Make Christmas Come Alive

We have a run of holidays and long weekends coming up and we though we’d revisit and revise an old blog post to remind you to have some fun!

Whilst there are sensitivities around religious holidays, there are so many different ways to find opportunities for your business. You can talk holidays or vacation, end of year celebrations, Christmas, New Years day, New Years celebrations, New Years resolutions, year plans, back to school etc etc. There’s just so much! No matter what the approach you decide on, here’s some motivation to make the most of the opportunities.

Why holidays are so good for social media

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! 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
   • Special prices
   • Special stock items that make great gifts
   • Great combinations or items or services
3. Arrange events
   • Collaborate with restarants or venues
   • Tap into existing events like wine tasting, high tea
   • Promote special places – like great picnic spots etc
4. Run competitions
   • Submit pics of your Christmas decorations
   • Give us your best gift idea for partner, mom or dad or gran etc
   • Colouring in for kids
5. Get your staff and customers to participate
   • Their Christmas Day plans
   • Gifts they’re giving or making
   • Their Christmas Day wishlist
   • Their family Christmas traditions
6. Offer gift ideas
   • DIY Videos (make your own gifts, ice your Christmas cake etc)
   • eBook giveaways (with DIY gifts, great recipes etc)
   • How-To guides
   • Lists of gifts everyone will love
7. Post recipes ideas
   • Christmas cake
   • Christmas pudding
   • Lunch inspiration
   • Family dinner ideas
8. List the best places to celebrate Christmas Day
   • Restaurants (look for opportunities to collaborate)
   • Picnic spots
   • Experiences such as wine tasting, aquariums etc – especially those running Christmas specials
9. Use all platforms
   • Pinterest can power up your marketing

• Share your DIY ideas
• Post your recipes
  • Go big on Instagram
• Post beautiful pics and strong messaging to support your great ideas

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 really creative (and appropriate) ‘Merry Christmas’ post.

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 Christmas Day activities then you can repost them all throughout the day or at the end of the day in an album)
3. Publish the names of the winners of your competition, and
4. Run more specials.

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

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