The best time of the year is right around the corner, and as everyone starts putting up their lights and getting ready for the festivities, social media managers usually have their minds elsewhere: planning their holiday social media content. Isn’t that right?
Whether it’s a global brand or a local one, there are plenty of observance days throughout the year during which you can share content that will help you connect with your existing or new audience. But the holiday season is definitely a must-have when it comes to content strategy, especially if you aim to increase your engagement or boost your sales.
But let’s be honest, more often than not we don’t acknowledge this opportunity until we see our favorite brand or influencer posting about it and start getting in a holiday mood way ahead of the rest of us. If you’re just realizing how fast approaching the holidays are, we got you!
Here are 4 tips to help you easily plan and schedule your holiday social media content and still have time to enjoy quality time with your loved ones.
TIP 1: Set your holiday goals
Before you start planning and creating content take a step back to establish your goals for the holidays. There are different occasions or shopping sales days during this time of the year, so you might want to choose one or two that make sense for your business and focus on that.
A good way to make sure your goals are clear and reachable is the SMART model. Doesn’t matter if you’re aiming to boost your sales with a holiday discount, to increase engagement on your social networks, or even enjoy the opportunity to release a new product or feature, your goals should always be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (S.M.A.R.T! ☺️).
Obviously, setting these goals usually won’t depend exclusively on the social media team, but given the importance of social media, it’s always best to take their input into account.
TIP 2: Quickly Research Trending Holiday Topics
Having figured out your goals, it’s time to think of ways to make your brand stand out and reach more people. The holidays are an especially busy time for social media, so identifying popular trends or keywords and hashtags that are relevant to your industry might give you an advantage over your competitors, and also help you best connect with your followers.
Take the time to dive deep into different social networks to identify these trends so you can optimize your content and get inspired! And if you’re out of luck, using a hashtag finder might do the trick. It’s also important to get to know your brand’s audience so you know exactly what will work with them. With that in mind, here’s how you can turn your Social Media Insights into your best allay.
TIP 3: Optimize Your Content
Now that you already know where you’re going and how to get there, it’s time to get your hands dirty. Celebrations tend to be very emotional, so creating emotionally driven content is always a great way to connect with your social media audience. So, when creating your posts keep your audience in mind and approach social media marketing with heart.
It’s also important to be creative. There are a lot of businesses fighting for attention during the holidays. You won’t stand out if your posts look like everyone else’s. The good news is that creating original industry-related content is usually more resource-consuming than celebratory content, which is easy to create when you have just the right tools.
To make your content more noteworthy, make sure it’s visually appealing and shareable. There are several online image editing tools that will help you craft great-looking posts without the need for a graphic designer. ArtStudio, for example, offers a library of templates that you can easily customize and cater to your brand’s needs.
TIP 4: Schedule your content
One of the biggest challenges for social media managers is creating content that has context. Meaning that it’s delivered to the right person, at the right time, with the right message. And that’s especially the case with holiday social media posts. They need to be timely to be relevant. Who’s never seen an accidental “Merry Christmas” post someone let slip through on the 30th?
For most people, the holidays are a long-awaited opportunity to spend time with loved ones and focus on important things. So, how to balance family time with work? Well, social media managers have a trick up their sleeves: scheduling tools!
Leaving all your content scheduled not only allows you to enjoy your days off doing what you like most but is also a great way to organize and distribute your posts throughout the month. With Postcron’s calendar view you can plan content ahead of time and know which of your social accounts are packed for the holidays and which ones aren’t. Once you’re all set, you can sit back and relax.
If you don’t want to be the Grinch this year and fully enjoy the holidays, check out how our different Premium plans adapt to your social media needs.
