If you haven’t started it’s time to get started on your holiday marketing ideas! This is your 2021 Social Media Holiday Marketing Guide and More.
What should you post on social media during the Christmas Season?
What do you do on social media for the holidays?
How do you get people spending that hard-earned Christmas bonus cash on your business?
Every business wants in on the trillion-dollar industry, and to get a piece of the pie in the crowded digital space.
When Should You Start Marketing?
Although many businesses get people thinking about Christmas products starting on November 1st, the base of your brand awareness and marketing should really start in the fall or earlier. This way you can use that audience to re target again in November and December. In fact, some consumers are already searching for “Christmas Gift Ideas” in August thanks to Google Trends. Due to shortages resulting from the pandemic 2021 Holiday Shoppers have started much earlier according to a study by McKinsey & Company . Over 40% of the respondents said they expect to shop and spend earlier than they did in 2020 because they anticipate shortages, longer shipping times, and unexpected supply-chain challenges related to COVID-19
So really it turns out you should have already started. If you haven’t already started it’s ok! Make the best of it and use your focus on getting started on your digital strategy now so you still have a chance. (If you stay till the end we will give you an easy to follow accelerated strategy for one week)
Hint: If your ordering customized Christmas cards, mugs, stationary etc with your logo order it now! You want to give yourself plenty of time to prepare them and have them ready for December, not to mention the delays in supplies we are having worldwide!
Featured Partnership – Jingle Jangle & Black Owned Everything
Jingle Jangle is a 2020 American Christmas musical fantasy film which streams on Netflix. They have partnered with Black Owned Everything to compile a list of our favorite Black owned brands and creators, curated by Zerina Akers.
It is more than a marketplace, it is a community You can browse through gifts, books activities and more in the Jangles and Things Shop.
This is just one example of why partnerships, even with small businesses are great! For those businesses who partner with companies that have the same target market are able to have a much further reach than if they only marketed to their audience. One example is a social media contest. This could be done by using a loop giveaway on Instagram. Each business adds a product to the pot to make the winning prize even more desirable. Typically followers need to follow each account, like the posts, and tag another account below.
Make Seasonal Products a Priority
Don’t expect consumers to assume you have a special holiday promo. Therefore, all your social headers, reels, videos, website galleries, and accounts should have your festive products front and center for people to see AND of course buy. If you are running ads ensure that they link to specifically designed landing pages that you are featuring this holiday and are easy to make purchases on. That means a landing page that is not cluttered and easy to ready purchase buttons. If you are a service-based business have an easy form for booking an appointment or making a call.
Start creating paid advertisements around those products as well. Carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram are great for featuring multiple products. If you have a Facebook Pixel set up you can target those audiences who have previously visited your site or purchased products with your holiday ad. You can also run re targeting ads on Google.
Here is a great example from Annie Cushing the founder of Annielytics of how re-marketing is fabulous for consumers:
” A couple of years ago, I left a couple of key gifts in the cart on one website but checked them off as bought.
The next day, I had a re-targeting ad letting me know I left two items in the cart.
If you are a product-based business it is also highly recommended that you promote gift ideas either as standalone products or in themed collections. Do the work for the consumer and setup a desirable purchase to make it easy for them to find just what they need for that special person.
If you are a local shop you may also want to consider using Location-based or proximity marketing to lure shoppers into your store that is nearby. I recommend a Facebook or Instagram ad for this method.
Share Some Sweetness
Everyone’s gushes for a sweet story around the holidays. With people (Well we like to think most people ha!) in the giving spirit, a sweet story is just the cherry on top to get them opening their wallets. There are so many stories about sharing and giving out there that you can share to bring warmth, comfort, and the true spirit of the holidays. Or maybe make your own movement of spreading love and kindness to others.
Hobby Lobby® 2019
Hallmarks – “Heal a Lonely Heart” from 2018
This video from Bouygues Telecom highlights how technology keeps families together throughout the holidays.
Beautiful videos from EDEKA that touch us in “all the feels”
2017
Run a Giveaway.
