It's xmas...Do you know where your users are?

It's Xmas, and you may wonder where all your followers/users are. Well wonder no more, they are NOT online and they don't care about you or your brand or anything you have to post (unless you are a retailer and they have a complaint about a product they bought or got as a present) so get offline and go enjoy your family time.

Seriously though. I am a social media consultant, mainly B2B, and NOT ONE of my clients showed more than 3-10 engagements across all social channels in the last 72 hours. Just as an example, one of these clients has a daily average of 100-200 social link clicks and well over 400-500 total engagements (shares/likes/comments) a day on LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook combined. On Saturday they had 10 clicks and on Sunday 3. See the screenshots below (taken from Oktopost).



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So... What can you do with this December bomb, and more importantly what am I going to recommend my clients do with it.

1. Post your holiday message, or at least anything important, at least 1 week before the holiday, be realistic that scheduling it on the actual holiday day no one will see it, if you want them to see it that is.
2. You can pre-set some content to run over the holidays, but don't stress about it, no amount of posting is going to make that much of a difference. Which leads me to my next point.
3. Why not try creating a new trend and #gosilent. It's time for people to be with their families and friends, not tempted by anything you think worth posting online. Imagine how nice for those who care enough about your brand to be given a breather... I mean, I know most holidays mean an almost naturally quiet 48 hours, but nothing wrong with making it a social policy to let people get back to what matters. Make it part of your company social manifesto. Even if you are in retail, post a message saying something like, "we are here today because we care about you, no noise, just us... let us know how we can be helpful." For B2B brands where constant social customer service is not so much an issue, simple say, "We are going silent this holiday to give you time to get back to what matters. See you after the holidays and wishing you and all your family and friends a peaceful and joyous time." #Gosilent

There is no doubt that people and their behaviour guide the way we use social media. But also nothing wrong with us using social media to set industry-wide etiquette for how and when social media should be used. So take a stand with me, and let's all #gosilent this coming New Years.

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