11 elfishly clever tips for your holiday social media

Good news for business owners suddenly finding the season upon them — it’s not too late to assemble a holiday social media campaign aimed at adding jingle to your pocket. In fact, mid-November tends to be the most popular launch time for such campaigns.

If you’re not making the most of social media tools, you’re missing out on a valuable (and relatively low-cost) way to engage with your customers as a way of building your brand. That’s reflected in the whopping $32.9 billion organizations worldwide spent on social media campaigns last year, most often citing its ability to increase exposure, boost traffic and develop loyal fans.

“Now like never before, brands and retailers have the ability to connect directly with their customers and create a more personal shopping experience,” notes Amir Zonozi in Entrepreneur. “The holiday season is filled with social posts about gifts bought, deals found and complaints of poor customer service. It’s crucial to reach and communicate with your customer audience in the correct way.”

Even if you’re new to the (reindeer) game, it’s relatively easy to start establishing presences on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube — or whatever other venue best fits your needs. A few tips:

1 – Make a goal list, check it twice. Is your holiday wish to increase sales, reinforce your brand, drive traffic to your website, jump-start email subscriptions, feature specific deals or products, generate buzz, encourage more foot traffic or all of the above? Knowing your goal(s) will help you create messaging. The rule of thirds should be your rule of thumb: One-third personal posts and responses, one-third promotional messages and one-third “news they can use.”

2 – Choose your chimneys. Each social media platform draws different demographics; Pew offers a few guidelines here. Check to see where your competitors are most active and what kinds of messages they’re featuring.

3 – Assign elves. Decide who will write copy, curate images and post. All those tasks can be manual or you can employ specialized software that stores and posts on your behalf. Basic guidelines: Post on Facebook three to 10 times weekly, Twitter five times daily, LinkedIn two to five times weekly and Pinterest five to 10 times daily. When in doubt, choose quality over quantity.

4 – Like the down of thistle. Strategize optimal times to publish holiday socmediaposts, given your industry and audience.

5 – Deck the halls. Establish viable sources for your images, which can be much more impactful than copy. Possibilities include stock images found online, commercial product shots or photos you take yourself.

6 – Most wonderful time? Consider which holidays to address in your posts, then start a schedule. Beyond the traditional Christian, Muslim, Jewish and African holidays there’s Movember, Veterans Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, Green Monday, the 12 days of Christmas, December Solstice, Boxing Day and New Year’s.

7 – Be good, for goodness’ sake. Build suspense and excitement into your messaging by counting down to each holiday, offering gift ideas and sharing fun holiday tips and recipes. Make followers feel special (and encourage new followers) via exclusive events, giveaways, promotions, discounts or info on special sales.

8 – Good will toward men. Occasionally mention your support of philanthropic causes and events while recognizing any employees who contribute.

9 – Everyone dancing merrily (in the new old-fashioned way). Plan to interact with your followers by soliciting opinions, responding to comments, sponsoring fun contests, etc. Studies indicate customers who interact with a business over social media end up spending 20 to 40 percent more with those firms.

10 – Let nothing you dismay. Respond quickly to comments, questions, complaints and kudos. When criticized, apologize, show empathy and offer to talk about the problem offline.

11 – Proof is in the (figgy) pudding. Use tools (including free ones such as Facebook Insights and Google Analytics) that measure the performance of your posts so you can fine-tune future campaigns.

Let Custom Toll Free demonstrate how an easy-to-remember phone number can encourage inbound calls from your holiday social media posts. Call us today at 1-800-CUSTOMIZE.