If you’re anything like me you are spending most days at the moment with all the work/family/kids calendars spread out all over the lounge floor, calendarising childcare for the Summer Holidays….
From texting the childminder/Grandparents/hubby/friends to see which dates they can do to sorting settling in sessions at the new nursery, I’m sitting down most nights calculating if the cost of childcare for both of them is justified or if I should just ‘fit it in at weekends and int he evenings?!’… not to mention trying to work out dates for 1 to 1s with my clients… and do what I love!
So as a busy business owner, how do you manage your social media on top of all of that over the Summer?
Be realistic
The last thing I want is for anyone to be going to bed fretting that they haven’t done their Instagram post that day!
You’re probably posting 1 or 2 times a day to Instagram - so in the Summer period bring the volume of content down and make life easier.
Make the decision now to bring this down to for example, 4/5 times a week and make peace with that now … rather than going into self sabotage mode of ‘I usually post more and I’m not managing to do that so I’m rubbish’ blah blah
Keep your audience in mind
The Summer is generally quiet on social for the majority of businesses in terms of sales and enquiries so I’m giving you persmission not to go easy on yourself!
If you target parents for example it will be even quieter - think about where they are on social and when as this might change in the holidays - e.g. your ideal customer might spend more time browsing and planning on Pinterest and Insta while they’re off work.
Think about the content they are searching for or want to see - what’s useful to them in this period - adjust your messaging accordingly.
Or they might come off social media compete for a break themselves …. There’s no point you stressing about continuing to put out regular content if your audience are off on their hollybubs anyway!
Put 1 or 2 days aside NOW to get ahead
Take a day or 2 now before July hits and spend it planning and scheduling in your content for July and August.
A great place to start is with your blog/newsletter - diarise when you want these to launch and work backwards to block out time to create them … or do it now so you don’t have to sweat it in the middle of juggling everything else.
Use the topics in these blogs/newsletters and squeeze everything youn can out of them so you’re not spending hours of time creating new content (this is a good general rule) - how can you repurpose them in different ways e.g. create several pins to head to different Pinterest boards, create an Instazine of your newsletter/blog & simply pull out quotes to use as tiles on your grid.
Ask for Help
If you need a short term fix while you switch off from work and enjoy your well-earned holiday or you want to focus on caring for your children over the school holidays then a great solution is to outsource.
Finding a professional Social Media Manager or VA to manage your community while you’re away and ensure your customer service remains optimal, create content to save your time or write a few blogs to keep you going for rich content will be an absolute weight off your mind!
Don’t bother!
And then again you could just make the conscious choice now to be with your children or enjoy your holiday over this period and have a break - go on you deserve it!
No, your business will not collapse overnight.
In fact, Maxine from Digital Bon Bons recently did an Insta post on just this and said that after 1 whole month of no social media actitivity it made absolutely no negative impact on her business - which was a revelation to me!
Get ahead for September
If your client work/ customer orders tend to go quieter over the Summer then spend the time taking some space and considering what you want to have achieved in your business by December (trust me it’s not that far away!)
For example I’ve just invested in a Promoted Pins course so I can advise clients on Pinterest Advertising from September so I’ll be spending evenings when I usually work, instead upskilling to be ready for action !
Do you need to upskill in over the Summer?
Join my Summer School of Social!
I’m running online (day/evening) and face to face 1 to 1s throughout the summer to train you in Facebook Advertising, Instagram, Insta Stories & Pinterest - so say Hello today to Book your Slot.