1. Summer festivals and sports events
Do you know which events your target group likes? Are they music festivals, cultural or culinary days or do they spend hours in front of the TV watching the Tour or Wimbledon? Find out in advance what activities are on this summer. Make a list of dates, location and subject.
Then ask yourself how you can join in. Apart from simply mentioning it, you can think of: do you sell products that fit in with this? If so, mention it without really getting into promotion. Or do you have tips that are useful when attending an event? Do you have knowledge about a certain subject? Share it with your followers and give them tips. This can all be written and planned in advance.
And do you like to watch sporting events or races yourself? Then connect with your followers on Twitter and experience it together!
And don’t forget to mention the hash tags of the relevant events. You can do this on Twitter but also on Instagram and Facebook. The idea is that people who search on such a hashtag will also read your posts; this means attention for your account and company.
2. Share your valuable tips with parents
Parents of small children are not only looking for tips they can use while travelling. The weeks at home, before or after their holiday, can also be challenging. I remember being asked every day “I’m bored, are we going to do anything? Make a list of activities to do this summer in the different regions and share them with your fans well in advance.
Kids love arts and crafts, do you have any fun assignments? Or do you have any parenting tips on how to get through the remaining weeks together? Post them on Facebook, add a fun photo and schedule them throughout the school holidays.
3. Contests, actions and challenges
This is a bit more work, so it is especially suitable if you will be partially at home and/or at home this summer. Think about what you can do to increase your reach and interact with your target group.
Do you have products that you can raffle off via an online competition? For example, your book, a treatment in your practice or a new course that you want to draw attention to? By building an element of competition into your posts, you get a lot of attention for your products or services. Make sure that the assignments are only suitable for your target customers. This prevents people outside your target group from also participating. Did you know that so-called like-share contests are no longer allowed on Facebook? You should rather ask for a reaction or a photo in order to be eligible for the prize.
Consider whether it is possible to offer a product or online service with a 20% discount during the summer? Especially when you are at home and it gets quieter, this can keep your sales up because more people are attracted to it.
A challenge is also still a great way to become known to more people. I am organising the Instagram Challenge again this year, with which I managed to reach hundreds of new people last year. The challenge is an introduction to you and your product or service. If people like it, you can make them an offer after the holiday. And make sure you use the platform on which you want to reach more people. The Instagram Challenge has given my Instagram account a great boost.
4. Experiment with new features and platforms
Social media platforms change quickly. Every month or even week something is added. The summer is the perfect time to experiment. For example, by getting started with a new platform or with Instagram Stories. You can find out at your leisure and sound out your customers whether they are also using this platform or application.
Or maybe you want to finally get to work with that selfie stick. Or record a video. In a quiet spot in nature, it all seems to go much easier. By sharing your new experiments with your followers, you are showing yourself in an unadorned way. And people like to be able to connect with you, so you’ll see that you’ll get nice reactions.
Because what do you think, are they following you to buy your products or because you are a nice person who shares great tips and fun posts?
5. Create a holiday content planner
The easiest way to boost your social media this summer is to make a content planner. Make a schedule of the posts you want to make. On which platform and when. You can also post a certain type of message on Facebook every day, for example every Monday a ‘how to survive the school holidays tip’, every Thursday a photo from the past #TBT. Also read this article about it. And every Friday a video. You can think of a variation for the other platforms you work with. Don’t use the exact same photo and text, but use your logo and the same message everywhere. That way, your followers won’t get bored and you’ll still be visible everywhere.
Once you have all these messages in your planner, you can schedule them. On Facebook you do this in the platform itself. On Instagram use the Later app and for Twitter use Hootsuite or Buffer.
A spontaneous message every now and then and you’re ready to go. And if you get nice reactions or questions, you answer them of course.
And if you really want to be offline for a while, let your followers know in time or get someone to answer your mail temporarily.