Sahail Ashraf posted on 3 November 2021
Try the tips below for the best chance at making Christmas a great time of year for your social media marketing.
It’s probably the most lucrative time of the year for retailers and for brands, so you can expect a lot of activity online at Christmas. We thought we would run through a few ideas that should help you get the most out of the festive season when it comes to social media marketing.
Video
There is nothing more powerful than video to build engagement among your followers and fans. And using it at Christmas makes sense, because there are so many moods and notes you can cover with video.
It is well worthwhile going a little bigger on budget for this one. With your creative team, focus on creating a video that really stands out from the crowd, by making sure the visuals and the audio is the best you can afford.
While video is powerful, it can be expensive. However, you don’t have to create a huge piece. Instead, focus on creating short content if budget is an issue.
UGC
User-generated content is quite simply some of the most powerful stuff you can get onto your social feeds. By involving the people who buy your stuff and who are already engaged, you tap into enthusiasm and brand loyalty.
Use a hashtag centered around Christmas and encourage your followers to get involved. An obvious example is decorations, where users can send in their photos of their inspired Christmas decoration ideas. Another might be christmas party costumes. You get the picture.
The hashtags should be simple and easy to use, and with the right idea for content you should soon have an engaged audience and content that is naturally viewed.
Contests
These are incredibly effective at building engagement and sales at Christmas. They will need some creativity to get set up, but once you have a good idea for a contest it will be a great experience for your audience.
There are many ways to do this. A popular option is a caption competition, where audiences are given photos and offer a caption (obviously the whole thing will be Christmas themed). The end result is an easy entry for the audience, and you gain plenty of engagement.
Everyone likes to win stuff. You don’t even have to rely upon your own products for prizes. You can work with partners in business to offer prizes too. Whatever you do, focus on using the right hashtags again and making sure that you start to promote the competition a few weeks before Christmas. It’s all about the anticipation.
The 12 Days
Have a 12 day countdown to Christmas or even an advent calendar schedule of posts. This means you can have a focus every day, with some great visual content that grabs attention.
Offer a small gift for each day and you have compelling reasons to follow your feeds. It is important to ensure that you run the promotion across all your social media channels so that you have continuity as well as great branding.
This is a very popular way to build anticipation and keep an audience with you during the busiest time of the year for brands.
Get the decorations out
Take a look at all of your social media profiles and decorate them with seasonal graphics. You can easily find these online and even if you can’t quite get what you want we are betting your creative team can pull something together.
If you don’t have a seasonal social media profile, with Christmas trees and reindeer dotted everywhere, then you run the risk of being left out of the general mood this time of year.
Those are just some of the ways to get your brand and it’s presence set up for the Christmas rush. Plan it well, spend a little more on the budget, and you should have a positive and engagement-worthy experience.
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