Work never seems to slow down during the holiday season, but the amount of time you have to spend on work certainly does. For those who work in social media regularly as part of their job, the days off during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s can offer a brief hiatus from sharing content and having online conversations.
For others, it can be merely a shift from the work-related to the personal, even if your social account(s) integrate both subjects seamlessly into one voice. I know how my social media output will shift during holiday breaks, so I wanted to find out what other social media professionals were planning on doing in their virtual social lives as well.
Beyond the six Twitter accounts and five Facebook pages I manage, I am active on Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn, and semi-active on a ton of other networks. Since a lot of these accounts are work-related, I’ll admit that sometimes a little social media fatigue can set in. During the holidays, my social media output will decrease on all fronts, though I’ll likely still tweet movie, music, and social content that I find interesting at my personal Twitter account and I’ll keep an eye on all company accounts/pages for organic opportunities that arise. On Facebook and Instagram, I’ll probably post an average of once a day about fun stuff that I see or do over the break.
Here’s what other social media pros had to say about how much they’ll be using social media over the holidays:
Jason Falls, Vice-President for Digital Strategy at CafePress:
At CafePress, we’ll be posting our normal fun content, but also driving our holiday sales and supporting them through social channels. The deals we’ll be running will force us to increase our volume of posts and time spent managing our social channels, but it’s our busiest and most profitable time of the year, so that’s to be expected.
Personally, I’ll probably unplug on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, but otherwise keep an eye on my channels. It’s part of where I socialize everyday anyway. Why would I stop interacting with friends and family just because they’re not physically with me?
Shonali Burke, President/CEO at Shonali Burke Consulting, Inc.:
As I’ve been focusing on different aspects of my business (and life!), in general my use of social media has petered out over the last several months. I’ve been using socnets more like a “normal” person, as opposed to being “always on.” I do plan to recalibrate my use of social towards what’s more “normal” for me, since the growth of my business does depend not just on the quality of content I curate and generate, but (unfortunately) the quantity. However, during the holidays specifically, I’ll be using social mostly on a personal level, to share when I feel like it, and not otherwise. I’ve always believed social isn’t about the tools, it’s about connecting people. So as long as I’m still doing that in a way that nourishes my soul, I’ll be happy.
Ben Smith, Principal at Social:IRL and Director of Social at Callahan Creek:
I’m actually responding to the question while on vacation. A reality is that for those of us deeply engaged in the social space, and with clients whose customers expect them to be online 24/7, it’s rare we get the chance to truly disconnect. Social is also very much ingrained in my daily life – it’s my live journal and photo album, a place I choose to invest myself personally as well as professionally.
How and where I post varies. Twitter is largely my professional network and where I’m most active, but my rule is to only post when I feel I can add value. So over the holidays I’ll be consuming and creating less content, and becuase of that posting less. At the same time I’ll likely be more active on channels such as Instagram and Facebook which are more personal to me and where I share more of my personal life and family.
Mike Brown, Founder, The Brainzooming Group:
We’ll treat the two holidays differently: Since Thanksgiving is for the U.S. only and about 50% of our audience is global, we’ll still share stories on Twitter throughout the holiday, although no new blog posts – if I can keep my commitment not to do any! For Christmas, we’re not expecting to share any stories from Christmas Eve through Christmas day, although we’ve had some posts blow up in the past on Christmas Eve day.
On a personal front, I’ll likely tweet and Facebook reactions and musings as they come to me.
Justin Gardner, Social Media Manager at AMC Theatres:
I anticipate posting a lot. Mostly for work, though, because the holidays are our busiest times at AMC Theatres.
The more we can become part of the conversation, the more likely it is people will choose AMC.
Shelly Kramer, CEO at V3 Integrated Marketing:
From a business standpoint, I won’t be using social media channels much at all – if any, and am advising my clients to do the same. Nobody wants to hear your brand messaging on a holiday that’s intended for gratitude and family. I will, however, likely be using social networks from a personal standpoint (most likely Instagram and Facebook) for sharing photos, popping in to see what friends’ holiday celebrations are looking like, engaging in a random conversation or two and just sending well wishes.
Matt Staub, Partner at Graphicmachine:
Not so much. I treat the holidays as a trip back to a simpler time. I connect with my family, read books, relax, and enjoy some quiet time. If I have stories to tell and photos to share from holiday adventures, I do it as a digest when I get back home. Otherwise, I’m sure holiday post fatigue sets in for most people browsing their favorite networks.
Jessica Best, Community Director at emfluence:
I use social media personally because I genuinely like being able to share with people near and far. I think I’ll use it the same amount I do now: sharing moments, comments, causes and pictures via Facebook and maybe following a deal or two on Twitter. I think that’s part of the fun of having days of vacation/days off: connecting for personal reasons. What I hope I *don’t* do much of is social for work. I’m lucky that in my industry, those I’d be posting for/with are hopefully taking the days off, too, so not too many tweets about research summaries, probably not gonna write blog posts on Friday.
But for me, social media is a fun part of my real life… so I’ll probably keep right at it!
Aaron Deacon, Managing Director of KC Digital Drive, President of Social Media Club of Kansas City:
Interesting question. I don’t really anticipate a change in my normal social media usage over the holidays, but that normal usage falls somewhere in between “a lot” and “not much” anyways. I’m not a prolific sharer most of the time, and my engagement is governed more by mood, happenstance and availability at any given time rather than a grand strategy.
Sarah Mote, Marketing Communications Manager at KCSourceLink:
We will [be using social media]. Not as much as we usually do, but we want to reach out to folks who are thinking about starting/growing a business — and those thought and conversations happen around the holidays/downtime. We’ll focus on family businesses (succession, exit strategies), startups, tips for ending the year with taxes and such, and setting goals for the new year. Our first wave will be Facebook, but we’ll also post on Twitter. We’ll use Instagram to highlight KC entrepreneurs/local businesses during the holidays.
–> Eric here again!
Thanks to everybody for getting back to me so quick this morning for this blog! As I expected, that’s a pretty wide variety of answers. Do these responses in any way change your plans for posting on social media over the holiday breaks? Did it light a fire with you for some professional ideas? Or did it encourage you to disconnect and literally chill out during the winter weather? Leave a comment — and have a great holiday!
Image: RubyMediaGroup