Making a plan is relatively simple. If no one will be in the office over the holiday period, you still need to be active online.

Once you have all your posts planned, you can use tools to ensure your posts go out on the right day, at the right time.

Everyone wants a break on Christmas Day (well most of us anyway!), so all you need to do is schedule it in using Facebook’s schedule tool, or go one step further and use a social media management tool like Hootsuite that covers all your social media channels at once!

At this time of year, things start going a little Christmas cracker crazy. Even more reason to ensure your customers know what you are going to be up to over the holiday period.

You’ll need to let your customers know your holiday business opening hours and provide them with contact details just in case they really need to contact you.

The best avenues for this are: social media, your website or send an e-card or Christmas newsletter with all the information your customers need to know – along with a ‘Happy Holidays’ message!

Your social media and online promotions should always represent you in the best light. We often talk about keeping content relevant and to a high standard, and this time of year is no exception.

Make sure when you create all your scheduled posts they are reflective of you in the way you want them to be, cutting corners or rushing can sometimes cause things to be a bit off topic. Personal messages “from the owner” or a bit of holiday humour are great, provided it’s delivered in the right way.