What Can You Do To Make Holidays Work For Your Social Media Right Now

Holidays offer amazing opportunities for social media activity but only if there’s a good fit for your product or business. Don’t force it!

We’ve just had a run of holidays and long weekends and whilst there are sensitivities around religious holidays, there’s no holding back when it comes to Mother’s Day, which is next up on our calendar (in South Africa). Here’s some motivation to make the most of Mother’s Day and how to do it.

Why holidays are so good for social media

Key benefits include:

• Boosting customer engagement
  • It’s common ground that everyone can relate to, which is condusive to getting people talking
• Showing off brand creativity
  • It’s not difficult or expensive to be creative. Well it really doesn’t have to be
• Tapping into emotional appeal
  • Holiday posts foster a sense of community
  • Not that this is necessarily a priority but holidays are usually bigger shopping days and, since people make most purchase decisions with their emotions, a post that appeals to them emotionally has a really good chance of converting a promotion into a sale.
• Offering sharable content
  • Stunning visuals, a well-placed message and and interesting call to action and people will share it
• Making your business real and relevant
  • Especially useful for brands that are less personal and find it difficult to stir up emotions.

How to do it

Most of the work is likely to be before the holiday but you can think about your posts BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the special day:

BEFORE

1. Build up to the day with:
   • A countdown
   • Themed posts and profiles
   • A special hashtag
2. Create special offers
   • Discount vouchers for moms
   • Special offers for Mother’s Day gifts
   • Special gifts for moms or grans
3. Arrange events
   • Collaborations with restarants
   • Tap into existing events like wine tasting, high tea
   • Promote special places – like great picnic spots etc
4. Run competitions
   • For moms only
   • That offer prizes you can win for your mom
5. Get your staff to participate
   • What we’re planning for Mother’s Day (husbands, sons or daughters)
   • What we’re making for Mother’s Day (husbands, sons or daughters)
   • Mother’s Day wishlist (for moms and grans)
6. Offer gift ideas
   • Create DIY Videos (how to make something for mom etc)
   • eBook Giveaway (DIY gifts or great recipes)
   • Dad Guides or Dad How-To’s
   • Lists of gifts the Mother in your life will love
7. Post recipes ideas
   • Breakfast in bed
   • Sweet treats to make
   • Lunch ideas
   • Family dinner plans
8. List the best places to take your mom on Mother’s Day
   • Restaurants (look for opportunities to collaborate)
   • Picnic spots
   • Experiences such as wine tasting (for moms with older ‘kids’), aquariaums running specials
9. Use all platforms
   • Pinterest can power up your marketing – share your DIY ideas and post your recipes
   • Go big on Instagram – post beautiful pics to support your great ideas and strong messaging

10. Make sure everything you plan is in place across all platforms
    • Voucher redeeming process
    • Web pages
    • Staff communication
    • Whatever is required to deliver on your promises or strategies

DURING

Publish a ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ post. If you want to you can do some of the items listed for after the ‘holiday’. The beauty of saving them for later is that it keeps the good vibes going and makes the celebration last longer!

AFTER

1. Publish details and pictures from any events or activities you arranged
2. Repost any user-generated content (for example, if your competition gets people sharing their Mother’s Day activities then you can repost them all throughout the day or at the end of the day in an album)
3. Publish the name/s of the winner/s of your competition.

Conclusion

Once you’ve done this once, apply the same thinking and your Mother’s Day plan can become a blueprint for all other holidays on the calendar.

Don’t you think this calls for a celebration?!