As Christmas and the New Year are nearly upon us, all marketers and business owners are just as busy preparing their special social media campaigns as their customers are scouting for the perfect gift. And if everything goes right, they will purchase those gifts from your business.
Today we will discuss this specific aspect – how to make sure that everything goes right with your social media marketing campaign for the holidays. We will not focus on ads right now (we have done so in a previous article), but on the perfect ways to engage your followers, get them into the festive spirit and keep them interested in what you have to share with them.
It is important to match a great ad campaign with an amazing content mix. While you have a clear schedule for it during the rest of the year, in the holiday season you should go above and beyond the call of duty to keep your followers entertained and focused on your social media accounts.
Here are a few ideas to help you boost your goodwill among social media followers in the holiday season:
1. Plan Your Own 12 Days Of Christmas
The 12 Days of Christmas is a very popular carol and it is a great inspiration for people to keep a sort of countdown until the big day. For companies, it is the perfect way to plan and execute their social media content plan. Each day until Christmas (starting with December 14) share something on your page on a specific topic.
Cooking blogs, for example, can share recipes for dishes to put on the Christmas table. Or you can scout and share various Christmas traditions from all over the globe. The possibilities are endless and they will keep people checking your social media accounts so that they don’t miss your next post in the series.
2. Share Your Own Celebrations
The holidays are the best season of the year to give a human face to your business. Share photos of your Christmas decorations at the office, stories told by your employees about their own family traditions for Christmas and invite your followers to do the same.
This kind of conversation is very easy to start and maintain if you have the initiative to share first, to go beyond the brand image and to embrace the festive season as a team of real people, with real life stories.
3. Great Visuals
Everyone loves to browse gorgeous photos on the social media, depicting the most amazing Christmas trees around the globe, a peaceful little town alight with fairy lights or even the majestic landscape of snowy mountains. To bring a personal touch to this kind of post, share photos taken by yourself or your employees, with their stories attached to them. This simple and non-promotional type of post is what builds strong relationships with your followers.
4. Contests and Giveaways
This is a must-have content category during the holidays. It is the perfect way of engaging and rewarding your followers for their loyalty and even attracting new ones. Since people will always share their participation in various contests, it is more than likely that their friends will join them, too.
As for the giveaways, a downloadable eBook or video containing useful information, how-tos or tutorials is the perfect holiday gift which will not impact your margin.
5. Looking Towards the Future
As the year draws to an end, it is a great opportunity to tell your followers what you plan for the coming year. Share any upcoming product launches, business expansion plans, old trends which will stay, new ones to look forward to, and so on. By sharing your future projections, you will keep your followers’ interest to continue to engage with your business and find out more about each of these things as they happen.
And in the end do not forget a crucial aspect: be friendly and genuine in your interactions with your followers at all times, but especially during the holidays season. After all, this is the season for sharing joy, peace and love!