How to give your Small Business a summer break
Social media experts everywhere have one piece of advice we all agree on—you need to be active on social media. You need to post on a regular basis. But once the summer rolls around and the urge to close your laptop and hit the beach for the afternoon hits, what does that mean for your business?
As much as I believe that we need to be active and we need to keep our followers and customers aware of what’s happening in our businesses, I also believe that it’s very important to take a break to fully rest and recharge, knowing our businesses won’t fall apart.
So to make the most of summer, here’s how you can plan your social media around your summer vacation.
Set an away message
Set an away message for your phone, email and social media. Let your clients know when you are working and what is an acceptable timeline to hear from you.
Not taking any new clients until September? Have that information on your email, phone message, website and post it on social media randomly.
Have new services that you want to pitch and fill for the fall? Set the automation now and have it filling up the programs/services for you while you take a break.
Starting a membership group, launching a course or webinar? Sell it now and continue selling it this summer. Set the ball rolling and let the work do itself.
Plan, Plan, Plan!
What work needs to be done this summer? What programs need to be promoted? Do you normally do a bi-weekly blog/newsletter like we do at KA Social Media? Pre-write/work as much as possible and schedule them for the dates you want them to go out!
Even though your blog/newsletter goes out every 2nd week it doesn’t mean you need to be working those specific weeks. Write down everything that needs to be done and divide it into daily/weekly tasks that can give you some time off.
Pre-Schedule Content
I’ve mentioned before how much I love scheduling content when it comes to taking time off from your business.
Look at the calendar and write down specific events, services, holidays, and promotions that you want to talk about on your social media this summer. Once you have set the topics, write the content, find the pictures and schedule it!
Scheduling tools will be your best friend for this to work! My favourites are Buffer, Co-schedule and Business Suite directly on Facebook. You can read about how to schedule here.
Planning to actually step away from your social media? Tell your fans and post an occasional picture of you enjoying the sunshine and let them know when they should expect you to be back!
Hire someone short-term!
Is there still so much to do that you really have no idea how you will do it and get to enjoy the summer? Hire a part-time student, employee or VA. Set your priorities and figure out what you can take off your plate that someone else can do.
Once you figure out what you need to have done for you—invoices, inbox management, social media—find the right person for the job and step away knowing things are handled.
Share your time off
You built your business for a reason, so make sure you share about it.
Checking your email at the cottage? Snap a picture. Planning on taking every Friday off for the summer? Make it a brand story and share with your audience.
Creating content around your time off is an easy way to cut back the amount of work in your content calendar planning.
Unplug if you can for your vacation
After the past few years we’ve had, you probably need an honest-to-goodness break. While there are some parts of your business that you might have to touch on during your vacation, your social media doesn’t have to be one of them.
By planning effectively and using the scheduling techniques we’ve talked about on this blog before, this is one task you can fully take a break from with enough pre-planning.
Want to make planning even easier? Download my 50 free content ideas worksheet and get planning!
