When November rolls around, your calendar has filled up, and your to-do list is getting longer than you can manage, social media can feel like the very last thing that you want to do.
But it’s important to show up online this time of year if you want people to come to your business and engage with you during the holidays.
When people are shopping for things online, they are checking social media for when businesses are open and to see what their recent products are. If a business isn’t active, they just move on.
You don’t want to disappear completely during a time when people are actively looking for what you offer, so what do you do if you don’t have time for another thing on your to-do list?
You go back to the bare minimum!
Aim for One Post a Week on Two Platforms at Most
If you can’t manage a full posting schedule because things are just too busy, then go to the bare minimum of posting once a week on your two most popular platforms. Stick with the ones where people are the most engaged or the ones you hear people found you through most often.
Stick to What People Actually Need To Know
If you only have time for one post a week, stick with what people really need to know, things like: Are you open during the holidays? Do you have special hours? Are you offering gift certificates? Do customers need to order before a certain date? Are you participating in Christmas markets? Are you accepting bookings for December and January?
Think of the things that people need to know this month and focus on posting around that information.
When you’re on a bare minimum plan, you’re not worried about creating interesting content and entertaining people. All you’re worried about is getting the right information into the right hands.
Sometimes people just need to know that you’re open until 7 p.m. on a Thursday or that December 10 is the last day to place an order.
Stories Are Your Best Friend When You’re Busy
Even when you’re too busy to create a post from scratch, or even to look back at your existing posts and see what you can re-share, there’s usually something on your phone that you can use on your stories immediately.
Go through your camera roll and see what you can put up as a story so that you’re showing up at the top of people’s feeds even when you’re not busy online.
Behind-the-scenes content is some of the most favoured content on any platform, so make a point to share what’s going on behind the scenes for your business at least once a week using your stories.
Share Other Businesses’ Content
In many cases, you can actually share other businesses’ posts to remain active online and share relevant information at the same time!
Look at what’s happening with your local associations or the businesses around you and see if they have anything that you can cross-post to your own platforms. Think of the businesses around you who serve a similar audience but offer something different.
For example, maybe you’re a bakery and there’s a coffee shop around the corner. Those two things go together well, so if that coffee shop is active online, you can cross-post their content to bring people to the general area and remind them that coffee and baked goods go perfectly together.
For retailers, you could cross-post other businesses local to you and invite people to make a day of it and get all of their Christmas presents bought in one place.
You Have Two Resources: Time or Money
Whenever I’m working with students and clients, I remind them that they have two resources when it comes to marketing their business on social media: time and money.
If you have more time than money, you can create your own content, engage with your audience, reach out to partners and build relationships.
But if you’re already working 10-hour days and trying to keep up with holiday orders, you might not have time to do all that yourself.
During the holidays, that doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a full-time social media manager for your business. Sometimes you can work with consultants like me to create a few weeks of content, review what you’re currently doing or develop a simple plan so that you’re not constantly wondering what to post.
I work with businesses in different ways depending on what they actually need, but for some, that means taking on their social media management so that they can focus on running their business during the height of Q4.
Many business owners don’t even know that short-term social media management exists, so if you know that you don’t have time to cover your social media this busy season and need an extra hand, I’d love to chat.