It might feel far off, but Christmas is sneaking up on us whether you like it or not. Social media at Christmas-time brings Christmas countdowns, Instagram stories accompanied by catchy, jingly tunes and lots of shareable festive content.
It also brings a huge wave of Christmas campaigns from various companies, across all of our feeds, either through sponsorship or sharing.
Learnhub states that 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business on the platform, showcasing the value of Instagram as a marketing channel.
Companies choose to heavily promote during this time simply because of the results it brings. Working ahead of time to ensure your social media strategy is ready for this time is totally worth it.
According to Hubspot, 49% of marketers begin their holiday strategy before Halloween, so companies looking to capitalise on the festive period should ensure they have planned ahead of time!
So, here are some handy do’s and don'ts to keep in mind this year to make sure your festive social strategy is filled with cheer:
Do:
1. Add some holiday sparkle to your Instagram profile
One of the easiest ways for brands to show their audience that they are in the festive spirit is through sprucing up their social media page with some Christmas joy. Brands should be thoughtful about this and utilise recognisable Christmas icons in a way that incorporates the brand’s purpose or products. For example, brands should avoid posting random photos of Christmas icons, and instead incorporate recognisable Christmas figures into products and existing branding.
2. Create a Christmas competition
Christmas competitions are a great way to create buzz around a brand whilst also showing their audience that you are thinking about them around the holidays. Marketers should ensure the competition is truly rewarding by choosing products that their audience would truly love, in combination with their own products/services.
Utilising Instagram’s story feature is a great way to advertise the competition, as part of the conditions make sure to advise your audience that they need to share your post to their instagram story. This is a great way to pay back your customers whilst also boosting engagement and reaching new audiences.
3. Wish your audience well
Christmas presents the perfect opportunity for brands to speak to the emotions of the Christmas period and wish their customers well. One of the best ways to create a closer relationship with customers is by wishing them well and thanking them for all of their business this past year. Brands should present these posts as shareable, festive themed content that is shareable and encourages their audience to engage.
Dont:
1. Stay quiet
Around the Christmas period, Instagram users are sure to be inundated by companies saturating the platform with festive content. This may make some brands want to retract, however, brands with this mind-frame must rethink their strategy in order to cut through the noise and create unique yet fun and festive content for their audience to avoid being forgotten about during one of the biggest opportunities for sales.
2. Join in a Christmas trend, even if it isn't relevant to your company
Hopefully this one is pretty self-explanatory, but brands should ensure that they avoid using hashtags or joining in on specific posting trends that are completely irrelevant to their brand, products or demographic.
3. Do the 12 days of Christmas before / after the actual 12 days
The 12 days of Christmas are a great way for brands to prompt countdowns for launches, promote a competition or as challenges for posting everyday in the 12 days. However, brands should ensure that they are only using this strategy across the actual 12 days of Christmas. This strategy will be used by many brands across Instagram so that last thing your company wants to do is confuse customers by using a different ‘12 days’ than other brands.
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