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The holidays are here, the family is in town, and things are as hectic as ever. Given the craziness, it’s easy to let certain business tasks slip.
But one area that shouldn’t fall to the wayside is social media, which is one of your most important marketing channels this time of year. Luckily, there’s a bunch of stuff you can do on social media over the holidays that requires minimal effort.
Here are some holiday social media marketing tips for small businesses:
Get your channels in the holiday spirit.
This may seem like an obvious one, but a simple, quick, and free way to get your followers’ attention is to update your avatars and header photos across social channels.
A new, festive photo can attract eyeballs in your followers’ timelines, putting your business at the top of their minds. This is also a great place to promote a limited or holiday-specific product or service.
Share, share, share (and schedule).
Facebook and Twitter both allow you to schedule content in advance. There are also free platforms that offer similar services, giving you the ability to schedule posts a week or even a month ahead of time. Making sure you have a constant stream of social content helps you grow your online presence and keeps your business on people’s radar.
Fill your channels with exclusive offers, coupons, giveaways, and news. And say it with pictures and video. Eighty-seven percent of all Facebook Page interactions happen on posts that contain photos. Something to keep in mind: Your social channels and content are discoverable on search engines, but if you have a stagnant account, they’re harder to find.
Talk to your customers.
Social media is a place to connect and engage with your customers directly. Listen to conversations, insert your business where it makes sense, monitor mentions of your company, and be ready to help, assist or comment.
Social media is also a crucial customer service channel. In fact, one-third of social media users would rather reach out to a brand on social media for customer service. People are pleasantly surprised to know that there is an actual person listening to their questions, comments, and concerns on social media.
Promote content for best results.
The top brands on Facebook see less than a two-percent reach (due to Facebook’s algorithm, which is how the platform decides what to show to you in News Feed). So, for example, a Page with 10,000 fans only reaches 200 of them, on average, per post. If your Page has fewer followers than that, you may end up reaching fewer than 100 people, which can be frustrating and make your efforts seem pretty meaningless.
To help increase the number of people you reach, consider putting aside a small budget to boost highly targeted Facebook ads. For a relatively small price, you can reach thousands of people in and around your local area, showing them special offers that will drive them to your business.
You can target ads by ZIP code, language, gender, marital status, and many other filters. So, if you’re a local toy store that wants to promote a visit from Santa, you can target parents within a certain radius, delivering a Facebook post announcing the event.
(Square Marketing integrates with Facebook so you can post content, boost it, and track the results from your campaign dashboard. Learn more.)
Keep at it.
Abandoned social channels are a public graveyard of an old, neglected idea. It makes your business look out of touch, which is a definite turn off to potential customers. So when you enter the social media fray, imagine you’ve built a relationship with your digital customers. Keep your followers up to date on what you’re doing, provide value, and be there for them. Check out Square on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We provide a ton of information for our sellers and love to feature them and their businesses.
Do you have holiday social media tips that have worked for your business? Share it with us on Twitter.
