6 Steps You Haven’t Taken Yet to Prepare for the Holidays on Social Media
As the holiday season kicks into full gear, your business’s social media presences can’t afford to slow down.
Many marketers get so laser-focused on Black Friday and Cyber Monday that we often run out of steam by late December and lose sight of what the rest of the holidays have to offer in terms of engagement.
For example, consider how the majority of Twitter users are bargain-hunting during the holidays as social shopping becomes the norm. Meanwhile, Facebook represents a hotbed of activity during the Christmas season for those looking to run ads and score more sales conversions.
Think about it like this: More free time for your audience means more chances to interact with them. If anything, the holidays represent a prime opportunity ramp up on your social media activity.
Don’t hibernate for the rest of the year. Instead, take the time set up your social channels in a way that keeps your audience thinking about you, interacting with you and even doing business with you as they head into the new year. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to do – assuming you haven’t already.
- Sort Out Your Schedule
For starters, having a designated schedule for your social presence removes the pressure to post in real-time. This is especially important for marketers looking to spend less time staring at their screens during the holidays.
To stay in tune with the best times to post on social media, queue up your content ahead of time using a trustworthy scheduling tool such as Tailor Social, which also makes it easy to attach custom seasonal imagery to your posts.
Make a point to curate relevant content based on the season as well. If you have a series of holiday-centric articles or a killer piece of content to hype followers up for the new year, now is the time to circulate such items throughout your social feeds.
After all, you don’t want your social presence to feel like a ghost town. Sorting out your schedule and consistently posting in December will help you build momentum for more followers in 2018 as well.
- Theme Your Content Accordingly
Bear in mind that just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean that everything you post needs to be directly related to shopping.
Engaging holiday content can take many shapes and forms. Inspirational images such as this one by HubSpot are a good example of how to motivate followers for the holidays minus the sales pitch.
That said, those running deals can still promote products without being pushy about it. Check out how Zappos does exactly that by showing off their winter deals with a caption that’s anything but hard sell.
More likely than not, your followers are getting barraged with offers between their social feeds and emails alone. Don’t be afraid to pull back on solely sales-related content and keep your holiday campaigns from feeling too self-promotional.
- Score with Social Video
Not all content is created equal when it comes to social media, but this really rings true during the holiday season.
You’re competing against awesome deals, the latest blockbusters and breaking news at any given time. Coming up with posts that compel followers to stop and click through is easier said than done.
That’s why investing in video content is an absolute must-do for brands looking to keep the engagement going during the holidays. Social video scores higher conversions and engagement rates than any other type of content, especially when shared on Facebook and Twitter.
Consider going beyond the typical five-second holiday greeting by investing in high-quality video content. Through platforms such as Moovly, you can plot out an entire social video calendar to keep your followers glued to your campaigns throughout the holidays.
Coupled with the previous tip, eye-popping visuals and holiday can give your social feeds some much-needed flavor.
- Run a Holiday Ad
As noted earlier, the holidays and social ads go hand-in-hand.
For those in the world of ecommerce, running a holiday ad is a smart move to tap into the trend of social shopping.
Whether through a video, carousel ad or static image, holiday Facebook ads are the bread and butter of business across just about any industry. Holiday-specific promotions such as this one from Dollar Shave Club combine both humor and curiosity to drive clicks.
Marketers who’ve run ads in the past should see the holidays as a window of opportunity. While competition may be tighter, your followers are likewise more comfortable parting with their funds during the year’s biggest shopping season. Whether your ecommerce platform is self-hosted or SaaS-based, make sure you’re ready for the spike in traffic.
- Take Your Followers Behind-the-Scenes
If you’re looking to fill up your social calendar but feel that your current crop of content is lacking much personal flavor, why not put your followers in your own shoes?
The holidays represent a prime time to make that ever-so-important personal connection with your social followers. Show the human side behind your brand via office photos, scenes of your team “in the wild” or otherwise preparing for the holidays.
This Instagram post from Hootsuite is a simple yet effective example of how a quick snapshot can show off a company’s positive culture.
If you have a smartphone handy, content like this is little more than a few taps away.
- Harness a Holiday Hashtag
Given that Tweets with hashtags receive 55% more engagement than those without, tacking holiday-themed hashtags onto your posts represents low hanging fruit to encourage more likes and shares.
There’s no shortage of holiday hashtags out there (#12daysofchristmas, #holidaytips, #tistheseason) which can be added to both boost and spice up your end-of-the-year posts.
While these tags may not result in a flood of engagement, they do show that your brand is willing to get into the holiday spirit. In the midst of tons of generic or otherwise non-holiday social posts, such a tag could indeed make your next post stand out from the crowd.
Conclusion
There’s no denying that December is traditionally a time of year where marketers are tempted to pump the breaks in preparation for the year to come. That’s no excuse to let your social presence fall by the wayside, though. By following this checklist, you can set up your holiday campaigns with peace of mind rather than scramble to fill your social feeds at the last minute.