Posting over the Festive period.
The Christmas period is a time of rest, relaxation, festivities -and scrolling. Neglecting posting over the holidays means that you will be missing out on a whole load of engagement, conversions, and brand building.
Top tips for posting over the festive period.
TIP 1: Prepare
Having a pre-prepared schedule allows you to be present on people’s feeds without having to work throughout the holidays. Plan your content ahead of time and schedule using a tool such as Hootsuite to save yourself time, effort and stress over the Christmas period.
TIP 2: Be regular
At a minimum, you should post to your Facebook Pages 3 times per week. As well as frequency, you should also consider consistency. Building a routine of posting allows your followers to rely upon your presence and expect your posts.
TIP 3: People are present on socials over the holiday because they are off work.
People are buying throughout December, and are already looking forward to January. Is your content keeping up with their habits? Often the break from work leads people with more spare time to browse, scroll and purchase. Posting when your audience is active is a fundamental rule in social media strategy, so why should that be neglected over the holidays?
Tip 5: Emotions.
Advertisers have recognised and capitalised on the heightened emotional season for decades. People will be seeking connection and meaningful memories, as can be seen by the nostalgic, romantic, and sometimes slightly melancholy adverts. How often have your cried at a John Lewis advert or laughed at an Aldi commercial? Making a genuine attempt to tap into this heightened emotional and affectionate glow that surrounds this season can be a powerful tool for marketers. Learn more about how positive content can boost happy hormones here.
TIP 4: It’s all about connections.
Relationships are what social media is built upon. Sharing a holiday in some small way makes the brand more memorable whilst appearing more approachable. Emotive and compelling content will be shared more than ever over the holidays, so make the most out of it.
Tip 6: Reliability
Showing a presence at a time when other brands and businesses will be fairly quiet shows your followers and potential customers that your brand can be relied upon. Your brand is appearing at a time that others may be too lazy to. Doing your competitor research can help you identify the gaps that your competitors are leaving in their posting strategy. Showing up is the first step in creating great connections, which is the first step to cultivating a fantastic audience and birthing loyal customers or clients.
What is the best time to post?
The answer to this question will depend on a range of factors, from your chosen platform to your business’ industry, but every posting strategy should be steered by one thing; your audience behaviour.
Interestingly, Instagram receives high traffic just before the holidays so you may want to capitalize on that. For example, if you have a compelling Christmas Eve post, you should publish it in the morning for better success.
Posting in the morning and later in the evening will capture the attention of users who are still working over the holidays, and according to Facebook, 94% of users have their hand-held devices in their hand whilst watching television. Viewers only actually focus on the screen 53% of the time whilst sitting down to watch TV, meaning that marketing during these evening family hours just makes sense.
What should you post during the holiday?
Your posting strategy should take into consideration the 80/20 rule, which says that only 20% of your posting content should be sales-focused, whereas the majority of the strategy should be focused on educating, entertaining, or offering a solution to a problem.
Users don’t log onto social media to see adverts. According to a report by Global Web Index, finding “funny and entertaining” content is the number one reason for using social media, followed by the desire “to fill up spare time.” We are going ‘advertisement blind’ as we acclimate to the number of ads that we are exposed to in everyday life.
Only posting a fraction of the time means that your following will be more likely to take the call-to-action direction that you give because the trust is there.
- Charitable support is always a fantastic idea, for your own philanthropic goals, but also to show that your brand has a heart. By reaching out to your followers to join you in your charitable actions, you are showing the ethical and empathetic side of your company’s community spirit.
- Show gratitude. As new year approaches, making a gratitude list is a great way to show off your achievement and successes from the year. This is also a great way to get testimonials in and build your brand’s reputation.
- Advertise a holiday sale. Let your audience know what offers you have available and how to make the most of your sale.
- Festive-themed contest or giveaway. Posting fun, engaging and relevant contests can draw in new followers as well as help your following to interact with your brand.
- Create fun holiday content that is just for the lols. Trending sounds are a great way to share joke videos whilst still making it relevant to your business. Check out our blog on how to make trending reels work for your brand.
- Share tips, advice, hacks or guidance on something within your industry that can pose a challenge. How-to videos for festive make-up, the skincare routine for winter-damaged skin, or ‘can my dog eat turkey’ are all great guidance content ideas, helping people in the industry with a question that they may have.
Do you need assistance with the strategising, formulating, creating and scheduling of your business’ social media content? Get in touch today to speak to a member of our expert team!
