You’ve probably got a lot going on over Christmas, both in business and at home. While it’s a great time to grow your social media presence, and drive traffic to your business, it can also be very stressful. You may even want to take some time off. How can you make sure your social media pages continue to grow and run effectively over the festive period?

Preparation

First things first: make things festive. Change your images, headers and branding. Only slight changes are needed to fill your pages with festive cheer; a bit of tinsel and a Santa hat go a long way. The next thing you need to decide is what you’re calling it. Do you want to stick to Christmas, or perhaps refer to it as ‘the Holidays’? If you cater to a global audience, ‘Holidays’ is more all-encompassing. Whichever you decide, stick to it.

Fun

It’s Christmas; a time to have some fun. Post some tips and gift guides, something a bit different to grab peoples’ interest. Keep your pages relevant to the time of year and you could see a growth in followers, sales and engagement. Put a countdown to Christmas on your pages. Host competitions and giveaways, get into the festive spirit.

Take Some Time Off

I’m sure you’d love to take some time off, certainly Christmas day, if not more. Do it! Your business and your social media pages will all still be there when you come back. Just be sure to let customers know what your plans are and when things will be back to normal.

Fortunately, from a social media point of view, there are great scheduling apps available. Plan it right, and you’ll be able to take some time off, have a great Christmas and return to well-run social media accounts. Some of the best scheduling apps include:

• Buffer
• Hootsuite
• IFTTT
• SocialOomph

When you schedule posts, be sure to monitor them. Even if it’s just quick checks to make sure everything is going out as it should and to check and reply to comments. Scheduling tools are useful and will save you time, but they won’t do all the work for you.

Special Christmas Day Message

Either schedule or personally post a message on Christmas day. Thank everyone for their support over the year, wish them a very Merry Christmas, and leave a contact email. Small gestures like this mean a lot to people; so don’t overlook it assuming no one will see. They might.

Reply to Holiday Wishes

Any personal comments you get over the holiday period, make it a priority to reply to them. Again, this is a nice personal touch that will inspire trust and loyalty. Customer service is more important than ever, when others might be too busy to have time for it.

Whether you’re working, or having time off, be sure to plan it wisely. Organisation is going to be your key to success. Keep your customers up to date. Make sure you’ve got a great plan for the New Year, as well as some fresh, exciting images to replace the Christmas ones you’ll need to remove in January. Happy Holidays!