Creating social content during the holidays can be difficult for brands. During the holiday season, the culture on social media shifts to focus being surrounded by loved ones. Typically, brand posts don’t garner a heavily meaningful response in favor of sharing information, promoting products, and driving the brand. Because this emphasis shifts during the holidays, engagement on brand posts tends to decrease.
The struggle for brands around the holidays is continuing to post timely content that adapts to the season. It can be hard to keep from losing sight of your brand personality with themed posts.
Holiday Social Media Planning
As you plan your social media strategy throughout the holiday season, keep in mind the point of view of your brand. This will ensure the success of your posts. Even if you craft a super-meaningful message, posting it from a branded social account just doesn’t make sense unless it ties into your brand. Planning effective holiday content for your social media is tricky. The holidays are a great time to garner goodwill and show off the personality of your brand. You want your sentiments to be heartfelt, appropriate, and inclusive. This is especially important when acknowledging religious holidays; keep your writing respectful.
Holiday Social Media Writing
When you go to write your social media content for the holidays, you’ll first need to figure out how much of your content is going to be themed for the holidays in comparison to your normal content. This probably depends on how your brand normally adapts throughout the year. Whether you are running an entire holiday campaign or posting a sentiment on a holiday from your business depends on what makes sense for your brand.
For some inspiration, check out some holiday-themed hashtags. Popular hashtags from the previous year can help you brainstorm new ideas for your brand.
Also keep in mind the nature of the platforms you are posting to. For example,
Instagram is a great place for heartfelt sentiments, but LinkedIn posts usually need a solid work-related tie-in to really fit in on the platform.
Take a cue from some leaders in your industry (or the @nicebranding accounts!). It can be helpful to see how successful brands run their social throughout the holidays. For example, last year we worked on branded holiday content for one of our clients, a healthcare provider. We had their employees share their favorite holiday tradition. We featured each submission on their social media. This highlighted their employees and the personal connections of the company to the holiday.
Holiday Social Media Monitoring
Once your posts are planned and scheduled, you’ll want to make sure you are
monitoring your holiday content throughout the holiday season. Keeping track of your posts and engaging with your followers boosts activity on your account. This will make the personality of your brand tangible even if you’re posting holiday-themed content.
Not doing any social scheduling this holiday season? Check out some of our
branded holiday blog posts for some content inspiration.
Holiday Social Media Scheduling
Our biggest tip here is to double check the dates for your posts! If you end up with a lot of out-of-office days during the holiday season, double check all of your scheduled posts to make sure all of your sentiments go out on time.
To help keep you organized, we wrote up a rundown of exactly how we make our
social media content calendars, so check that out if you aren’t already using a calendar system to plan out your posts. This is a no-brainer way to ensure you don’t miss any of your posts during a busy holiday season!
If you feel like you already have too much on your plate in the upcoming months, we would love to help you handle your social. If you’re looking for a social media firm with more than a decade of experience carrying brands through their seasonal posts,
hit up the Nice Branding Agency girls.
