Manage Social Media around your hectic holiday schedule

Novak Christmas

Your business is missing out on influencing customers, prospects, peers and thought leaders if you haven’t been leveraging the power of social media platforms – Twitter has 500 million users, with more than active 215 million users, Facebook has reached over 1.19 billion users, and well, the statistics for LinkedIn, YouTube, video sites and bookmarking sites, are staggering, which means there is someone out there that doesn’t know they need you yet. What is holding you up from getting on the Twitter chain, or Facebook ? I know how time consuming it is to manage your own business, your client work, and day to day maintenance of living out your life. Believe me, I’m a small business owner, and there are days I do some things real good, and days where I am getting that cornered claustrophobic feeling that I’m losing control and don’t know where to begin to even catch up.

But when I reach that mental state, I take a step back and list out the things I need to do for myself and my business. I then prioritize my list and decide what is manageable for the day, week, and month. Scheduling my work-outs, weekly client reporting, weekly housekeeping (billing/invoice), on-going education with MarketingProfs, Clickz, and OMI, as well as my ongoing social media activities has given me a sense of control and relief. I have also hired a seasoned and experienced social media coordinator to help me manage the day to day social media monitoring under my guidance and direction, this has allowed me freedom to pursue opportunities that grow my business and enhance my relationships. This system works in that I can manage my business and personal life.

So getting back to the sense of overwhelm you might be feeling around social media and managing it during the hectic holiday season, I’d like to offer you some tips and ideas to free you up during the last few weeks of the year:

1. Use the Hootsuite scheduler tool, and repurpose past content (change up the headlines) to feed into your Twitter, G+, and LinkedIn Company page until the end of December.

2. If you know what you will be doing the last two weeks of December, I recommend that you use the Hootsuite scheduler tool to post greetings, photos, status updates, and ReTweets or post real time using your mobile phone while you are in the middle of the fun!

2a. Use ViralTag to schedule and post photos into specific Pinterest boards!

2b. Use Bufferapp to schedule different pieces of content from various resources into your Linkedin Company Page, G+ Biz page, Facebook Page, and Twitter between now and end of December.

3. Give yourself permission to unplug and let everyone know (using the Hootsuite scheduler) that you are off the grid!

4. Hire a social media consultant to manage and maintain your social media presence during the last two weeks of December.

People understand that you have a life – we know that it takes time to plan and manage a household, shop and cook meals while entertaining guests or relatives – I believe it is important to be fully present and not concerned about about social media.

I’m in Colorado until the end of December. Because of my system, I feel a sense of relief that I can step away from social media for the whole day and focus on my in-laws, sister-in-law and my new niece; we have been having a ball shopping, dining, catching up on much needed sleep and connecting at a deep level.

Your Social Media presence will survive, enter 2014 with a clean slate, fresh perspective, and a new plan for your life and business!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish success, prosperity, abundance in your personal and professional life!