Whether it’s the festive season approaching or any other holiday, it’s a good time to review your social media channels to ensure they’re working for you. Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or social media manager, these social media housekeeping tips will keep your platforms running smoothly and fully optimised so you can maximise results all year round.

Review and Update Your Social Media Profiles

Start by making sure all your social media profiles are up-to-date. Check:

• Contact information: Are your email, phone number, and website links all correct? The links that you’re using to direct your audiences back to your website, are those pages optimised for a seamless user journey on a mobile device?
• Profile and cover photos: Are these still on brand? Do they still fit correctly? (Social media channels have a habit of tweaking page designs that might mean things are not displayed the way you thought they were!) You might even consider adding a festive touch to your visuals.
• Bios: Update them to reflect any recent changes in your business or services, or add some keywords you might have missed the last time you reviewed them.
• Pinned posts: Highlight key messages, holiday opening hours, or a festive offer.

Plan and Schedule Social Media Content

Even though most of your audience is unlikely to be in the office, they’re still likely to spend some time scrolling through their social media channels. This doesn’t mean you have to – I’m an advocate for taking a break if you’re the person whose job it is to look at social media daily as part of your regular responsibilities. However, Taking a break doesn’t mean you need to be silent. Keep your audience engaged by scheduling posts in advance. Tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, or LinkedIn and Meta’s scheduling options can help you stay active while offline.

• Festive posts: Share holiday greetings, behind-the-scenes content, or team celebrations.
• Value-driven posts: Provide useful tips or inspirational messages for your audience.
• Evergreen content: Repurpose your best-performing posts to maintain engagement.

Set Up Automated Responses

If you’re using social media channels as a customer service tool, an automated response can manage expectations and keep customer service smooth:

• Set up auto-replies for direct messages on Facebook, Instagram. (ManyChat is an excellent tool for this.)
• Include information about response times and alternative ways to contact you.

Audit Your Social Media Content and Channels

Take some time to review what’s been working and what hasn’t:

• Insights and analytics: Look at engagement, reach, and audience demographics.
• Content Performance: Identify posts that missed the mark and consider why. Also, analyse your best-performing posts from the last year. When you look at the top 5-10 posts, what do you need to build into your social media strategy and content plan to increase success in the future? (This is a useful exercise to run through every three months to ensure content marketing success!)
• Channel focus: Decide if all platforms are serving your goals or if it’s time to reallocate your efforts.

Declutter Your Social Media Accounts

A tidy feed can make a big difference:

• Unfollow inactive or irrelevant accounts: Clean up your following list to keep it focused.
• Remove spam comments: Protect your brand’s reputation by keeping your posts professional.
• Archive outdated posts: If something no longer reflects your brand, it’s okay to hide it.

Communicate Your Holiday Hours

Let your audience know when you’ll be offline:

• Post your holiday hours or availability on your profiles. Don’t forget to also do this on Google My Business.
• You might want to include this information in your pinned posts, stories, or an email to your mailing list.

Secure Your Social Media Accounts

The holiday season can be a prime time for hackers:

• Update passwords and enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
• Review admin roles to ensure only trusted team members have access.

Create a Crisis Plan

Prepare for any unexpected issues that might arise while you’re away:

• Identify who will monitor accounts for urgent matters.
• Draft templates for quick responses to common questions or complaints.
• Set up alerts for brand mentions or high-risk keywords.

Engage Your Audience Before the Break

Use the weeks leading up to Christmas to ramp up engagement:

• Run a festive competition or giveaway.
• Share user-generated content (UGC) to celebrate your community.
• Thank your audience with a heartfelt message of appreciation.

Plan for Your Return

Ease back into your social media routine in January:

• Draft your first post of the new year to set a positive tone.
• Plan a content calendar for January to maintain momentum.
• Reflect on any learnings from your year-end analytics to inform future strategies.

Social media housekeeping is a must!

Investing a little time in these social media housekeeping tasks now will allow you to set yourself up for a stress-free holiday season and a strong start on your return. Social media is a powerful tool, but even the best platforms need a little maintenance to keep them running at their best.