When I was younger, like when I was a just-out-of-college someone’s assistant, I feel like as the end of the calendar year loomed, we all got a little tired, we all started taking it a little easy on ourselves, we all started mentally checking out.
Halloween is coming soon. Thanksgiving and the winter holidays are right behind it. At some point we’ll hit the “other” circle-back season (in Louisville, we have a circle-back season that starts about the second week of April and no one is circling back to anything until after the Derby).
But when you own a business, no matter what business you’re in, life looks different. It has to – especially in the age of social media when everyone is fighting for eyeballs, reach, clicks.
So I’m here to tell you, if you haven’t done it yet, get your head in the game. It’s October 22nd and you need to look at your company’s calendar. I’d argue you should look all the way through the end of January so that when you do, finally, circle back, you aren’t completely caught off guard as the new year begins.
Take stock of what’s coming up and literally make a list:
- Sales
- Specials
- Events
- Partnerships and collaborations
- Blog posts that need to be written
- Emails that need to be written
Once you’ve got your list, now you need to be sure everyone who needs to know the plans knows them. Whoever is supposed to write that email that goes out to all customers needs every minute detail imaginable, and whoever has to provide that set of details needs a deadline.
And all of this information is probably going to be put on your website and into your social messaging.
So. Stop right there.
Who handles your social? And yes, I’m getting to the point: IF you outsource social, you need to be sure you are regularly communicating with that person/team about all of these events, specials, etcetera, so it actually makes it into your posts.
Have an event? Make sure the invite link is published (if applicable). Put a strategy in place for every post that needs to be made about it. Is this an annual event? Is there content from past years you can use? THEN – be sure someone is ready to capture footage in the moment at the event to share. Even if you are getting professional photos or videos, you need in-the-moment content coming into your stories. And if someone onsite is sending content to an outsourced vendor, be sure all the steps are in place and followed through on.
This all seems so ridiculously simple and straightforward, I know. BUT – hear me now and believe me later – this time of year gets crazy and details in one person’s brain don’t necessarily get translated to anyone else on the team. So it’s important plans are in place, checklists are implemented and everyone is on it.
There are just too many details running around. Everyone is out celebrating a lot. Everyone is constantly exhausted. Everyone has things going on in their family as well. So make it a point to be even more specific and detailed with your plans so that everything gets communicated in a timely manner and doesn’t flop.
Any questions? Let me know.
by 
