It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Everywhere you go there are festive lights, fun decorations, delicious treats, charming music and piles of gifts. Don’t forget the gifts.
While you’re almost in vacation mode, don’t miss out on this opportunity to capture customers and finish the year strong. There are still plenty of your customers desparately searching for last-minute gift ideas, and you might be just what they’re looking for.
You can ensure your business is embracing the holiday spirit and capturing those last-minute shoppers’ eyes with these top holiday-focused social media tips.
It’s Not Quite Vacation Yet
You may be counting down the days until you get to spend some time relaxing and celebrating with friends and family, but you don’t want to neglect your social presence. All the best practices for social media still apply. To keep up momentum, continue to:
- Use a social media calendar to plan and schedule your posts across multiple platforms
- Create compelling content that draws in your target audience
- Introduce social media-only deals
- Engage your audience through competitions
- Leverage your influencer network
Consumers in the U.S. are expected to spend more than $100 billion in e-commerce sales alone this holiday season (November-December), a 15.5% increase over the 2017 holiday period. It’s important to keep up with your regular social media engagement strategy so you don’t miss out on the chance to convert some of these eager shoppers.
The holiday season is a great opportunity to up your social media game, capture new customers and increase sales.
Celebrate Different Holidays
While the dominant holiday in December tends to be Christmas, make sure you are sensitive to different holiday traditions. We recognize it’s hard to get this right, to please everyone.
Focusing on the holidays in general or having messages that include all of the different celebrations that occur during this time of year can be a way to avoid potentially offending anyone. Or, you could focus on celebrating the end of another fantastic year.
In addition to major holidays in December, you can highlight other fun days such as:
- Cookie Day (12/4)
- Gingerbread Decorating Day (12/8)
- Day of Lard (12/8)
- Cocoa Day (12/12)
- Cupcake Day (12/15)
- Chocolate-Covered Anything Day (12/16)
- Ugly Christmas Sweater Day (12/21)
While most of these are past already, put them on your calendar for next year so you’re prepared in advance.
If you or your business have an international background, you could also highlight the traditions and important dates for the holidays in that country.
Use Bright and Bold Holiday-Themed Visuals
Along with the beautiful lights and decorations on display this time of year, you’ll want to give your social media posts a holiday-appropriate upgrade. This is your chance to use all of the colors and create a truly unique, but still on-brand, design aesthetic.
In keeping with social media best practices, make sure your visuals fit a consistent theme. It should be clear that all of the images come from the same campaign.
Your audience should still know your company is behind these posts. Don’t veer too far off your style guide in the interest of spreading holiday cheer.
Get Creative with Holiday Content
Content is still king, even with fun holiday campaigns. However, there are some unique ways to capture the holiday spirit.
Stories
Another way to attract a larger audience during this period is to tell stories. This time of year seems to inspire story-telling. Both images and videos can be effective in showcasing your brand and personality. The stories can include your products or just focus on a holiday theme.
Holiday Hashtags
Along with great holiday-themed content, don’t forget the holiday hashtags. Using popular hashtags can make sure you show up in more searches. Developing hashtags of your own is another way to engage your audience.
Gift Guides
It’s the time of year when everyone needs gift ideas. You can help your customers out by providing gift guides that target different segments of your audience. For example,
- The Perfect Gifts for Dog-Lovers
- The Perfect Gifts for the Man Who Has Everything
- The Perfect Gifts for the Mom Who Does Everything
- The Perfect Gifts for Anyone Who Loves to Travel
The possibilities are endless. The guides are a great way to feature your products and bring in sales.
Holiday Solutions
If your product or service provides an important holiday solution – such as cooking a nice meal, hosting the best holiday party or organizing busy holiday calendars – be sure to highlight this feature in your holiday social media campaign.
You’ll be adding real value to your audience, improving the customer experience, building customer engagement and hopefully increasing sales.
Giveaways
This is the perfect time of year to run a giveaway campaign! Not only are people looking for gifts, but they’re spending a lot of money. They are sure to appreciate the chance to get something for free. These giveaways can be based on holiday-themed competitions such as sharing a:
- Favorite holiday memory or tradition
- Favorite holiday photo
- Awkward family holiday photo
- Best gift
- Favorite holiday treat
Again, there are countless options for both the competition and the giveaway. Each contest is an opportunity to gain new followers and potential customers.
Donate to Charity
In the spirit of giving (or wanting to get in that year-end tax break), charitable giving tends to increase in December. Approximately 30% of all charitable giving in a year happens during this month.
If you already have a charitable giving program, be sure to highlight this in your year-end social media posts. This could build customer loyalty from those who also care about the cause you’re supporting.
If you don’t currently donate to any organizations, this is a great time to start. You could even engage customers by running a Facebook poll for your audience to vote on which charity you should donate to.
Happy Social Media Holidays!
The holiday season seems to begin earlier and earlier every year. There’s no time to waste in launching your holiday-themed social media campaign. By following these tips, you’ll meet your audience where they are: online frantically searching for the perfect gifts for their loved ones.
As you upgrade your visuals and create compelling holiday content, we just want to wish you a very merry holiday social media season!
And if you need a helping hand with your social media marketing, our qualified team of elves social media professionals is ready to hear from you.