More than likely you have heard of the “12 days of Christmas giveaway” and many other holiday contests. That’s because they really do work! Contests and giveaways can attract a large new following quickly and bring you visibility fast. In fact more than 63% of Facebook users say they are likely to share a link to a holiday contest or giveaway.
One thing to keep in mind if you are not into attracting followers just for fun (duuuh…who isn’t) is to offer your own product or services as the prize. This way you are only attracting those that are interested in winning something from you instead of a cash prize, getaway etc.
It is important to make sure the prize and the time frame of the contest is stated in the description. Also, remember to add the rules of the contest clearly and include a privacy policy if necessary. You may want to consider using a tool such as Wishpond, if you are running a contest on Facebook which makes it easier to collect data and choose a winner.
Photo Competition
A great platform to start on is Instagram where users can post their photos to a unique hashtag. For example, a home decor shop might hold a photo contest for the best decorated Christmas tree in order to win a Christmas decor package. All users post their photos on Instagram and tag the business and include the unique hashtag.
Some businesses choose to do the 12 days of Christmas giveaway, a spin-off of the traditional story. By giving away an item for 12 days in a row the engagement is massive and repeated every day. As more users turn to online shopping and methods the giveaways are great for people who are staying at home to take part in a fun Christmas activity.
LL Bean did 12 days of puppies in 2018 and how could you not adore this contest!
Add Holiday Into Your Branding.
Tweaking your branding and products for the holidays to give it a holiday feel is a great way to stand out. There is no one obviously more famous for this than Starbucks. I mean as soon as it comes out everyone talks about Starbucks new holiday mugs….and of course drinks.
Let’s take a look at the mugs over the past 20 years
What you can do for your business is to adjust your social media headers and pieces of your in-store branding to give it some holiday flair.
Charity Posts
Charity is very important during the holiday season and shows your businesses part in either supporting a local charity or sharing their story. We should not just focus on products and spending but lend a helping hand. If you cannot help out the cause, sharing their stories on social media and promoting their charity is still a great way to spread the message. You may even want to start your own holiday charity or a giving campaign to get others involved. Examples include donating a portion of sales to a local charity or make your business a donation hub for items in need in the community.
The Body Shop & Ending Female Homelessness
Helpful Videos and Advice
Many people are overloaded during this season and could just use some help from you. This is a great way to add value to your content and expose your brand at the same time. You can create a short and simple Tiktok video or reel to give thema short piece of advice. If you want to make a longer-form video upload it to your IGTV, YouTube or Facebook Page and share a micro clip in your stories.
LEGO actually crated a Chatbox last year to help customers with their gift choices:
Ralph the Chatbox asks users for their budget, who they are buying the gift for, and gives them a free shipping code.
Hobby Lobby Has a Special Gift Wrapping Video for the holidays:
Create a Themed Holiday Photo Collage
Featuring an array of products that could serve your ideal customer helps them to learn about your line of products as well as how to pair them. For example, create an image of the perfect gift set or holiday outfit.
Holiday Tiktoks and Reels
Important Holiday Dates To Remember
November 11 – Remembrance Day – Show gratitude and thanks to those who served in the war.
November 25 – American Thanksgiving – US holiday to show gratitude (Changes annually, always the 4th Thursday in November)
November 26 – Black Friday – The largest shopping sale of the year in the US where huge sales are offered (Changes annually, always the Friday after Thanksgiving)
November 27 – Small Business Saturday – US day to promote shopping at small businesses (Changes annually, always the Saturday after Thanksgiving)
November 28 – Hanukkah Beings, and will run until nightfall on December 8.
November 29 – Cyber Monday– Online stores offer sales in the US. (Changes annually, always the Monday after Thanksgiving)
November 30 – Giving Tuesday – An American holiday to promote donating & volunteering to charitable causes (Changes annually, always the Tuesday after Thanksgiving)
December 21 – First Day of Winter– Also the shortest day of the year
December 24 – Christmas Eve – Usually characterized by night before Christmas Day
December 25 – Christmas Day– Global Christian holiday to commemorate the birth of Jesus, also a universal holiday for gift-giving both in the US and Canada.
December 26 – Boxing Day (Canada) – Huge sales are offered both in stores and online.
