The holiday season can be overwhelming—but that doesn’t mean your social media strategy has to be. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Christmas to New Year’s, use these tips to inspire your organic holiday social media marketing and reach your audience where they’ll be.
Create a Theme
Whether you want to go with a generic holiday theme or tie in a more brand-specific initiative, you’ll want to make sure your holiday content comes together cohesively. Here are some key talking points you can use to make the most of your organic social calendar over the next few months:
- Beginning of the month—Post about the holiday season; a simple “thank you” message to your audience can go a long way.
- Throughout the month—Create content based around holiday tips. For example, if you’re a healthcare brand, you could provide heart-healthy cooking and baking recipes for the holidays.
- Thanksgiving—Recognize what your organization is thankful for; the more original, the better. Think: quick video clips with employees or kinetic text videos with messages from your C-suite to employees and consumers.
- Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday—Develop unique content around any promotions you may be running. Utilize Facebook and Instagram Stories and Reels to reach more users with your promotions.
- Giving Tuesday—Identify ways your organization is giving back this holiday season.
- Christmas—Lead up to Christmas with a “Twelve Days of Christmas” theme, or simply create authentic content relevant to your brand, such as any holiday-themed office parties and giveaways, Christmas tips related to your product or service and more.
Get User-Generated Content
Creating original content can be challenging for organizations without a dedicated social media team, especially around the busy holiday season. This is where your audience comes in. Your consumers are your biggest brand ambassadors, so getting user-generated content (UGC) from them is incredibly valuable. Check out these simple ways to get started:
- Incentivize your audience—People like to be rewarded, and what better way to reward people who already love your brand than with a few freebies? Establish a contest, set clear ground rules on how consumers can enter, then tease the prize—this could be holiday-themed gift baskets with your product, gift cards or subscriptions to a service you offer.
- Create a holiday hashtag—One of the simplest ways to create a library of user-generated content is by using a hashtag. For the holidays, create a branded holiday hashtag for users to tag you with for the chance to be featured on your page.
Check out our blog on generating UGC for your brand for more ideas.
Utilize Instagram & Facebook Stories
There’s a reason over 500 million Instagram users interact with Stories each day—they’re a fun, creative way to post captivating content and get the lowdown on information that might not make the cut for the newsfeed, whether that be from friends, family members or favorite brands. And for brands, the beauty lies in the ability to reach users where they’re spending most of their time. Think about it: While we may mindlessly scroll through the newsfeed abyss, we’re more actively engaged with content while watching Stories, as we choose to watch them or not. And if a consumer interacts with your brand frequently, the good news is that your content will be pushed right to the front of the list, making it even more likely to be seen. Here are some examples of Stories content to create for your brand this holiday season:
- Highlight a promotion—Running a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale? Let your audience know about it…tease the products or services you might have on sale or come up with cute riddles about when consumers can expect the sale to go live.
- Create a digital “storefront”—Use Stories to show off items that would make a great holiday gift. Stickers and links make finding your product or service hassle free for consumers!
- Showcase your own holiday cheer—Holiday cheer is contagious, so spread some joy to your audience by highlighting any in-office endeavors your brand may be pursuing in addition to external sales. Think: gingerbread-house-making contests, holiday parties, ugly sweater contests and more.
