For some businesses, the holidays are seen as the perfect time of year to share some fun content on social media and be a little more lighthearted. For others, however, it’s a time of year where their audience is tuned out and coming up with fun content is tricky—especially if you have stubborn employees. Likewise, with so many people taking off for the holidays, getting your publishing schedule nailed down isn’t always an easy task, and at the same time, you don’t want to be guilty of over-sharing!
As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions that come up about social media during the holidays, and to help you make the most of your holiday posts, here are some tips to keep in mind when scheduling your holiday social media.
Let’s face it: holiday themed posts usually go over pretty well with any audience, which gives businesses incentive to share some festive posts around the holidays. That being said, the posts that are doing great are usually ones that have a “real” feeling to them, like sharing a local news story about a holiday charity your business donates to, or pictures that feature your employees at the office Christmas party or the finalists of your ugly sweater contest. These are the interesting, fun, and real moments people want to see and hear about. On the other hand, anyone can grab some generic holiday clipart and post that with a “Merry Christmas” message. If that’s the only thing you can think of doing, it might get you a couple of likes, but know that you don’t have to post anything if you don’t think it’s necessary. People aren’t going to judge your business by taking a little holiday break from social media, but they will judge you for sharing cheesy holiday posts.
Keeping with the theme of taking a break, make sure you avoid posting a bunch of business-y, sales-y content on Christmas Eve or Christmas, and we’ll go as far as saying the day after Christmas! It’s the last thing most people have on their mind, and seeing that during family bonding and vacation time is off-putting. You won’t get a lot of clicks, and might even rub some people the wrong way. If you do want to post something, keep it simple like a basic “Happy Holidays" greeting from your employees, or ease them back into the post-holiday work week with some lighter content.
With people trying to be more politically correct these days, the issue of whether to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” is a hot topic of discussion. And while it’s certainly up to personal preference, I’d recommend cautioning on the side that avoids stepping on the most toes, and “Happy Holidays” is clearly the more non-offending choice. It will save you having to apologize for offending or excluding anyone, and the message is still the same.
While I kind of touched on this in point #1, your employees can be very helpful when it comes to creating social media content—especially around the holidays. Encourage them to wear Santa beards to work and take some pictures. Get everyone together for a Holiday photo. You can even convince them to do one of the latest video trends. Whatever it is, your fans will enjoy the fun, and appreciate the effort behind it.
If you've never scheduled your social media posts ahead of time, the holidays are the perfect time to start. With a lot of people out of the office, scheduling ahead of time might be the only way to ensure everything gets posted when it's supposed to, and it saves you the headaches of having to worry about social media while on vacation. Better yet, you can use free tools like HootSuite without having to pay a dime, or if use HubSpot, the social publishing tool is very easy to learn and use. Either way, having your posts written and ready to publish automatically is the easiest way to get ahead and stay on top of your social media—during the holidays or otherwise!
Hopefully these pointers provided some helpful advice, and at worst, a friendly reminder to be extra thoughtful when sharing your holiday-themed social media content. If you aren't sure about whether to share something or not, it's always safer to err on the side of the caution. Otherwise, good luck posting and happy holidays!
Topics: Social Media
