Why you need to keep posting content during the summer holidays even if you’re not working.

It’s that time of year again, the long summer holidays are looming, and all self-employed mums start working out how best to keep the mum and business guilt in check.

Whether you choose to keep working or hit pause and come back in September is a personal choice, there is no right or wrong answer.

My advice is that whatever your summer looks like, you make sure to keep some content going out on your business social media. By all means, post less often and utelise schedulers so that you can be off your tech and with your kids. But by maintaining some level of online presence you won’t lose all the momentum you’ve built to date.

The powers that be at Meta have admitted that taking a prolonged break, such as the whole 6-8 week summer, will affect how the algorithm views your account. Meaning your reach will dive and you will have to work doubly hard in September to improve your traction again.

I know there is a lot of “back to school, September is the new January” vibes that come along, but I for one, feel tired in September and need time to regroup myself after the hols. Keep your audience warm with a sprinkle of content over the summer so you feel less pressure on yourself to kick start in September.

You can use your platforms to manage customer expectations. Let them know when and how you will be working (if at all) and how they can reach you if needed.

It’s also worth remembering a fellow frazzled mum might come across you when hiding in the bathroom and scrolling for moment of peace. Whilst you may not be able to help her right away by having recently posted content, she knows you are still trading and she will be able to relate to you juggling kids and life as well. She may reach out to be booked in on your return, giving her something to look forward to and helping you fill your slots up for your return to work.

Your content isn’t for you. Your customers might still be searching for you even if you are off work, you still want to be found in those searches.

Depending when your holdings start there’s between 4-6 weeks left to prep your summer content schedule.

Here are 4 quick tips to help you stay visible:

1. Repurpose from your content library- Look back at past posts, what can you repurpose? People see so much content, even if they did see it last time you used it this is a good reminder. If you tweak it even slightly, they probably won’t even notice.

2. Create an extra post per content session- Each time you sit down to create content between now and the holidays, create 1 extra post to go in the summer calendar.

3. Utelise awareness days- Can you use any days relevant to your industry? What other days inspire you? Use them as a prompt to create a post without mentioning the specific day or date.

4. Use a scheduler- Pop posts into a scheduler so that they go automatically, then it doesn’t matter if you are too busy during the day to post them.

If you use each of these tips once, then you have 4 posts to spread out over the summer. This will make a huge difference to maintaining your visibility in the long run.

I hope this helps you enjoy your summer without stressing about your socials. Share it with someone else who might find it helpful.