Is that the sound of a Champagne cork popping? As we rush to enjoy the festive cheer and embrace the downtime this time of year affords, it’s worth remembering that our customers are still active on social media and possibly interacting with your brand. For many industries, such as the tourism and hospitality sectors, this is the busiest time of year, and taking a break from social media is equal to leaving your phones unmanned. So how do we manage customer expectations on social media over the holidays?
Make it easy and take Mastermind’s Top 5 Tips: Managing Social Media over the holidays
1) Manage customer expectations
Take advantage of the real estate in your brand’s social media profiles to spell out which days and times your account will be monitored and provide an alternative mechanism for customers to make contact if needed. At the least, respond to customers to let them know when you’ll be back on deck to respond to issues comprehensively.
It may be that you divide the task of monitoring social media among your team to share the workload. This will ensure there’s always someone keeping an eye on comments to escalate issues if they need to be addressed quickly.
2) Plan and schedule content
One of the evolutions in social media platforms over the past year has been the proliferation of management tools. Take advantage of these tools to help you schedule your content in advance. No need to cancel plans to attend the Boxing Day test match, or hit the post-Christmas sales. Use programs like Hootsuite, Schedu.gram or Facebook’s scheduling tool to post a series of relevant content before you head on leave, so all you need to do is respond to questions and ensure you remain on brand in your festive season communications.
Don’t forget to make consumers aware of your opening (and closing) hours and how they can book to visit.
3) Is your content valuable?
The behaviour of consumers over the holiday season is quite different to the behaviour of consumers in other periods of the year. People are catching up with family and friends. Lazing at the beach. Travelling. So it’s worth considering whether your content is relevant for consumers and adding value, especially when their news feed is already very cluttered – a good test is to ascertain whether you find your content compelling in your downtime period. If the answer is no, chances are your clients won’t either.
However, it’s also the time of year when people have more time to absorb content, relax and enjoy, so if you do have content that’s engaging and relevant, ensure it’s well written and easy to digest. We’ve seen great results throughout January when good content is presented.
4) Set up notifications on your phone
Another way to stay on top of communications and respond to urgent queries is to set up notifications on your phone to alert you when comments have been made. Simply use the Facebook Pages app (you will need to be an admin on the page), or other social media platforms.
5) Put a social media escalation plan in place
The reality is that sometimes plans go awry and a response is needed. Put yourself in a better position to respond by putting an escalation plan in place. What does that look like? It might be that staff are directed to contact senior staff for assistance or make decisions when issues arise. Allocate a person to be a point of contact and give your social media/marketing team the tools and contacts they need to resolve customer or media issues.
