October has passed and the rest of the holidays are suddenly upon us all. Do you have your holiday promotions planned out yet? As a business owner you probably have some tried and true offline offers that you have used in the past. Gift certificates, extra services for busy individuals, and things of that nature always seem to get a warm reception. But with all the latest developments of social media should you be doing something different? The answer, of course, is yes, and no.

Social media provides a new and flashy way to communicate with your customers, but this is the time to remember that these new channels are just that: channels to communicate. Facebook itself is not content. It’s a way to share content. As all the bigwigs in the social media industry are saying, content is still king.

So the ideal solution is to adapt your already-great promotions and holiday offers to your social media platform. Here are our top tips on how to convert your existing offers to online options without spending umpteen hours that don’t pay off.

1.      Sketch it Out Offline. That’s right. Before you log in to your account, pick up a pencil and piece of paper and pull out your desk calendar and write out the important dates of your promotion. Decide what you want to say and when, and book it into your calendar to make sure you are giving clients the appropriate lead time.

2.      Make it Memorable. In the past maybe you have put your offer into a quick email or printed it out on a flyer. Enter the world of social media. Now it’s important to add attractive photos that you have bought rights to and maybe even a video to make sure your announcement stands out. Tweets on Twitter need to be short and sweet, so spend a little extra time wordsmithing your content so that it gets attention.

3.      Consider an advertisement.   It’s wonderful that social media has created such a stir and connected us all but it has also become quite a saturated space. For example, on Facebook only about 14% of your followers see your status updates. That is why Facebook is making a big push for advertising. There are pros and cons to any advertising campaign, and we will dig into this topic more in a later newsletter, but the upside is that social media advertising can be very targeted.   

So this holiday season, take advantage of the power of social media with a goal of working smarter, not longer, and you will see your well-planned strategy pay off.