Deck the halls – it’s the holiday season!
One of the best ways to double-down on holiday spirit (and cheer) is by using your social media channels to get your community excited, as well! As a social enterprise, your main mission is to share your message and increase your impact through visibility – that doesn’t mean that you can’t add some holiday excitement into your social media campaign to do so!
PRO TIP: Through all the “holiday” excitement, don’t lose focus on your main goal and purpose. It can easy to get wrapped up
(see what we did there?)in eggnog and pumpkin spice lattes… but make sure the content makes sense with your mission.
These are 10 ideas for your holiday social media campaign! You can start incorporating these as early as the beginning of November all until mid-January!
Spice up your copy!
Spice up your social media captions using holiday-inspired vocabulary! This is the perfect time to break out all your holiday puns, famous quotes in your favorite holiday movies, and throw in some of the popular things that only come out during this time of year.
Using words that symbolize the holidays creates an emotional connection with your community, putting them in the mindset that the season is approaching and your business is taking part in all the glorious, glittery, and warm activities!
Below is a list of words to swipe for your holiday copy:
- Cheery
- Joyful
- Eggnog
- Warmth
- Fireplace
- Gingerbread
- Crisp
- Roasting
- Merry
An example of TenTree, a social enterprise, using the subtle holiday-inspired copy in their caption:
“Decorate” your feed with holiday-inspired items
It wouldn’t be the holidays if you didn’t bring out the tinsel, sparkling lights, or candy canes… right?
No matter if you decorate for the holidays at home, it’s easy to “decorate” your feed with holiday graphics! As social media is an extremely visual platform to engage with your audience, using holiday-inspired graphics during this time of year sets the mood for your audience to also get into the spirit.
You don’t need to go over the top with snowmen, snowflakes, Santa Claus, or the like… stick to what works best for your brand and “decorate” from there.
Some ideas for holiday visuals:
- Stars
- Trees
- Candy canes
- Cookies
- Mistletoe
- Mittens
This makes content more relatable and thoughtful for your audience – AND more human!
J. Crew (although not a social enterprise) always nails it with the holiday visuals!
Use colors to match your brand
There is a very specific set of colors that joyfully sing “it’s the holidays”! While some marketers will argue that using holiday colors can be overdoing it, we’d like to say that whatever colors you decide to use to evoke the holidays, they don’t need to be the typical colors.
Yes, red, green, gold, and silver are all colors that are normally used during this time of year. Yes, even we get tired of seeing all the same colors on social media… but there are so many other colors that are holiday inspired!
Take the social enterprise, Hydro Flask, for example! They used holiday-inspired colors but picked “non-traditional” ones to match their brand and message – living and enjoying the outdoors!
Show off your holiday spirit with your team
While your audience’s timelines may be filled with photos and imagery of warm baked cookies, glittery stars, mugs of eggnog or gluhwein… one way to stand out is to show off your team’s holiday spirit on social media!
By getting your team involved, this is a great way to…
- Re-introduce your team
- Show the behind the scenes of your brand
- Connect on an emotional level with your audience
- Get into the spirit
- Have fun over the holidays!
Partner with a non-profit
‘Tis the season of giving and that means this is a great opportunity to support non-profits or other good causes aligned with your mission. If you are a social enterprise, this is a great opportunity to increase your impact by including it into your social media campaign and asking your community to give back during the holidays.
As we all know, the holidays can get hectic with shopping and lots of gift-giving. This is another opportunity to engage your audience during the season to continue their gift shopping while also giving back! Partnering with a non-profit, charity organization, or having an extra giveback component during the holidays is the perfect way to share your message further.
You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and redirect your audience to a specific landing page to give back or donate to your non-profit organization!
Incorporate giveaways and sales
As we mentioned above, it is the season of giving!
The best way to take advantage of the season of giving is by hosting giveaways or sales into your campaign! Through this type of social media campaign, you’re activating your audience to take action which can boost engagement, reach, and overall audience count.
