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(Expert Feature) How To Run A Social Media Campaign During Your Summer Vacation

Posted on July 18, 2012 in 2BH Expert Contributor, 2BH Original Content, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media Tips, Time Management, Tips And Tricks, Twitter Tips // 4 Comments

You’re on summer vacation and don’t want to think about tweeting or posting.

But you’re a business owner and also the person in charge of your social media campaign, right?

If properly planned and executed, managing your social media marketing campaign remotely can be very successful with minimum impact to your vacation.

Here are some tips and tools to make your job easier:

 

  1. Plan Ahead
  1. If you don’t have a backup, train someone today. If you really don’t want to do the monitoring and responses yourself while you’re away, then train an employee or hire a social media consultanting firm to handle it for you while you’re away.
  1. Prior to leaving, plan your content for the week(s) you’ll be away and also a few days after your return. You can schedule all of these posts using your dashboard or the individual network apps. Also, you can upload bulk tweets to Buffer, and let this program post them at regular intervals throughout the day. Just be sure to create variation in your tweets, so it doesn’t look like spam on your profile.Example: We used Buffer to upload tweets about a conference to be attended by our client. We agreed upon the promotions to be offered in the booth (50% off selected styles, 1st 50 people to spend $50 get free crop pants, etc.), wrote a lot of tweets about the promotions and uploaded them to Buffer. The app sent out our tweets at regular intervals during the show, and we monitored the conversations and assisted with customer service and thanked people for mentioning the brand.
  1. Tell your Employees 

    Make sure your employees know about any promotions offered. We recently held a Social Media Day Treasure Hunt in San Carlos, California, and at least one business owner who signed up for the event failed to tell their employees. Treasures weren’t displayed properly and coupons weren’t disbursed as planned. Epic fail!

  1. Don’t Obsess 

    Check your phone just a couple of times a day and respond. Try not to obsess and worry that you need to respond. Most people are happy to wait for a few hours or even overnight for a response. So RELAX!

  1. Tools and Apps
  1. If you’re not already using a social media dashboard like HootSuite, then sign up and add your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare accounts. Be sure to install the app on your smartphone and you’re ready to go!
    • Now you can schedule posts and respond to inquiries and mentions while on the road. Also, HootSuite allows you to set up “search” streams so you can watch the conversation on Twitter for specific keywords.
    • We also hear that HootSuite is adding Pinterest sometime soon.
  1. Just as a backup to HootSuite, download the apps for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other social networks for your smartphone. Be sure to set up your accounts – before you leave – so that Twitter mentions and direct mail are sent to your smartphone. Also, set up Facebook to send comments to your phone so you can see them as they are posted by your fans.

Going on summer vacation is always a challenge for the small business owner.

These social media tips for managing your campaign remotely will help you enjoy your time away without much worry.

Have fun!

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About Melanie Yunk (50 Articles)
Melanie Yunk, President, Roaring Pajamas Melanie Yunk started working as a social media and search engine optimization consultant early in 2009, when she founded Roaring Pajamas, a digital marketing agency in Northern California. Melanie is passionate about helping businesses market their products and services online. She brings more than 20 years of marketing, engineering and content experience to clients from various industries, including search engines, construction, retail, B2B, wholesale, heavy duty trucks, authors and more. Melanie previously founded Melanie's Fine Foods after purchasing Big Acres® Gourmet Sauces where she expanded the line to be distributed nationwide and in Canada. She also founded Yunk Consulting where she assisted software and semiconductor companies in implementing international standards for electronic databooks that she also helped developed while working at Intel Corporation. Her earliest career began at Honeywell Commercial Flight Systems where she worked on the Boeing 777 and MD11 cockpit projects. She continues to write on the Roaring Pajamas Blog and also as a guest blogger writing about all natural and gourmet foods. Melanie volunteers as a Board Member for the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce and former President of the Advisory Board for the Rosalie Rendu Center in East Palo Alto. She lives in San Carlos with her husband Kent and two Cornish Rex cats.
Contact: WebsiteTwitterGoogle+

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4 Comments on (Expert Feature) How To Run A Social Media Campaign During Your Summer Vacation

  1. Kelly // July 19, 2012 at 10:00 am //

    Great information for a small business owner like myself. This will be very useful as we try to ramp up our Social Media for our insurance office.

  2. Anne // July 20, 2012 at 11:05 am //

    As a small business owner, it’s important to take vacations and this information helps eliminate the concerns we have about being away for any length of time.

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