December 31 –New Year’s Eve – Celebrate the last day of the year and look back at your entire year and plan ahead.
January 1 – New Year’s Day – The first day of the new year.
Remember when I told you I had a little surprise for you at the end? For those businesses in a pinch, it’s OK I got you covered!
Here is what you can do in the next 7 days to accelerate your marketing for Christmas.
Create a Last Minute Christmas Strategy For Social Media in a Week
Day 1 – Choose Your Products, Ideas, and Budget
Sit down and brain dump all the ideas that you have for holiday promotions in your business and narrow it down to a few items. This is where you will decide if you are doing a giveaway as well. Once you choose your promotion or feature items then you will outline your campaign headlines, videos, blog post topics, and website content depending on your budget.
Day 2 – Photos/Videos
Take photos or mini video clips for your website, online ads, social media, and blog posts AND make the edits. Shoot video content for reels/Tiktoks.
Day 3 – Graphics
Use the edited photos and videos to make content for social media content, social media headers, emails, and for your blog post. I recommend using Canva.
Day 4 – Content
Add a new page to your website or push notifications for the holiday campaign. Also record videos today if stated as part of your strategy on Day 1. (We are not talking super polished videos here, an iPhone video of yourself talking about the business is just fine at this point.) You will also write out blog posts for the holidays and on the videos you created. (Holiday tips, holiday news, etc.)
Day 5 – Schedule Content
Schedule all your content today so it is published accordingly. You will want to research and plan and schedule out all social media posts and blog posts. This includes images, videos, links, and anything else you want to send throughout the holidays.
Day 6 – Write Emails
Create Email Campaigns (Add all blog posts and images into email campaigns with links to your landing pages.)
Day 7 – Make Contact and Network
Now that your promotions are established and all your content is published or scheduled for future dates, use this day to make contact with other local businesses and partners. If you are running a specific giveaway geared towards charity ensure you contact local news outlets. If you have a giveaway that other businesses would be interested in letting them know. Also, consider partnering up with other organizations to cross-promote products and services. Let the world know what you have to offer so be anything but silent going forward.
Need Some Templates and Tools to help you along with all of this?
And that’s a wrap! Phewf, thanks for sticking around, and hope this helps you with your business. For more information about your digital marketing strategy please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Do You Really Need To Focus on Your Social Media Numbers?
Its a struggle that many business owners deal with….I need to get more likes, I need more followers. But really you don’t need to worry about it! One of the biggest concerns from my clients I find they ask how they can I get more likes on my page, something that is typically considered a vanity metric. Or how come I only have this many likes on my page?
Stop looking at your social media numbers…..saaay what?! Yes, I said the numbers really don’t mean much. Certain numbers that is.
But isn’t that the whole point of social media, to grow a large following?
Yes building up your numbers online helps, however, it should not be your biggest focus. What we are talking about is vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are numbers that you can measure but don’t necessarily matter. For example, it could be how many likes you got on your latest post. Basically they make you” feel good” and hype up your ego but are “bad for action.” If a bunch of non buyers are liking your posts, it’s just not going to translate into money. Sort of like having fancy clothes and wallets, but no money in the bank.
Building a community that collaborates and engages with you and eventually buys from you is key. 100 out of 200 engaged followers is much better than only 5 out of 1000 engaging with your content.
The Money Is In The Message
I saw some great content from Sterling Griffin…..By the way if you haven’t check out Sterling Griffin you definitly should! His energy is fantastic and he has built a huge business in a short amount of time.
Here is one of the takeaways:
Likes. DO NOT = Leads
Comments DO NOT = Cash
Messages DO = Money.
Create great content and messages and more than likely it will attract the buyers that you want.
Yes it is great to have engagement, but its even better to have sales and in business that means cash. So yes we do have to talk money. As much as we all love to talk about how we want to have a business for fulfillment, we also need a business to make a living. It’s ok to talk about money sometimes.
The money is in the message. What does this mean though?
If I provide a piece of content to a business that only reaches a small audience, but provides a 20% conversion rate when it comes to sales…boom! That is way better than brining in thousounds of likes, and a big ol goose egg or even something like a 2% conversion rate. The fact is if they are liking your content but aren’t buying, its really doesn’t matter how many followers you have.
