Social media is a powerful tool for marketing and growing a business, but many brands struggle with finding fresh and creative ways to use it. With the holiday season upon us, finding unique ways to utilize your social media following can help you drive extra sales and build lasting connections with customers. Let’s explore four holiday social media strategy tips you might not have thought of before. 

#1 Share a Gift Guide

At some point, everyone needs to buy a gift for someone who they either don’t know very well or already seems to have everything. Even for those closest to us, picking out a unique gift can be a challenge. Stuffing stockings with small items and finding memorable gifts that won’t be forgotten is difficult for every holiday shopper. So, why not make things easier for them?

Make gift guides part of your holiday social media strategy this year. You might have a gift guide for different age groups, different genders, or based on various interests. You can always share these in long-form on your website and then re-purpose individual ideas like social media posts in the form of photos and infographics, or you can keep it quick and simple by sharing a highly visual gift guide directly to social media. 

#2 Design a Digital Advent Calendar

The best holiday social media strategy is one that incorporates a variety of content. Advent calendars count down the days until Christmas while offering a little gift each day, making for some super fun and highly engaging content! Post your daily surprise to provide a discounted or free product, coupon, gift with purchase, or other special treats until Christmas. 

You can get very creative with your digital advent calendar, especially when it comes to presentation. Try choosing a unique hashtag and incorporate your brand if you can. Make it a two-photo flip that starts with a “closed-door” to your advent box and have them scroll right to see the opened door that reveals what’s inside. 

Digital advent calendars take very little time to create, aside from planning the specials you want to put inside. Some brands make the mistake of thinking that the special needs get more valuable with each passing day, but the joy of an advent calendar is that what you get is always a surprise. While you might want to save one or two big items for the very end, you should make it truly random to keep the excitement going. 

#3 Choose To Be Charitable

The holiday season tends to bring out the giving spirit in all of us, so why not use this time of year to partner up with a charitable cause? Maybe you’ll match every donation your shoppers give using your link, which is a great way to get some positive word-of-mouth buzz spreading about your brand and its values. Or, maybe you’ll donate one pair of your famous fuzzy socks for every purchase made by a specific date.

Some prominent causes to get behind include food and clothes for those in need, toys for children living in poverty; supplies for animal shelters; or cancer research. Decide what’s most meaningful to your brand, and it will resonate as that much more authentic with your audience. Be sure to explain why you chose a certain cause and come up with a unique hashtag to include in every post relating to it. 

There are all sorts of other opportunities for your holiday social media strategy that come along with choosing a cause. For instance, you can feature stories about what the charity does and why they need help. You can also showcase stories of employees and customers of your brand who the cause has directly impacted. Then, at the end of the season, present the total amount raised for the charity and emphasize how everyone who shopped with your brand helped make it happen. 

#4 Get Festive with Themed Content

Whether or not you’re offering any big sales or partnering up with a charity, there are plenty of opportunities for themed content to make your social media pages that much more festive. Not only does themed content help your brand stay relevant and get in on the conversations, but it also helps your brand feel more authentic.

For starters, make sure that you edit your images in a way that looks festive. This can sound like a gimmick, but it’s common practice this time of year. Most brands stay away from photos of sunshine and beaches, instead opting for trees, mountains, cabins, and snow! You should also change the coloring of your pictures to make them a tad warmer. If appropriate, consider effects like frosty edges to ring in the holiday season.

Aside from how your photos look, you’ll also want to think about what you’re capturing. For instance, if you’re sharing team photos, it doesn’t hurt to ask them to wear red or another holiday color. From there, you can begin getting into all sorts of fun festive ideas–like an ugly sweater contest where you have your followers vote on the winner. 

This time of the year can also pay off big time to jump on trending topics. Even if your brand stays typically away from what’s trending on social media, festive photo challenges and prompts making their rounds are well worth participating in. We all like to loosen up and call out our inner child this time of the year, so don’t let your brand seem cold or stale by avoiding all the fun and games.  

Perfect Your Holiday Social Media Strategy

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