Does the holiday reflect your company values, line up with a current promotion, or speak to your audience? Would it make sense for a British company that only sells vegan products in the U.K. to post a dancing hot dog waving an American flag on July 4th? No, probably not. However, if an American restaurant posted the same thing to promote its annual hot dog eating contest - sign us up! Relevancy is not a requirement but it could be the difference between great engagement or virtual crickets.
Is your marketing team running in circles trying to keep up with every single holiday or celebration? It may be worthwhile for your team to post on World Chocolate Day but if you miss a holiday here and there don’t sweat it. Posting holiday content too frequently could be a bad thing. Why? If every post on your social media platforms is about a holiday and doesn’t relate back to your business you could be causing holiday fatigue or turning your audience off. An effective content strategy accounts for different categories of niche content that speaks to your audience and drives engagement and growth. So stop letting Arbor Day stress you out and focus on the holidays that can make an impact on your company’s goals.
There is no doubt that a professional graphic designer will help deliver an on-brand and polished product. However, there are tons of great resources and tools at your disposal - for free! We recommend starting with a holiday game plan. Ask yourself - which holidays will resonate with our target audiences? What time of year will we run that special promotion? Should those posts be written content, videos, photographs or graphics? Allocate the time and resources you or your team will need to devote to graphic and content creation. If you have little to no graphic design experience, source some inspiration online or look for a graphic design tool that offers different types of design templates.
Here are a few of our favorites:
Canva
Picmonkey
Pixlr
Piktochart
If your feed isn’t color-coordinated or curated to perfection, don’t drive yourself crazy. As long as you speak from the heart and keep your audience in mind, you’ll achieve something far greater than an aesthetic vibe - authenticity!
Speaking of authenticity, your social media marketing campaign should aim to be more than a place to collect those coveted little red hearts. When companies promote their people, commit to important causes, and show gratitude to their customers they foster a sense of community and forge connections. If you can identify one to two things a month outside of your typical services or products, and create rich material around that topic, you’ll enjoy a steady flow of traffic and interest over and over again. Holiday posts serve as a great opportunity to make people feel good, connect to your brand and message and encourage people to like and share within their own online communities. Holiday posts create emotional touchpoints. Maybe your audience has been on the fence about purchasing or engaging with your brand but when you can relate to them on a personal level you are providing them with that added bit of comfort and trust.
There are many challenges facing social media managers and marketers: Does the content have meaningful context? Is it being delivered to the right person? Is it being delivered on the right channel and platform in the correct format? Is all of that happening at the exact time of day to achieve optimum views and engagement? According to Sprout Social, the best times to post on social media overall is Tuesdays through Thursdays at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m., and the worst day to post on social media is Sunday. So what happens if the holiday falls outside of the desired window? Here are a few suggestions:
Tease, Tease, Tease: If you are running a holiday sale or special offer, run a few teaser posts leading up to when the sale or offer goes live. Even something as simple as a countdown clock can generate added excitement.
Deck the Halls: Retheme content on your page all week leading up to the event to attract additional engagement.
Get Ahead of the Game: On major holidays social media feeds will be flooded with the same type of content. Set yourself apart and post one or two days ahead of time.
Forget and Regret: Did you completely forget to post for a major holiday and now you’re regretting the missed opportunity? There is still time to turn it around. For example, post a recap of the fun things your team was up to during that time or run a flash sale.
Sure, maybe you are like that British vegan foods company thinking - ‘We would never post about dancing hot dogs on July 4th.’ But we urge you to declare your independence from traditional social media approaches, get creative and make the most of what the holidays have to offer because a well-crafted holiday message can help your social media feeds sparkle!