Page Likes and Followers Don’t Always Mean Sales. Provide messages to those who want to buy from you and not for the entire world. Niche down and focus on that small market and your conversions will likely skyrocket.
Lets first figure out your marketing goals. Why did you setup a social media page? Are you looking to sell a specific services, build brand awareness or increase visits to your local shop?
The end goal that you want to work on will predict the type of content. For example, if you are looking to get buyers to visit your shop videos centered around your location. If you have the goal to get repeat customers of a service product informative videos that provide value will determine your expert value.
Metrics That Matter
The goal is to track metrics that lead customers into sales and increase your revenue stream. These are called actionable metrics.
Here are a few metrics to consider looking at just if you want to focus on your revenue stream:
Conversion Rate – Not hard to undestand why conversions such as email inquiries, click to calls and clicks to sales pages are important. These are people that are taking action to learn more about your products or services.
Repeat Pageviews – Visitor retention is a great way to know if you are bringing back quality leads to your website or blog who are interested in your content. If you are currently running paid ads consider using retargeting ads to continue to push them into your sales funnel.
Content Shares – Behind every share is 100’s of people who have viewed your content. When someone shares your content it means that they believe it is valuable for their audience as well. It also signifies an increase in organic traffic as they trickle it out to their audience. I mean who doesn’t love free traffic 🙂
Engagment Rates Per Post – The percentage of people who are seeing the post are actually doing something with your content. This could be clicking on your links, or sharing and liking your content.
For Facebook your engagement rate is going to be calculated by (People Talking About This / Total Facebook Page Likes) x 100 = Engagement Rate %
For Instagram you engagment rate formula looks like this: (Engagements / Total Reach) x 100 = Engagement Rate
Twitter engagement rates are calculated for you in the “Analytics” Dashboard. You can access Twitter analytics by clicking on your profile image in the upper right hand corner. In the drop down menu, select ‘Analytics.’ and display on the right hand side of the screen under “Engagement Rate.”
Purchaes on Social Media – If you have a shop setup on your Facebook or Instagram Page, ensure that you are tracking how many monthly sales from each platform in comparison to reach.
Writing a great social media management proposal is necessary to lock in a great client and a continued working relationship. A great proposal can also land you clients that may launch you into a new level of revenue so that you can grow your business even further. Presenting a great proposal is your first step.
Here are 5 factors to increase your client base by sending out winning social media proposals:
Include an “About Me” Section
Before you even think about stated terms of service or what you want to charge, let the reader know who they are dealing with. You cannot expect a client to know everything from only a phone call. Details about your background you may not have discussed or they may need a refresher if they have been talking with various companies. Ensure to include a short section that includes names, company, title, education, experience, and stand out points when it comes to your skills.
Credibility – Why Chose Your Company?
More than likely you are not the only company pitching your services, so make it simple and easy for your potential clients to understand why they should choose you over someone else. You could include testimonials, past client projects, or references. Also, your own words of dedication and expertise are great reinforcement as to why you are desirable to work with.
Deliverables – When Will They See The Work?
Once you lay out the services that you will offer and the prices that go with them (I did not touch on your services and prices that you are offering – but yes by now you should know this is part of the proposal too!) you should include the timeline of your deliverables. If you already discussed a specific launch date or project timeline ensure that these dates reflect these. Also, include any other requests or details in your service and deliverables that you previously discussed with them.
Remember you do not need to get highly technical in the proposal – this part will come further in the reports shall you start to work together, however you do want to address what will be done when it will be done and the problem it will be solving. Addressing their pain points would be their largest concern.
Accuracy
The final step to ensuring your proposal is ready to be sent off is accuracy. Check it over and have someone else from your team or a trusted friend or family member ready it over for any mistakes. This includes grammar and spelling as well as your numbers. Your total amount should reflect your services. This may seem obvious but always double-check as you may switch out a price last minute or be working from a previous template.
