As the holidays come racing towards us, everyone’s task lists expand exponentially. For many small business owners, the holidays carve out a crucial time for sales and exposure. A holiday overhaul of your social media strategy definitely isn’t necessary, but a few tweaks help keep momentum moving forward — without adding too much stress to a busy time of year.
Identify your goals
By this time of year, your goals for your brand or business likely feel automatic. We aren’t suggesting you make any major changes to them over the next month or so. What you can do is take five or ten minutes to brainstorm something you’d like to focus on over the holiday season. You might want to drive additional traffic to your site, particularly posts promoting seasonal specials or holiday content. Increasing engagement might foster a feeling of community you can take with you into the new year. Some small business owners increase local events during the holidays, and it might make a lot of sense to boost your Facebook posts to draw attention to those.
Be realistic about your time
One of the things that stresses people out the most during the holidays is the feeling that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the necessary things. When you’re brainstorming about how you can adjust your social strategy for the season, be honest with yourself about how much time you have to devote to any additional tasks. Don’t try to do “12 Days of Gift Guides” or design a special holiday product if you only have an extra fifteen minutes a day.
If you do stumble across an idea that seems perfect, but much too time consuming, table it until next year. Make a note in your long-term planning calendar to begin your fabulous idea sometime near the beginning of fall, when you’re not juggling gift buying, holiday get-togethers, and the general stress of running your own business at the end of the year. Remember, there’s value in pacing yourself when building a high quality, sustainable brand.
Keep social media fun
An engaged community of people who care about your brand is of the perks of building a strong social media presence all year long. Believe me, you’re not the only one stressed out during the holidays! Give your social media community a safe space to escape some of their own worries during this time. You know the tone of your followers best, so keep that in mind as you create content designed to increase engagement over the next month or so.
Share your holiday wishes and ask your followers to share theirs. An altruistic alternative to this would be to ask people to share how their family stays focused on gratitude during a chaotic time of year.
Poke good natured fun at the stress of the season. For example, create a fill in the blank post like, “Instead of coal in (fill in name)’s stocking, I’d like to give them (fill in a silly alternative).” Be sure to answer your own post, so your followers know they should be naughty or nice in their responses.
Host a photo contest on Instagram (or another platform, if you prefer!) Create a unique hashtag and ask people to snap and share their related photos. There could be a legitimate prize at the end or simple bragging rights. It’s all about giving people the chance to take a little break and share something they love (or love to hate, like “messiest wrapping paper station”)!
Use your photo outtakes to offer a glimpse into another, authentic aspect of your brand. Let your followers caption a photo that didn’t exactly work out and let them laugh with you as you remember some moments that might have seemed not-so-funny when they happened.
Stick with your tried-and-true strategies
If you begin to brainstorm, then look at your schedule and realize you are stretched as thin as humanly possible, stay the social media course through the holidays. Keep creating content in accordance with your social media calendar and overall brand strategy. The important thing is not to go completely dark during the holidays. You want your followers to stay engaged and remember the value your brand offers. After all, before we blink, the holidays will be done for the year, and we’ll all be headed into 2020 for a new year filled with potential.
Have you adjusted your social media content due to the holidays?
If you’d like to increase your social media presence during the holidays, Take Flight can help. (We promise. It’s not too late!) Contact us for more information about short and long term social media strategies.