If you decide to host a giveaway, some points to keep in mind:
- Create a list of guidelines and rules
- Set a deadline for the giveaway
- Use a holiday-inspired visual
- Add a specific holiday hashtag
- Make sure one of the guidelines is to share your post (for increased visibility)
PRO TIP: Make sure the giveaway is aligned with your message and also something your audience looks for!
Add memes and GIFs into your content
Who doesn’t love a good holiday GIF or meme?
Now that content has shifted on social media platforms to more “quirky” (that wasn’t on purpose, we promise) and shareable content with text and a hint of sarcasm to be relatable – GIFs and memes are at their prime!
Of course, original photos and graphics have their place in creating content and sharing on social media, but we’re seeing a shift move towards text-heavy content with inspirational quotes, a sarcastic line, or memes and GIFs all together!
Using a holiday-inspired GIF or meme can be more relatable with your audience, especially if they are on the funnier side!
https://giphy.com/gifs/starbucks-starbucks-holiday-dZ3X5Ds2CLhRAkk9OG
Source user-generated content to share
If you are a product-based company, you’re at a great advantage because you can take advantage of your audience’s content!
You can use seasonal hashtags to encourage your audience to create holiday-inspired content, then can reshare their content on your own social media platforms. By resharing their content, you’re highlighting your community, showing that you see their content, and give them a shoutout on your platform.
Take Stasher, for example, who reshared a Halloween inspired post from one of their audience members!
Send out a ‘pick-me-up’ to your community
While the holidays generally symbolize emotions of excitement, cheerfulness, joy, and happiness… sometimes it can also mean moments of anxiety, stress, and discomfort for others.
Not everyone experiences the holidays in the same way and to create a heartfelt and thoughtful social media holiday campaign, it requires understanding that the holidays just plain suck for some.
READ: How to Implement Inclusive Marketing in your Content Strategy
If your business is aware of that – a great way to connect with your audience is by sending out a “pick-me-up” to your community. For example, many brands have sent out a virtual holiday Starbucks card for coffee on them!
This is a great initiative to surprise your audience, show you care and be a nice way to lift their spirits if they’re having a rough day.
Collaborate with a content agency
Need additional support and help? Give us a jingle!
Collaborating with a content agency early, to create a holiday social media campaign for all your platforms can take the stress out of holiday planning.
Since there are so many opportunities to incorporate the holidays into your content, make a list of your goals first and then work backward to see how you can implement each one through the holiday months.
Working with the right content agency can make planning easier, less hectic, and will give you the chance to focus on getting YOUR holiday shopping done!
via GIPHY
Final Thoughts
Social media is a great place to get in front of your audience and a platform that is easily relatable. Through the different ideas, you can pick and choose which ones align with your brand best and incorporate them there. We highly advise NOT to try and do it all, especially because it will crowd your feed and might annoy your audiences with too much merry, bright, holiday joy.
Our biggest tip, however, is to have fun with it! The holidays are for giving and celebrating, so don’t take things too seriously!
10 ideas for a holiday social media campaign:
- Spice up your copy!
- “Decorate” your feed with holiday-inspired items
- Use colors to match your brand
- Show off your holiday spirit with your team
- Partner with a non-profit
- Incorporate giveaways and sales
- Add memes and GIFs into your content
- Source user-generated content to share
- Send out a “pick-me-up” to your community
- Collaborate with a content agency – like us!
Whether you’re making a list and checking it twice for ideas, you can easily start adding holiday cheer into your social media campaigns by simply adding typical decorations and holiday copy! If you want to kick it up a notch, we’d love to work with you to make the most out of your social media holiday campaign, so you can make the most impact!
Schedule a clarity call with us here! Let’s chat over eggnog (not our beverage of choice, but we won’t judge you for drinking it).
Enjoyed this post? You might like these, too:
9 Social Media Tips for your Giving Tuesday Campaign
How to Implement Inclusive Marketing in your Content Strategy
Develop a Sustainable SEO Strategy for your Content
5 Pillars of a Powerful Message for your Social Enterprise
Want more content goodness? DOWNLOAD your very own Content Generating Machine to help you go from idea, to content, to community, and clients!
