The holidays present unique challenges for social media management. Image by Chokola.
For those businesses who want to maintain and self-manage a really solid social media presence, the holidays can pose some unique challenges… Of course you want to be reminding your customers about your awesome products and/or services, but you also want to take a vacation and spend time with your family, right?
Here’s where scheduling systems and notifications come into play.
You can use a system like Hootsuite, Cotweet or SproutSocial to set a week’s worth of messages (or really as many as you want) that go out automatically on the days that you have designated.
Then, if you have an iPhone (and you really should have an iPhone if you’re self managing your business’s social media), set your Facebook and Twitter notifications so that if someone comments on your Facebook wall or post or @messages you on Twitter, you receive an automatic update to your phone that you can then respond to on the spot. This eliminates having to constantly check or monitor your pages and saves LOTS of time.
Of course, you can use these “set it and forget it” tips outside of the holiday season, but be careful of scheduling too far in advance, as certain content can become irrelevant and sound like stock updates.
And always remember that the most important part of your social media presence is your ability to quickly respond to your customers online and provide answers, resources and appreciation!