The small details matter when it comes to a proposal and that is why double and triple checks are important at this stage. If you have been working already with a client for a few months make a spelling error on one of their headlines this is of course embarrassing. However, the relationship is likely established making a mistake more forgivable if previous work has been quality. If you send a proposal, the potential client has not seen any work you have done for them besides this proposal, so make the best of this opportunity!
Call To Action
Your potential clients should NEVER, I repeat NEVER sit to wonder what the next step is! Clearly state both in your email message and in your proposal document what they need to do to get in contact with you, or you will be following up with them in a specific time range. You can either propose a phone call or meeting after the contract has been read or include a place for a signature to lock in the proposal details.
Would you like a proposal template that is already done for you with full examples and prices?
Check out the Social Biz Bundle – The proposal is just one of the five templates that you will receive in this fabulous bundle.
As the shift has grown in the past five years from optional to mandatory for businesses to be on social media if they want to reach their audience, there is a new market that has opened up. That market is the social media and online marketing space. A social media management business can be run from virtually anywhere. There are more and more remote workers becoming social media managers and earning a great living as well. What is great about this business is that it is very cost effective to get started and it is more than likely you already have a lot of the tools to get started. In fact like most online businesses, we are in an age that it is easier than every to create our own success from our .
Let’s take a look at what it used to be like to start a business? A media or a PR company used to require thousands of dollars in technology and physical office space. The ease of started a digital business in today’s world has created opportunities to
Don’t get carried away though, like any business hard work and dedication are still required to build even digital business.
Here is what you will need when starting a social media management business:
You can expect the following costs:
Business License
Depending on your state or provinces law a business license from your city will be required to provide services to other businesses. You can purchase a home based business license.
Estimated Cost – $50
Domain
Once you have defined your business name you can search if your domain is available for purchase. If you are struggling to come up with a business name you can always buy the domain that matches with your name. In fact creating a brand around your name has proven to be successful for many and allows people to remember who you are.
You can purchase your domain through a range of hosting companies such as SiteGround or GoDaddy.
Estimated Cost – $9-19 per year
Website
Once you have your domain you will need to get a website. Don’t feel overwhelmed. You do not need a ton of infomration on your website to start – Home Page, About, Service and Contact will be the main information that you will start with. First you will need to host your website somewhere in the online space. I recommend building your website through WordPress, just because of the wide use of capabilities of the program, blogging features and more. You can also purchase the hosting of the website through the same platforms that you purchase your domain such as SiteGround and GoDaddy and typically by purchasing a hosting package the domain comes free!
Estimated Cost – $3.95-$10.95 a month
Head Shots
Ideally a professional shoot for a few great head shots that features you in the photo, friendly and professional photo will make your website stand out and attract clients. Can’t afford a professional photographer? Get a friend to help you take some quality photos against a neutral background from your smartphone.
Estimated Cost – free- $400
SmartPhone
Ok this might sound a bit surreal but I am just going to put this here. There are certain applications such as Instagram and SnapChat that you can only access from your phone when it comes to posting and editing.
This sounds a little strange right now typing this….but if you do not have a cell phone, your going to need one!
Estimated Cost – $40-$100 per month
LapTop
When it comes to social media management, the dream of managing your entire business on your phone just isn’t going to happen. There are analytics, reporting duties, and scheduling that you will definitely want to do from your computer just to make your life easier and create quality results for your cleints. It is also likely that you already have a laptop. If you do not have a laptop, a basic model will be more than sufficient to get started as a social media . Most of the applications that I login to are cloud based and do not require specialized hardware from my computer.
Estimated Cost – $300+
Now lets take a look at the initial startup cost of the business all together:
Once valuation that has not been take into consideration is time. However, what successful entrepreneur hasn’t given in time to make their business happen? Umm if you need help with this one the answer is….zero.
As far as financial commitment, if you have a phone and a laptop already you are looking at $500 or less to kick your business into gear.
So when it comes to that hard earned dough, why not skip the takeout meals, a couple spa days or the designer clothing tags. Were not talking years of savings, investments from family or potential investors….its all you baby!
Here are some additional tools that can be very useful for your business, but starting out we will start by considering them optional.
