Remaining active on social media whilst also taking a break

So, you are off on a well-earned holiday, but what does this mean for your social media platforms? It's important that they don't get neglected, but you also need some time to fully unwind without the worry of having to login every day. With a bit of pre-planning and scheduling, you’ll be able to go away and enjoy your break without having to worry about posting.

One of the key elements to social media marketing is consistency. So that means, regularly posting and keeping your online presence going. The more you post, the more familiar people become with you and your business, so it’s important to remain active even though you are away. Scheduling your content ahead of time is a great way to keep your social media active. There are lots of scheduling platforms available – Hootsuite, SproutSocial to name a few – that allow you to do this (plus a whole host of other useful features). Some social media platforms also allow you to schedule in the platform itself making it even easier to plan ahead.

Before you go into holiday scramble-mode, it's a good idea to in the weeks before your upcoming break that you sit down and make a comprehensive plan - what is it that you want to post whilst you are away? What days and times do you need to post them? Are you going to let people know you are away? What key messages do you want to get across? I would then recommend batch creating content ahead of time. Whether that’s carousels, quotes, polls, giveaways etc, set aside some time to create the things you need (I would always recommend a mix of content), either on programmes like Canva or your preferred content creating platform. Try writing a list of all the content you’ll need and the topics you want to cover, then write your captions for these posts as well as plan their hashtags (if you use them!) ahead of time. Once you have these ready, you will then be able to login, upload and schedule. They will then automatically publish, and you can go away and enjoy your break.

There is also always the option to outsource the job to a trusted social media professional who can take care of things whilst you are away, but whatever you decide, you can go away and have peace of mind that your social media is taken care of.