Is holiday posting worth the investment? Discover the benefits and drawbacks of holiday posting and how to create a holiday social media strategy that resonates with your target audience.
As avid social media users, I’m sure you’ve seen a few holiday posts that caught your eye over the years. Did it catch your eye because the content was well done? Or was it so bad that you thought, “Wow, who approved that?”
I’ve seen both and wondered if posting about the holidays is even worth it? What value does posting about #nationaldonutday bring to your business? Let’s find out!
We all know what national holidays are - the ones you get work off. But do you know what a social media holiday is? They're days that celebrate or acknowledge certain items, foods, skills, or anything else!
These holidays can be a broad or specific topic. Some examples of social media holidays are #SocialMediaDay (June 30th), #NationalDonutDay (June 3rd), #PiDay (March 14th), and #WorldAlzheimer'sDay (September 21st). You can download a list of 2023 Social Media Holidays here.
Social media has helped these holidays gain acknowledgment through digital marketing campaigns and hashtags. #NationalDonutDay was one of the highest-ranked hashtags on Twitter this past June 3rd. Using holidays relevant to your business can be a fun way to grow and foster engagement with your followers.
Every day is an opportunity to connect with your audience through social media. When brands post about what consumers value, support, and celebrate, it creates bonds between them. This shows the customer the brand cares about what they do.
A good way for you to create this bond is to post about holidays that both your business and your customers value and connect with. But if you're spending time every month crafting irrelevant and uncreative content for every holiday, it may be time to eliminate the task.
Is holiday posting worth your effort or a waste of time?
The answer to that question is up to you and your business. Does holiday posting align with your company's brand? Do you have the resources to create fresh, engaging content? Will your social media strategy benefit from such posts? These are all questions to think about before diving full force into posting about holidays.
Your team has decided they want to put the effort in to utilize holiday posting. Great! Now, you have to figure out which holidays to post on, how those posts will look, what you want to say to drive the conversation, and how to measure if it’s successful (and not a waste of time).
Holiday posts may seem like easy content to create, but to make the most out of these opportunities having thought behind them is the way to go. Plato once said, “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” And don’t we all want to seem like wise people?
Let’s look at some ways to craft impactful holiday content that actually says something to our audience:
April 20th is National Cheddar Fries Day. Charley's Cheesesteaks is taking advantage of the holiday to create a contest for a chance to win an order of free cheese fries. This is well done because the chosen holiday relates to the business, interests their customers, and engages the audience. Who doesn't want to win free cheese fries from a cheese fry place on national cheddar fries day?
This is a Valentine's Day post from a real estate agent. This holiday post needs improvement because it doesn't add value to the agent’s brand. Sure, their clients may enjoy this holiday but this post does nothing to grab their attention and engage them.
The post contains nothing specific to business other than listing their name, office, and number. Instead, they could have made a post about getting the love of your life their dream home and tied it into their business and customer base.
We've all heard of a few marketing disasters in our time, this one makes the list. At the end of 2015, Coca-Cola ran a Twitter campaign in Russia by sharing an illustration of the country covered in snow. The illustration sparked outrage because the map of the country was outdated, it excluded Kaliningrad, which has a complicated history.
Russians were furious and started the #BanCocaCola hashtag that went viral in the country and amassed large amounts of negative mentions on social media. A resurgence of the hashtag is happening this year due to the war in Ukraine.
To avoid bad and ugly situations, we’ve compiled a list of best practices for when it comes to holiday posting.
With every day bringing a new opportunity to connect with your audience, it can be hard to figure out which days you should be posting what. Mixing in social media holiday posts can just add to the complexity of a social media manager's job.
By being prepared with a well-thought out social media schedule and holiday plan can help alleviate the stress and hopefully avoid any messy PR moments. That’s why we’ve prepared our annual social media calendar to get you started. It includes a list of the many (but not all) of the popular social media holidays and hashtags. Download our 2023 Social Media Calendar here!!
It also includes a spreadsheet template that lets you create and schedule a year’s worth of holiday content in just hours when used with our social media management platform, Cloud Campaign. With simplified scheduling features, unlimited storage, and tons of integrations to utilize, Cloud Campaign helps busy social media managers stay ahead of the holidays. Give it a try 2 weeks, totally free! See why Cloud Campaign can make your scheduling process easier by clicking here!
Happy scheduling!
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