Social media is already a challenging task year-round. But wait until the holidays come into town.
People are ready to spend searching for the perfect gifts for their families, friends and loved ones. Everyone’s already on their phones or computers with their wallets out and their card numbers memorized.
With all of this eagerness to buy during the holidays, it’s important to have a social media plan handy. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on the holiday cheer (in terms of Christmas traffic, leads and sales).
Also read: A Complete Guide to Social Media Marketing in The Philippines
15 festive social media tips for the holidays
As you map out your social media campaign strategy, ask and answer these questions:
- What should I post on social media for Christmas?
- What should I advertise for the holidays?
- How do I use my social media for holidays
- Where do I even begin?
But don’t worry! We’ve gathered a list of holiday social media tips for you.
1. Learn from the past performances
The first thing to do is learn from your past social media campaigns. What has worked for your business and what hasn’t? Then plan your holiday content around those data.
Ask these questions:
- What promotions worked well?
- How many sales did you make from them?
- What content format got the most engagement?
- What were the best-selling products for every promotion?
This makes it important to analyze your social media performance all year round. These are the Social Media Metrics You Should Be Monitoring.
2. Prepare your social media calendar
so plan your strategies well.
Christmas is one of the busiest seasons of the year. You’ll most likely have a lot on your plate. If you don’t plan, you’ll forget some important tasks, so have a social media marketing calendar and start plugging posts ASAP.
Your holiday social media calendar should include the following:
- Teasers
- Calls-to-action
- Engaging captions
- Branded images
- Landing page URLs
Also, when creating your social media calendar, consider planning promotions and sales. Map out the significant posts you want to go live immediately and add the minor posts later.
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3. Prepare a budget
The social media scene will bustle with new advertisers, especially during the busy Christmas season. As a result, rates will likely go up, so you’ll have to pay more than usual for your ads.
While bidding on all the ads is tempting, keep your budget in mind. Budgeting for your social media spending prevents unnecessary costs on ads that don’t guarantee results. Once you’ve established a budget, set a bid cap on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram ads.
4. Get festive with your themes and profiles
When people visit your social media profile or see your ads, do they feel the holiday season? Or are they too bland for Christmas?
Here are some social media tips to get creative and festive with your profile and content:
- Give your social handles a holiday look
- Change your profile photo and cover photo to add Christmas designs
- Pin a cheerful Christmas post at the top of the page to greet your customers
- You can also pin a post about major promos customers can watch out for — again, don’t forget to sprinkle it with holiday designs elements
- Do the same to your content. Think of fun, engaging holiday posts that will catch people’s attention.
Apart from the graphics, the written content should also feel festive and excite the audience for the upcoming holidays.
But be careful not to stray from your branding in the middle of all that excitement.
5. Start teasing new products, promos and sales
Hype up your audience early if you’re planning to launch new products or holiday specials. Remember, most customers look for gifts months before the holidays. They’re already searching for gifts and the best holiday deals.
Steer them in your direction by teasing your promos, sales or new products ahead of time. This will not only keep them informed; it will also give them more time to make their purchase decisions.
By teasing your products, sales and promos now, you can entice potential customers to keep their eyes on you instead of your competitors.
6. Create holiday-themed content series
Creating holiday-themed content for social media is a great way to engage your audience and get them to notice what you’re offering. First determine your objectives — increase brand awareness, boost sales, foster engagement, or simply spread holiday cheer?
Remember to stay true to your brand and remain authentic while creating holiday-themed content. Your content should resonate with your target audience and contribute positively to the holiday spirit.
7. Create a Christmas video campaign
Launching a video campaign for Christmas can help you stand out during the season. Videos are highly engaging and shareable, making them an ideal way to connect with your audience.
The combination of visuals, sound, and storytelling allows you to evoke the emotional essence of Christmas, which is critical for tapping into the festive spirit and resonating with your viewers.
Additionally, a well-executed Christmas video campaign allows you to showcase your products in a visually appealing and relevant way. It’s easier to entice potential customers and drive sales.
8. Schedule content and automation in advance
Every post must be scheduled to go live during peak posting times for optimal traction. Therefore, we don’t recommend doing it manually. Scheduling your content in advance will free up time for other tasks and activities, not to mention reducing your stress about what to post when.
Prepare all your social media posts for the different platforms and choose their optimal post time. This is why you need to have a content calendar planned.
9. Work with influencers
have the budget for it.
Influencer marketing is a strategy that involves collaborating with influencers with a big social media following and in the same niche as your business. You partner with them so they can market your product/service/brand to their followers.
However, there’s more to influencer marketing than just sending a bunch of celebrities free stuff. Determine the goals for what you want to achieve — it can be to get more sales or to increase your audience.
Once you’ve finalized your goals, decide on the type of influencer marketing campaign you want to run. You can choose from affiliate marketing, giveaways or guest content posting opportunities.
10. Incentivize UGC
What’s better to attract more customers than content created by your followers themselves?
Incentivize your followers and happy customers to create original content for you. Not only do you gain more organic and authentic content, you also get extra exposure from their own social media accounts.
11. Run a unique hashtag campaign
stand out from the competition.
When you think of social media, it’s impossible not to think of hashtags.
With a unique hashtag campaign, you can create a strong brand presence that sets you apart from your competitors. Your chosen hashtag should help social media users quickly associate it with your brand and the holidays. It should also sound catchy but must be easy to memorize.
Once you’ve nailed down the hashtag, start promoting it on all of your social media channels. Avoid sticking to just one channel; promote your hashtag campaign on your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok accounts.
12. Know when to run social media ads
It’s best to start running Christmas ads a few months before the holiday season (think Ber months in the Philippines!).
Most ads run well at night, but some social media platforms will recommend optimal times for ad posting schedules. Follow the advice of your chosen platforms since they know the algorithm better than you do.
13. Run a holiday promo
Online shoppers are looking for the best deals during Christmas. They’ll appreciate the savings they’ll get from your promos. A small discount might be all you need to convince them into buying.
Remember to make your offer visually enticing so it’ll be easily noticed by your customers.
14. Send an email newsletter
Boost your social media holiday campaign with an email newsletter. It’s a great avenue to promote your special promotion to loyal customers.
But avoid being overly promotional and pushy. Personalize the message by first thanking them for supporting your business. And then let them know how they can access the special promo created just for them.
If you get it right, you’ll definitely make that sale.
15. Offer a free Christmas gift guide
Use your products to create a Christmas gift guide. Make the content visual with high-quality images and even a video.
A Christmas gift guide can significantly boost sales by simplifying the shopping process for customers. Provide a curated selection of your products to help them find the perfect gifts for their loved ones.
A well-presented gift guide can lead to higher conversion rates, driving sales for your business during the holiday season.
Not just social media, get your online store ready, too!
Planning your content for the holiday season doesn’t have to be stressful. By following our holiday social media tips with careful planning, a dash of creativity and some holiday cheer, you can get your social media plan locked and loaded for Christmas.
Check out our 10-Step guide to prepare your online store for the year-end shopping season. You’ll be ready to sell, sell, sell as soon as you hear Jose Mari Chan crooning on the radio.
More social media tips for your business:
How Social Media is Changing Online Shopping
Get Verified on Social Media and Earn Your Blue Checkmark
Best Practices for Creating Video Ads on Social Media
