Tips On Utilizing the Holidays for Social Media

The holidays are just around the corner and it’s time to momentarily adjust your social media game. Let’s talk about how you can add a little thanksgiving, Christmas, or whateverfloatsyourboat spirit to your profile. 

Tip #1 Headers

It’s a good idea to update your profile picture and profile header to reflect whatever holiday you want to show spirit for. Think of it as a full-fledged campaign without the ad spend 😉 For Thanksgiving, consider adding a turkey running across the bottom of your headers. For Christmas, maybe add a Santa hat to your logo. Most people enjoy getting into the holiday spirit. Use that positive association with your brand to attract new clients and reinforce your relationship with existing clients. You can create custom designs on Canva with ease. 

Tip #2 Scheduling 

Don’t make someone on your staff be responsible for posting on the day of a holiday. Schedule your holiday posts a few weeks in advance to make sure you don’t miss a beat and everyone gets to enjoy their holiday. We use services like Buffer and HeyOrca to schedule our posts. These services make posting social media content easier before with their easy-to-use design. Download their phone apps to make the process of scheduling social media posts a breeze!

Tip #3 Share Your Spirit

Does your business have an annual Christmas party? If so, consider sharing photos from the party with your social media followers to give them an inside look and make them feel more like part of the family! Toy drives and company outings are other great things to promote on your social media pages. The idea is to show your clients that your company is a family, not just a business trying to take your money ;).

Tip #4 There’s nothing more original than original

Ask your clients to submit original content to be posted on your page. For example, if I were Starbucks, I’d be asking customers to submit photos of our holiday cup in the snow or with Santa. This is a good opportunity to show your followers what your product or service looks like out in the real world instead of in a professional studio setting. Make sure the photos are high quality before you post and give photo credit in your caption. Forgetting to give photo credit goes against proper social media etiquette. 

Tip #5 Stay active on engagements

Engaging on social media is essential to growing your social media pages. Engaging with hashtags like “#wishlist” is a good way to get your product or service into the minds of consumers during a time when people are spending more money. Be sure to pay attention to the latest trends and keep an eye out for popular hashtags. Growing your page takes work, use the holiday season to your advantage, and spread good vibes, you’d be surprised how far a funny or kind comment will go. Block of at least an hour to interact with people on social media. Experienced social media managers will know which locations, hashtags, and users to seek out when doing engagements. 

Tip #6 Promote or host a charity event 

Let’s dive into tip #5 some more. Consider hosting a charity event where customers or employees can make a difference in the community. There are families across the country that can’t afford the luxuries of holidays. A toy or food drive is a great way to make a positive impact in your community. Toy drives don’t require lots of money. You can set a couple of larger boxes outside your office and let people donate what they can afford. Before the holiday season ends, find a donation location in your city that will make sure the toys fall into good hands. 

Tip #7 Run a poll

Polls are a great way to figure out what your audience wants! On Instagram, you can run polls on top of a photo. It’s a great way to spice up your content and obtain valuable insight into your followers. To run a poll, tap on the sticker icon and then select the poll sticker icon.

Tip #8 Don’t forget to post the day of

Make sure you’re scheduling a post the day of! Gift cards and cash are common holiday gifts, make sure you’re getting your brand out there as people are receiving these gifts!

Tip #9 The Power of the Discount Code

Discount codes are a great way to convert on-the-edge buyers into customers. Run a promotion that saves your customer a little money and watch the orders flow in! 

Tip #10 Don’t Forget Stories!

On a recent quarterly earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stated that stories were the future of social media. It’s important to utilize all of the tools made available to you on social media. If you can do something on social media that people will see, you need to be taking advantage of that to promote your business. 

Tip #11 Create Festive Filters

 Filters are another great way to get your brand out there. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all allow 3rd party filters. Here is an example of a Starbucks geofilter: Geofilters are a great way to target customers in your area or any specific area of your choosing. 

Tip #12 Reach for action not likes 

The goal is to turn followers into customers. Try creating a single piece of content that encourages customers to take action and engage with your brand. It should be eye-catching but also needs to fit into the overall theme of your social media page.

Tip #13 Create Urgency 

Create limited-time offerings to snag the business of those customers that missed out on the discount code. Limited 2 for 1 offers are a great way to grab attention while the limited timeframe will encourage customers to take action immediately.

Tip #14 Hand Over The Keys 

If you really want to try something new, consider handing over the keys to your social media page to a well-known influencer that fits with your core values. Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook have the features necessary to create a seamless transition into a social media event with a host. Follow these steps for a successful social media takeover event: 

1. Find an influencer that fits your brand and interests your followers/customers.
2. Announce that they will be taking over your social media for a certain amount of time.
3. Set guidelines for the influencer to follow while in control of your page. 
4. Have the influencer post stories and photos about their life and how your product or service affects them. 
5. After the takeover event, add the story posts to your highlights for free evergreen content!

For example: If Patagonia wanted to do a social media takeover event, they could hire an influencer in the rock climbing community to post throughout the day while using Patagonia products. 

This provides Patagonia with credibility while also giving your potential customers an idea of what your product looks like in the real world. 

Why do a social media takeover?

• Takeovers create urgency in the mind of your customers. 
• Takeovers increase brand awareness.
• One in three social media users defers to social media making a purchasing decision.
• Forty percent of consumers purchase something after seeing an influencer use it.
• Social media takeovers get your products in front of an audience of your choosing.

Always make sure you’ve got branded images, clever captions, and a call to action ready to go. Just like any other time of year, you should be trying to stand out from the crowd. 

Now is a good time to get creative and come up with content that drives action. People tend to be in a good mood during the holidays, use this to your advantage and promote a little holiday spirit on your social media page. If this blog has been helpful, check out our other blogs here. If you want to take your social media game to the next level, get in touch with our team here at LMH and see why we have over 90% client retention since the creation of our firm. It’s been a pleasure, happy holidays!