Social Media Strategy During the Silly Season

There are many areas you can focus on when it comes to marketing strategy, but for the sake of this blog post I’m sticking to what I know: Social Media.

You already know social media is a great way to engage with your current and potential customers. It helps to spread awareness about your services, and creates brand loyalty among customers by reinforcing what makes your business unique.

During the silly season however, social media can be the first thing that goes quiet as you get swept up in the Christmas rush. We understand! We have some tips for staying ahead this holiday season, and making some extra cash while you’re at it.

Social media advertising

Christmas is a great time to run some social media advertising. There’s a huge uptake in spending over the silly season and you want to make sure YOUR business is top of mind when customers are thinking about where to spend their money! As you’re probably already fully booked, it’s a good idea to run ads for things that are not bookable services across this period.

It’s a great time to advertise products, gift vouchers, and special New Year offers. Facebook and Instagram offer some highly targeted advertising opportunities, allowing you to use your existing customer base as an audience, or target those who live near to your salon. The best part is you can spend an hour or two creating a few ads to run across the entire month. Just set and forget!

Run a Facebook competition

People love winning things, especially at Christmas time! Run a competition over the silly season to keep your business top of mind when people are shopping for gifts. What may look like a simple competition to win a gift voucher, will double as a timely reminder that your business offers such items.

Decide on a time frame, take an hour or two to write your posts, and then take advantage of Facebook’s built-in scheduling function. Your posts will go live like magic while you’re busy running your business. Set yourself a reminder to draw a winner, and you’re done!

Bonus points if you can find a spare 10 minutes a day to engage with and reply to your competition entrants!

Exclusive retail offers

Christmas is a great time to use your social media platforms to provide bonus value to your customers. Reward your loyal clients by offering them a deal or promotion that is only advertised via social media. Since it’s your busiest time, make it a retail promotion or an offer to use in the New Year! By knowing that these offers are exclusive, clients will want to follow your page more closely, and will likely tell their friends when they score a special deal. Keep your business top of mind for gift buyers and boost your December retail sales!

Short on time?

Intrigued by these ideas but don’t have the time to implement them? Don’t worry, Buffer is here to help. Buffer is a simple scheduling tool you can use to load up all your social media posts for a week (or longer) to set and forget! This service is especially helpful if you run more than just a one Facebook or Instagram account. You can sync all your social media outlets at once.

Set aside an hour or two before the silly season begins to create your account, and load up posts about your Christmas hours, products for sale, and any special offers. This takes the task off your to do list for a while and allows you more time to focus on your business!

Last but certainly not least, show your clients you appreciate them by scheduling a happy holiday message for Christmas morning to all your fans (and again for January 1st)!

We’ve made getting organised easy! Download our free social media planner.