Social media has become a part of everyone’s life. It has played a big role with how people interact with each other and it’s something that is not slowing down anytime soon. Social media provides businesses with the means of reaching a more targeting audience than perhaps offline marketing allows.
Christmas is a great opportunity for business to really engage with their social media followers and customers. Whilst your social channels should primarily represent the values and personality of your brand, if you want to get your audience in the Christmas spirit then there’s nothing wrong with changing it to reflect the holiday season. Whether it’s tweaking your cover photo to showcase some special festive products or posting a picture of your office Christmas decorations and branding it elegantly with your logo to really get into the festive vibe.
You can also make your logo Christmassy – either by adding a Santa hat or some mistletoe. Alternatively, you can always take your original logo and just add festive related hashtags beneath it. An image created specifically for your brand will be more effective than a general stock image.
GIFs and videos are a great way to boost any social media campaign. It makes your content stand out amongst the very busy news feeds of your customers and can be used at any time of year. So much of the spirit around Christmas is represented by visuals – red and green decorations, magical images of a winter wonderland and Santa Claus. GIFs and videos provide a great way to utilise these visuals in a more interactive, sometimes funny and engaging way.
There’s no doubt that competitions can generate a lot of engagement and interest and Christmas is a great time to capitalise on this. Whether it’s a simple caption competition or hosting a big ’12 days of Christmas’ competition. This year we’ve worked with RED Driving School to launch a Christmas campaign in the form of an advent calendar. This has involved creating a GIF virtual advent calendar which could be found on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Each day throughout December up and until Christmas Day a new door opens revealing a hidden prize up for grabs. It’s proved to be a fun and exciting way to engage customers.
❄️COMPETITION❄️ It’s day five of our Christmas competition! To win, simply follow us and like this post then comment below with your favourite thing about Christmas 🎅 Watch the video to see today's prize revealed #12DaysofChristmas #Competition pic.twitter.com/RIPUSO8HWj
— RED Driving School (@REDDriving) December 17, 2018
❄️COMPETITION❄️ It’s day six of our Christmas competition! To win, simply follow us and like this post then comment below with your favourite thing about Christmas 🎅 Watch the video to see today's prize revealed #12DaysofChristmas #Competition pic.twitter.com/sjqPqxCWmz
— RED Driving School (@REDDriving) December 18, 2018
The 5th day of Christmas post as part of the 12 days of Christmas competition lead to 43,698 impressions and 5,150 media views
By capitalising on Christmas, Red Driving School have had engagement rates multiple by four times compared to their usual campaigns.
Another technique which has really taken off is polls. Polls can be fun and festive, but also lend practical, valuable results. Both Facebook and Twitter offer the option of running polls. This could include; “Are you naughty or nice?” or “What is the best Christmas film?”. The general rule for social media content is that 80% should add value to customer’s lives, and 20% should be promoting your business or products – meaning there’s lots of room for fun, festive polls.
Feeling festive?🎄With only five Tuesdays to go, we want to know which retailer has you excited for the holiday season? 🤶🎅
— The PHA Group (@ThePHAGroup) November 20, 2018
Hashtags should not be overlooked. Standing out among tonnes of posts on someone’s social feed can be difficult. If you can think beyond the simple hashtags, then getting noticed will be a lot easier. There are tools which can help produce unique hashtags such as Display Purposes or Focal Mark which allow users to generate hashtags based on the categories selected and their business.
Why not stand out by utilising key dates. Make sure you’re aware of trending events throughout the festive period, if there is a slightly unusual one that you think your brand could latch onto, then go for it – it will be a great way to boost your social media presence.
If you need some help with your last-minute Christmas campaign and don’t know where to start, get in touch today to see what our team can do for you!
