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Some businesses can generate up to 20% of their annual revenue over the holidays alone, while others experience their biggest slow down of the year. No matter how much business you do or don’t do over the holidays, however, they represent an important time to create connection between your brand and your clients and consumers. One way to do this is with your social media content. Here are 8 great holiday ideas for your social media content.
1. Create a Holiday Theme
The holidays are a great time to change up your profile and cover photos to create a holiday theme. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that your theme should fit in with your branding. Your brand is essentially the “personality” of your business or the kind of person your business would be if your business were an actual person. If you don’t actually know what your personality is or have not yet fully nailed down your branding, this can be a great time to do it.
2. Strut Your Stuff
In the end, people don’t actually connect with businesses, they connect with people. And guess what? Your “business” is actually a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. Chances are good, your people do “peoply” things like having holiday parties, decorating their cubicles or wearing hideous Christmas sweaters to work. One great way to create a connection with your audience is to let them in on the fun and post-holiday pics of your events, decorations or outfits on social media.
3. Give a Shout Out to Your Fans
These days, businesses don’t just have consumers, they have fans. Just like Taylor Swift or any other pop icon, the truth is, your business would largely not exist without your fans. So take a tip from T-Swifty’s book and give them a shout-out. You may not be able to put them in your latest music video, but you can wish them a happy birthday, celebrate their accomplishments with them, respond on their pages and even share their photos on yours.
4. Show Concern for Their Safety
No matter what kind of business you run, you know something about the risks that your clients and consumers run over the holidays. If you own an insurance agency, this can be a great time to offer tips to help keep their home safe while they travel. Retailers can offer tips on how to keep their information safe, and while health consultants can offer tips for boosting their client’s immune system over the holidays.
5. Create Fun, Interactive Content
Remember that connection is a two-way street. You want to use social media to show what’s happening to you, but you also want to invite a response. Fun, interactive content can include posting pics of employees in some of their favorite holiday attire and inviting followers to share their or sharing some favorite holiday memories and inviting your followers to share theirs as well.
6. Do a Holiday Giveaway
Nothing gets people more interested than free stuff. Instead of doing a single giveaway, however, make it interactive. You can do a “12 days of giveaways,” with a string of smaller prized leading up to a grand prize or you can run a contest that requires people to participate every day. Giveaways are great, but make sure you know what it is you hope to get for your giveaway as well, and make sure to use the right technology to help you. If you are trying to collect email addresses, then give away entries in exchange for email addresses. If you are trying to generate web traffic, post a link and have them sign up for entry on your website rather than your social media page.
7. Create a Holiday Hashtag
Hashtags can help you find user-generated content across platforms and even help users connect with each other across platforms. A great hashtag associated with a contest or promotion can even get you noticed by mainstream media, which in turn can generate even more publicity for your brand. A great hashtag campaign can result in a veritable gold mine of exposure, so put some thought and care into creating a great one and deciding how to use it.
8. Show What You Stand For
Most of the biggest brands in the US have gained a lot of loyalty by showing they care about much more than just making money. They care about their employees, their communities and even the planet. Chances are good that your business is involved in some type of charitable work and if you aren’t, you should be. Whether it’s volunteering at a homeless shelter, collecting toys for underprivileged kids or even just giving a portion of your proceeds to a charitable organization, the holidays are a great time to let your followers know what you stand for and what you care about.
Yes, for many businesses, the holidays are when you will make a good chunk of your revenue for the entire year. But the holidays should not just be a time to focus on selling as much as you can. It should also be a time to create connection with your audience that will carry you through the leaner months as well. In addition to being an absolute shopping frenzy, the holidays are also a time to reconnect with family and friends. The same way consumers need to maintain this balance in their personal lives, you should also keep this balance in mind as a business.