Invoicing
Invoicing is critical to get paid and there are many tools out there to get the job done.
Free Option
Google Sheets – You can create an invoice for free and manually track all expenses.
Paid Options
A couple of tools that are great are Freshbooks & Invoice2Go are two tools that will definitely make your life easier when it comes to managing your cash flow and getting paid on time. They also offer expense managment, time tracking etc.
Freshbooks starts by giving you a free 30 day trial and there on the cost is $15 per month for 5 clients and $25 for 50 clients and more added features and their premium accounts goes for $50 a month for 500 clients.
Invoice2Go will cost you $27 per years for 50 invoices and 5 clients or $139 per year for unlimited invoice and up to 50 clients and they offer a free 14 day trial.
Auto Schedulers
Free Options
Buffer and Hootsuite have free options for individual accounts.
Facebook has a scheduling tool that allows you to schedule within the platform.
Tweetdeck is great for scheduling Twitter posts.
Planoly for Instagram – free option for 1 user and 1 Instagram account. (Visualize your Instagram Grid before you post)
Sprout Social – Free 30 day trial, and starts at $99 per month. This platform does have some premium features such as social content calendars and advanced analytics.
Microphone
If you plan to do Facebook Live, YouTube, or any other video content an external microphone is going to make . A Lapel Microphone that attaches to your short is both affordable and effectively connects to your smartphone.
Estimated Cost – $20-100
Lighting
Want that nice glow on your skin and perfectly lit room when doing video? Maybe you want to spruce up your social media and blog images with a nice background light, then a lighting device is so important. Especially since you can find specialized devices for smart phones and social media on like the Socialite on Amazon.
Estimated Cost – $100-$200
Camera
A professional camera will bring your social media images to the next level and allow you to stand out from custom stock images. In addition to great images for your pages, you can also add these photography services to your social media service packages if you have the right skills.
Estimated Cost – $400+
Keep in mind, not all of these add ons are necessary for your business, they are just very beneficial as your grow. The time has never been easier than the present to kick a business into gear.
So your scheduling for a prominent business client and send a “Good Morning” message out at 11pm!
Yikes….
What just happened? What is my audience thinking?
There are ways to avoid these situations and we are gonna talk about them.
Also, another fabulous thing about social media management is that you can work with clients across the globe, however managing the clock is important so that you know you are posting to the correct time zone.
Here are a few tips to managing social across time zones:
Have a Visual Of Your Timezones
By having the timezones that you typically work with in your desktop screen or on your world app then you can take a quick glance before you post and throughout your workday to consider what time it is in other cities that you have business related posts. Another great tool that you can use is World Time Buddy.
Keep track of each country’s daylight savings period and public holidays
Not everyone adjusts their clocks accordingly or has the same public holidays so if your client is in another time zone or another country this should be documented in their calendar and in your reminders as well.
Boomerang
Boomerang is a great email app that allows you to schedule emails to come through at scheduled times. This works great if you have a client who may be in another time zone when your are writing your daily emails and this way you can schedule them to come through first thing in the morning for them using your world clock. For me, starting out as a social manager and raising kids I found myself working a lot of evenings and although ideal for me, it is not the best time to send emails, so scheduling them the night before to come through the next morning is ideal.
Get To Know The Schedule
Having worked with a client before in Australia and with various freelancers doing part time work for me on Upwork I have learned to schedule my time accordingly. I have a contractor on Upwork who I rely on for many tasks and she is located in the Philippines so I know that my Sunday evening is her Monday morning when she is looking for new tasks for the week. If I hadn’t already submitted the correct information I ensure that I jump on and check my email at this time after dinner just to see if she has any questions. The same goes for social media scheduling. With it being a new business day in Aus its good to check in and engage on those accounts. H however at the end of the week when it comes to business communication you are typically off the hook by Thursday night since the next day is already the weekend when you are working that far away.
Understanding Each Platforms Scheduling Tools
When scheduling in each platform do you know if you are scheduling for your time or your target audiences time? For example, when you schedule a Facebook post it will go by the time zone that you are currently in. When I schedule for another time zone I adjust it so that it will work for that time zone or I found the best way is change my clock on my computer at that time to make it easier for me to manage. This way an easy change of the time on the computer and then I can schedule an entire week of content easily without having to convert the time for each post.
