Holiday season is upon us, but as a small business owner it can be difficult to switch off and enjoy it. A common worry is how to effectively maintain a presence on social media while you’re away. But this doesn’t need to be a headache. With a little preparation before you fly, you can guarantee a peaceful, social media free trip! Here are a few simple tips on how to keep your socials active while you’re on holiday.
Pre-plan your content and create a posting schedule
If your current social media strategy is ad-hoc, with content that’s usually conceived, created and posted all on the same day, you may not be aware of the benefits of a posting schedule. While the spontaneous method might suit your average week, you don’t want to be thinking about what you’re going to post while sunning yourself on a beautiful beach.
Already having a posting schedule, or content calendar, in place can make planning content for your trip away a much easier task. If you don’t, then start simple: consider how many times you want to post per week, and how many weeks you’re away. Now you know how many ideas you’ll need to come up with before you go. Remember to be realistic about how much content you typically generate, and how often you should be posting.
The timing of your posts can help with visibility and engagement, so this is something to consider when planning. If you haven’t yet learnt the best times to post, Meta has a feature that can help with Facebook and Instagram. For other platforms, consider when you think your audience is most likely to be active: perhaps on the morning commute, during lunchtimes, or after work. Consider whether some days are more popular for social media than others.
How to schedule your social media content
Most social media platforms have in-built features to allow you to plan your social media posts in advance – the perfect solution for your trip away.
Instagram and Facebook posts can be easily scheduled via the Planner in Meta Business Suite. Simply scroll to the day you want and click ‘Schedule’; this gives you the option to schedule posts, stories and reels. Meta will then show you recommendations for when your followers are most active on or around this day, so that you can tailor your Facebook and Instagram timings to suit. Pick a time, add your text and media, and you’re all set!
LinkedIn is similarly intuitive. Navigate to your businesses page, click ‘Create’, write your content and add any media, and then click the clock icon next to ‘Post’. This allows you to set the date and time for the current post, as well as review all scheduled posts so far. Here you can make any amendments to your other scheduled content.
When creating a post in Pinterest, there’s a slider that allows you to ‘Publish at a later date’, after which you can choose the date and time you want to post. TikTok, however, is more restrictive. Currently, you need the desktop version to schedule videos, and you’re limited to ten days in advance, which isn’t ideal if you’re planning a long holiday.
Tell your audience you’re going away: Auto-messaging and announcements
Everyone’s entitled to a break, and your audience won’t begrudge you taking some time off. However, you don’t want to leave them in the dark.
An alternative approach, if you don’t have time to create or plan content in advance, is to make your audience aware that you’ll be inactive. Let them know that you’ll be away, confirm your return date, and reassure them that any enquiries will be handled when you’re back. A post or story can help manage expectations.
Similarly, some platforms like Facebook and Instagram let you arrange automatic replies to inbox messages, so you can set a response letting anyone who contacts you know that you’ll be back on a certain date, and they’ll receive an answer then. In Meta Business Suite, navigate to ‘Inbox’, then ‘Automated responses’, then edit the ‘Instant reply’ feature with something suitable.
Some other things to remember when managing your social media while on holiday:
- Make sure not to post anything controversial that could explode while you’re away. You don’t want to return to the fallout.
- If you have time, it may also be worthwhile checking in occasionally to monitor and respond to any engagement on your posts. But only if you feel the need – it can always wait until you’re back.
Don’t let social media stress ruin your lovely holiday! Planning your content in advance and scheduling your posts means that you can go and enjoy your well-deserved break and not have to think twice about content creation.
If you think help with social media planning could benefit your business, get in touch to speak to a member of our team. We would love to help.