How To Crawl out of the Grave After Ghosting Your Social Media Before the Holidays
Did your social media get a little quiet over the summer?
I feel like I'm in the same boat. I always start the summer thinking this is the year I'll find time to batch-post content so my business stays super visible all summer long.
But then summer actually happens, with vacations, camps, family commitments, and beautiful weather to enjoy. One missed post can turn into a full week, and then a week turns into a month. Suddenly you're looking at the calendar, realizing October is around the corner, and you haven't posted nearly regularly enough to keep your algorithm active and your social media platforms engaged.
You've officially ghosted your social media.
Since we're heading into spooky season, I want to talk about how to dig your way out of the social media grave and bring your accounts back to life before the holiday season hits.
The first rule of ghosting is: don't point out that you ghosted 👻
Coming back online after ghosting your social media presence can feel really awkward. You might think that as soon as you start posting again, people will point out that you have been gone for months, but the reality is they likely haven't noticed.
We tend to think people are paying way closer attention to our social media accounts than they actually are, so while you're sitting there thinking, 'oh my ghoul, I haven't posted since July. What are people going to think?', your audience has just been busy living their own lives.
So the first step to returning from the grave is to not retract your obituary publicly.
You don't need to apologize to your followers, explain where you've been, or create some sort of elaborate comeback post. You can just start posting again, and after you've been consistent for a while, you will start showing up in your followers' feeds again.
So instead of feeling awkward about getting back online, come up with something fun to post so returning feels more fun than awkward, and the people who do notice your return will just be grateful you're back.
Go easy on the newts in the witch's brew ☠️
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make after an unplanned break from social media is trying to make up for lost time by adding too much to the mix.
When you want to work your magic with the algorithm, it’s easy to default to overloading the feed with posts to make up for it. I see people do it allllll the time.
They start throwing everything they have into the cauldron: they post every day, they make five reels, show up on stories every morning, start posting on LinkedIn again, maybe even throw in a newsletter, and by Thursday they're exhausted and it all bubbles over into frustration.
You don't need to make up for posts you didn't create this summer. That time is past, and it's OK.
Focus on planning one really good post and add in a couple of stories; that's enough to light the flame under the cauldron so that you can get brewing again.
It's time to get back on the broomstick🧹
When my clients have been absent from social media and I want to get back into the swing of things, I recommend that they go back to basics before picking up their broomstick and trying to fly off into the night.
The key to showing up on social media is consistency, and that starts with your profiles. Before you get too far into creating new content, take a few minutes to check whether any of your information needs updating.
Are your hours posted correctly, and do they need updating for the fall?
Is your website linked properly, and have you tested that it's up and running?
Does your bio still explain what you do and what you offer?
Have your products, services, or contact information changed?
This becomes especially important as we fly toward the holiday season because people will start researching where to shop, what to buy, where to eat, what events to attend, and which businesses they want to support well ahead of the end of spooky season.
Dig yourself out of the grave one shovel at a time 🪦
When you return to social media after an unplanned absence, focus on consistency.
The best way to dig yourself out of the grave is one small task at a time instead of trying to call in a backhoe and do it all at once
And to avoid ghosting your online presence in the future, try to use this time to plan a routine you can actually commit to
Then take a look at your camera roll.
What do you already have that you can start posting? Keep it simple and talk about what's happening in your business right now, or give a quick update on what you were up to behind the scenes this summer.
You likely already have your first post already on your camera roll.
Other posts that make a good return to social media are:
Posts about what you're working on right now; it could be a photo of your desk or a photo dump of everything you've been up to recently related to your business
What your customers are asking. Check your emails, text messages, and social media messages for questions that came up over the summer, and answer them in a post.
Is there a service you can talk about? Think about how long it's been since you've talked directly about your services, and take this opportunity to share a post about them.
You don't need to announce ‘I'm back!’ You can just show up and share something useful, interesting, or personal so people can reconnect with you.
Don’t Re-write the whole Grimoire
The best part about coming back online after an extended absence is how much of your content you can reuse from before you went offline.
It's likely been so long since anyone has seen your previously posted content that you don't need to invent a whole new spell book; you can reuse what worked best before to make returning to social media even easier.
So take a look at your camera roll, your Canva projects, old social media posts, customer reviews, and blogs to see what worked well. There are probably some really good ideas, so you can work your magic again.
This is Halloween. This is Halloween.
If November and December are important months for your business, now is the time to start thinking about your holiday marketing.
I KNOW it's upsetting to try to get into the holiday spirit before Halloween has passed, but one of the biggest mistakes businesses make is waiting until they're personally ready to think about the holidays before they start marketing for them.
Your customers may be planning much earlier than you are, and they generally need to see your message more than once, so 1 post on December 10th won't reach most of the people who want to buy from you.
Ghosting your social media doesn't mean you're doomed to haunt it forever
I hear over and over again from my students and clients that they are convinced they have ruined their social media presence because they disappeared for a while.
But life happens; people get busy, priorities change, and sometimes social media falls to the bottom of the list, especially during the summer. It's one of the main reasons that people hire social media consultants like me.
The worst that you can do is stay quiet for ANOTHER month or two because you're embarrassed that you've already been quiet for so long.
It's completely normal to feel awkward coming back online, but before long it won't feel nearly as goulash to sit down and post.
If you're not sure how to get back online, I highly recommend you join my newsletter, The Social Media Minute. Each week, I cover tips and tricks for using social media for your business, plus an exclusive tactic for newsletter subscribers that will help you start posting online in minutes.