The holiday season is quickly approaching! As the thoughts of cooking, cleaning, gift buying, and entertaining family and friends fill your mind with stress, don’t let your social strategy add to it. While you have a TON on your plate heading into this season, let the thought of how you are going to fit that 25lb turkey in your oven be your only concern.
Follow these 5 tips to help you not only prepare, but boost your holiday social media presence and engagement!
Start Planning Now
It might only be November, but the holidays are so much closer than you think. Time inevitably gets away from us, so don’t put off what you can take care of today, and save yourself some stress. Your not-so-distant-future self will thank you for it. Set up some time this week to plan out your holiday social strategy. That means all the way through December and the New Year.
Use Your Resources
Planning ahead works best when you use your resources to make the work easier and more efficient. What’s that old saying . . . “work smarter, not harder”? Try creating a content calendar where you can plan out your entire month of content at one time. Once you fill out the calendar, you will have an entire month/season of content ready to go! The thinking and designing is done, all you have to do is quickly post! There are many resources available online, some even free!
Be Relatable
The holidays always seem to be a time where people come together. Use your online presence to do just that. Don’t be afraid to put your heart into your posts. Show the “warm fuzzy” side of your business/organization, and make people feel at home. Choose warm color schemes; use holiday graphics; share heartfelt stories of followers, readers, and customers; and don’t leave comments without a reply—engage with your social followers!
Showcase What You Have to Offer
The holidays are a time when people are literally shopping around any time they look at a screen, whether they realize it or not! Capitalize on that! Try mixing things up, and delivering various types of content to showcase what you offer. Post on Twitter, go live on Facebook, utilize your Instagram story. These are all tools that will showcase your products/services to a wide variety of audiences. Maybe run a special campaign like “The 12 Days of Christmas”—perhaps post a different product, book, program, or service every day for 12 days… the possibilities are endless!
Run Pop-Up Sales!
Who doesn’t LOVE a good deal?! There is nothing better than hopping on Instagram only to see that your favorite shop is having a pop up sale for 40% off an order. Your loyal customers get excited about these things, and when they love your product or service, they want to share it! And when they share it, others are drawn to your page! Run occasional pop-up sales on a book you wrote, link to other pop-up sales of your favorite authors/thought leaders, and boost your revenue as well as your social engagement!
Don’t let the holidays stress you out!
Prepare, take advantage of your resources, and execute your plan well so that you can relax and enjoy the holidays with your loved ones!
Lindsey Vander Vlucht is a social media specialist with a love for people and a passion to share their stories. She lives in West MI with her husband and daughter, where they love to go for runs by the beach, hike, cook together, have lots of bonfires, and drink all of the coffee together.