Geo Targeting, also known as Post Gating allows you to limit who sees your Facebook posts. You can do this under each platform or there are tools like Post Planner that make it much easier to post gate each of your posts.
For example, when posting a status you can actually choose to target your post to only be seen to those in Canada or France. You can also target the post to English speaking or Spanish speaking folks. Therefore, the non targeted audience will never see your posts.
To setup Geo Targeting on your Facebook account you will need to go into your Settings >>> General >>> Audience Optimization For Posts and chose the “Allow preferred audience settings.” Now when you go back onto your Facebook page to post an update you will notice by the checkin button there is a small “targeting” button – click on it.
You can now choose your audience restrictions age, gender, location or language. In this case by choosing a location that has generally the same time zone you can avoid another part of your audience seeing a “good morning” post if it is already afternoon their time. This leads into what I am talking about next…
What if your audience is in various time zones?
One option is to use Geo Targeting as stated above by scheduling a few posts for each segment of your audience.
One rule of thumb when posting for those audiences in North America is to focus on time zones in the the central and east. If you audiences is nation wide than one thing to consider is that 50% of the US population is in the Eastern Time zone and around 30 in the central time zone (which is only one hour earlier) so appealing to that time range accounts for 80% of the nation. Here in Canada, Central accounts for our large range so targeting that sector would be important.
I would factor this in mainly for your morning and evening posts. For example the highest activity on Facebook tends to be from 7pm-9pm so when scheduling an evening post even at 7:30pm central time you are at 8:30pm eastern time. If the post is scheduled for 7:30pm Pacific time it is likely the Eastern Sea Board might be heading off to bed or getting close by the time you post at 10:30 so the audience you reach will be a lot lower. I would also consider the same factor for morning posts ensuring that you hit that 7am-9am crowd. For example, 8am Pacific time when your audience is likely to be awake will also hit the 12pm Eastern time crowd.
Scheduling social media content is a great way to save time and money and can really pay off when done in the right way!
Remember though that you can’t work 24/7! Although someone might be awake in Australia as you lay down your head, you just need to set boundaries for yourself sometimes.
When we think of audit we think our wonderful taxes, but of course were not in that biz, this is much more fun! One of the most important things that you can do is create an audit for all your new social media clients.
What is a social media audit?
A social media audit gives you the current status of all your social accounts and the data that come with it. As for the same with any area of your business it is important to know if your time and investments are paying off and getting you results.
Why do you need to perform a social media audit?
Lets say that your clients social accounts had only 100 twitter followers, no Facebook page and maybe a decent following on Instagram of 1000 people. Knowing where you started with them and where you end up six months down the road, not only let you show the client the excellent accomplishments you have achieved them, it is also a great learning tool for your business.
Here is What Your Social Media Audit Should Include:
All their current social media accounts with URLs, including total followers, following, current reach and engagement levels and amount of times posting per day to each platform.
How relevant are they on search engines. When you search for a social account on Google does it show up and what is the latest content associated with that link?
Who is currently accessing the accounts, posting and engaging.
What are the current tools that the business is using for social media, if any. For example they may be using Hootsuite to schedule posts or Feedly for content creation.
What are the current streams of communication for customer service on their social media channels? Do they have multiple people answering questions or is one single person in charge of customer service? Is anyone answering requests at all or how long is the anticipated wait time?
Congrats you made it through one of the first steps with you client! Taking the time to complete a thorough audit worth the investment and shows accountability on your part as well. Once your social media audit is complete, you can start your social media content plan and establish procedures going forward.
Hey there I’m Annelise. I am a digital guru and lover of all things social! I work with businesses and other social managers to create strategies that convert online. I also provide resources and templates for those who want guidance with their marketing strategy. At the end of the day I am passionate about connecting with more than just accounts – but people!
By having the timezones that you typically work with in your desktop screen or on your world app then you can take a quick glance before you post and throughout your workday to consider what time it is in other cities that you have business related posts. Another great tool that you can use is 
