It may seem early to be talking about holidays, but let’s face it – Fourth of July is almost here. With several holidays happening throughout the year, there are many things to consider – not least of which is your business.

The first thing you need to decide is whether or not you plan to work on the holiday. If you do remain open, will your employees take time off? Also, will you have any holiday promotions?

Of course, all these things are important. But there are some nuances to the online world that will additionally affect your business on these days. Here’s the downlow on how a variety of mediums might be affected by the holidays.

Websites – In general, website traffic will be down over a holiday unless you provide a leisure activity. Netflix traffic will be way up, for example, while a CPA’s website traffic will drastically decrease. And during holiday weeks – the entire week – is a bad time to launch new features on your site.

Blogs – Similarly, blog traffic is likely to drop. The exception to this may be blog posts that have holiday tips, traditions, facts, recipes and the like. When you take the time to SEO these posts well, they may also gain evergreen traffic every year around the holiday. Be careful though – you don’t want to dilute your brand. For instance, it might be unusual for the CPA firm mentioned above to do a recipe post – there’s not an intuitive tie in to its core business. In order for this to work, it would have to be an honest list of its employees’ favorite holiday recipes, and even then if it’s not natural for their firm to do something like that, it can come off stilted. If you can’t tie in the holiday to your business, it’s best to skip it. Personally, we often adjust our blogging schedule to accommodate fewer posts during weeks that contain a holiday.

Social Media – There tends to be a slow down on many social media platforms if a good chunk of people are off work. Are you seeing a trend yet? During the week of a holiday, people are often off on vacation or getting ready for one. They’re much less likely to be worried about a brand online. Still, do not ignore your social media presence altogether. If a customer reaches out and you’re not there to respond, that is still a poor customer service experience. Ultimately, during holiday weeks, it’s ok to slow down social media or wait to launch a new promotion, but be sure to keep an eye on things.

Newsletter – Unless you’re having a holiday sale, newsletters are unlikely to have much traction during holiday weeks. You can skip the week entirely, or aim to send your newsletter mid-week. Since people are often coordinating trips to use as little time off work as possible, they’re likely to be gone the days surrounding the holiday. Take this into consideration when planning whether to send your newsletter during the holiday week.

Do you do anything special to strategize your content calendar for the holidays?