven that during holiday periods they will check it more as they have more free time. So, it’s crucial that you remain active online throughout these periods.
Here’s a few tips to help you manage your Social Media presence over the holidays:
Share Social Activity Celebrate – If you are out and about with the family, make the most of this activity and personalise your brand by take a few happy snaps of you enjoying yourself and share it with your online followers. If there is a way to link it to your business – that is great, but showing some of yourself is very important to keep it real on your page.
Plan Ahead
Research – give yourself enough time before you go on leave to research relevant content that will benefit your brand, your audience or your business.
Schedule Posts – However often you post, tweet etc, you should maintain this frequency whilst away. Schedule this number of posts at the same day and time you usually post.
Involve Audience – Post questions or run survey questions to encourage your followers to contribute and keep the activity alive on your pages. You can monitor this without needing to be creating the content to post regularly.
Customers First
Notifications – If you have limited availability to log onto your social networks, then you need to set up ‘notifications’ on your phone. Then, whenever you get a comment, like, share, follow, tweet, private message etc., you are notified immediately and you can respond if necessary.
Auto Responders – If you can’t be in regular contact, ensure that your customers have been advised of this. Change facebook settings so people can’t post to your pages, or send messages that go unanswered for days. Set up auto responders where possible explaining limited response over holiday period and clearly state when you will return to work or who they can contact.
Outsource
If you truly want to take a complete break, then consider outsourcing your social media while you are away. This could be as simple as making an employee an Admin of your account or taking on a contractor/social media manager.
Over the holiday periods it’s important to always remember your brand voice and business objectives so that you maximise engagement, sales, and brand awareness throughout this period.
Remember, these general rules for managing your social media during the holidays can be adapted to fit any length of break.
How will you be managing your social networking over the holiday period? If you need Social Media management support, we are here to help at Your Business Helper – contact us now enquiry@yourbusinesshelper.com.au
Julie Warner