With Thanksgiving upon us and Christmas and Hanukkah right around the corner, the holiday season is officially here. The holidays are a great marketing opportunity, as customers are looking to purchase goods and services either as gifts or to prepare for the upcoming holidays. But how can companies leverage social media to take advantage of the holiday season?
Which Holidays Should I Include in My Social Media Strategy?
Although November and December are the biggest holiday months of the year, there are actually holidays all year. Some of these (Fourth of July, Easter, Halloween, etc.) are bigger than others (International Cat Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Pi Day, etc.). Of course, your business won’t need to include every holiday in your holiday strategy. Just the ones that your customers will respond to. If many of your customers celebrate Hanukkah, for example, including it in your strategy would be a good idea.
But this does mean that having a solid holiday strategy can benefit you throughout the entire year, not just in December.
Do I Need to Review Old Social Media Posts?
It’s always a good idea to use earlier posts as a learning experience. Look at the holiday posts you made last year. Which posts had the highest engagement with your audience? Did any not work very well? Did some posts have better engagement on one social media platform while other posts worked better on a different platform? You can tailor your holiday posts this year based on what you learned from last year’s posts.
Do I Need to Decide on Marketing Goals?
It’s important to have an idea of what you’re looking to accomplish with your posts. Do you want to increase awareness of your company’s brand? Meet a certain sales goal? Increase engagement on your social media channels? Knowing what you want to achieve this holiday season will help determine what types of posts you need to be making.
How Do I Create a Holiday Posting Schedule?
After you review the previous year to learn what worked and what didn’t and once you know where you’re going, it’s time to create a holiday posting schedule. Determine how frequently you want to post and which holidays will resonate the most with your audience. It can help to have a cohesive theme or story to tie your holiday posts together.
It’s also a good idea to decorate your social media accounts. Update your profile and cover photos to be holiday-themed. You can even edit your profile’s biography to include special copy dedicated to the holiday season.
How Do I Create a Holiday Post?
You’ll also need to decide what kinds of posts will be a part of this schedule. If you have products or services that you want to highlight this holiday season, make sure they’re featured prominently in your posts. You can also post content about sales, well-wishes, contests, and more. Keep in mind your overall goal for the season and ask yourself how each post will help you meet that goal.
Holiday posts should be holiday-themed. Think of creating a holiday-related post as being similar to decorating a house for the holidays. Holiday posts aren’t just about your holiday sales or holiday contests. They need to look holiday-themed. Make sure Christmas posts have red and green in them, for example.
If there were posts that didn’t perform very well last year, you can avoid creating posts like those again this year. No matter what your goals are, they’re more easily achievable if your content is what your audience wants to see.