With Black Friday and Cyber Monday over and less than a month left until Christmas, the last days to get those extra holiday sales for your shop are starting to dwindle. Your business may be swamped at the moment, but that doesn’t mean your social media presence should take the backseat.

Here are 10 easy posts you can make to connect with your customers this season:

1. Use Stories to feature your products

Stories are popular and perform well across both Instagram and Facebook. They don’t take a lot of preparation or require a full video team to produce. Stories are something you can easily fit into your day, even around your crazy holiday schedule!

If you own a product-based business, just grab the products you want to showcase, your phone, hit record and post!

Stories are great to launch a new product, advertise a sale, or offer a discount on your services to the followers that are already engaging with you and your brand!

Don't forget to add a call to action (CTA) at the end. This would be something along the lines of:

• "visit the link in our bio!"

• "tap for more info!"

• “click the link”

2. Help out all those last-minute shoppers

We’ve all been there. You think you’re done with holiday shopping and remember at the last minute that you’ve forgotten a person (or several, if we’re being honest.)

Help our last-minute shoppers by offering curbside pickup or local delivery. Or, at the very least, advertise that they can order ahead and have you set items aside for shoppers to pick up at their convenience.

These additional ways to shop can help your business make additional online sales even after the Canada Post deadlines have passed, so make sure your followers know about them.

3. Support a local charity or social enterprise

Do you have a favourite local charity or organization that you support yearly? Show them some love on social media this holiday season and make your followers all warm and cozy with a good cause.

Consider offering a special sales day that you will donate $1 of every sale to your charity of choice.

4. Let your customers know what your holiday hours are

Are you open late for the holidays? Do you have special hours? When do you actually close before Christmas?

Your customers will be checking social media for store hours and having a pinned post to let them know what times you’ll be open and closed will make their day easier and possibly encourage them to follow you as the quickest way to get information about your shop.

5. Run a holiday contest or giveaway

It's not too late to have that online contest and gain extra followers! Local examples are Sheridan Ingalls and Dashboard Living who just finished doing the 12 giveaways of Christmas!

Having a contest or giveaway is a great way to engage your followers with a chance to win some exclusive products or services before the holidays. Make sure you are following the rules for contests, which I broke down in this article on holding holiday contests.

6. Hold a flash sale via your stories

Stories are a great place to advertise a flash sale, since they only last 24 hours. It’s short and sweet—an easy way to hold a quick sale before the holidays! It doesn’t require printing posters, a radio commercial etc.

Let your followers know about your deal and what the details are!

7. Use the social media countdown option

If you celebrate Christmas, start a countdown on your social media feeds! You could reveal something new each day or count down until holiday vacation.

Make countdowns for a new product launch, an exclusive one-day sale, your festive video and more!

8. Do a holiday reel

Give your regular reels a little extra holiday cheer. You can use your reels for gift guides, top products or services, feature testimonials and more.

There are lots of trending sounds to take advantage of around the holidays!

9. Ask your followers a question

Ask your audience some questions about Christmas or about your industry, about their holiday plans or what they’re most excited about.

10. Share a holiday gift guide

Gift guides are a great resource for your followers on social media. It’s a great way to showcase your products and to show them multiple products from your business without pushing a specific sale for them! You can list items in $$$ amounts. (Examples Gifts under $10, Gifts under $25, Gifts for Males, Gifts for Kids etc.)

Whether that means creating a gift guide full of your business' products, compiling all your favourite products from other local businesses, or even teaming up with small businesses in your area to create a shop local guide—be sure to share your gift guide on your social media feeds!

Engage, engage, engage!

Last but not least, just make sure that you are being active on your feeds and that you are engaging with your followers. Make sure to post a holiday message (or several) on your social media feeds throughout the last month of the year!

Still feeling like you’re struggling to post regularly and with intention? Check out my Social Media Content Planner if you’re a business person who likes to go it alone—or let’s book a brainstorming session before the holidays!