You’ve already acknowledged that social media marketing is crucial to your startup’s success, but, like any good businessperson, you’re seeking ways to boost your marketing’s reach and engagement and create more compelling campaigns. One powerful solution: take advantage of holidays and other special events!
Whether it’s Christmas, Father’s Day, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, or National Garlic Day (April 19th!), utilizing holidays and special events in your startup or small business’ social media marketing can engage audiences, raise awareness, and produce sales. Here are 7 useful tips for optimizing your startup’s holiday social media marketing.
1. Identify which holidays and events will captivate your audiences
Begin by researching and analyzing which holidays and events are most popular with your audiences. If most of your clients are female teenage fashion mavens, you probably won’t want to waste your efforts on a Super Bowl campaign, so know your targets and use that information to choose which events you’ll use in your marketing.
2. Start early
Plan out your event-based campaign before you launch it. You’ll need plenty of time to brainstorm creative ideas, create content, plan the execution, and optimize your schedule. Determine the ideal time to launch your campaign. We’re all sick of hearing Christmas music in department stores in October, so don’t burn out your followers by dragging the campaign out too long, but also give it enough time to produce significant results.
3. Build on audience excitement
Even if your startup has just launched and has yet to create a loyal following, using an event that people are already excited about can get them excited about your startup as well. Let your audience know that you share their enthusiasm for the holidays/events. Make your social media marketing festive and upbeat so that followers will associate their passion for a holiday or event with positive feelings toward your company.
4. Boost search hits with content marketing
Creating searchable holiday or event-related content, like blog posts or videos, is a great way to boost inbound search engine traffic. Tons of people will be searching for the event, and, with the right SEO, you can push your content to the top of the results, boosting awareness of your business and bringing in new customers.
5. Build hype with relevant contests
Contests are a great way to engage followers and build hype for an upcoming event. Get your audiences excited about the holiday as well as your brand by launching promotional contests. Depending on your needs and budget, these can range in scale from a simple Twitter hashtag contest to a complex, international, multimedia scavenger hunt. Find fun, creative ways to center the contest around a holiday or event while also keeping it relevant to your brand. Have fans take photos of themselves dressed up in festive attire, ask what’s on their Christmas wishlist, or pit them against each other during March Madness. The possibilities are endless.
6. Create timely shareable content
People love getting into the spirit of a holiday or big event, and, in our modern, social media-driven world, this is often done by sharing content across social networks. Create shareable, branded content, from memes to videos to microsites that your followers will share with their networks, exponentially expanding your startup’s reach. Let audiences know about your business, but also make your content more entertaining than promotional so that people will want to share it.
7. Pay attention to analytics
If a Christmas campaign really resonated this year, try it again (but make it bigger and better!) next year. If your Olympics campaign had lackluster results, consider whether the event is unappealing to your audience or if you just need to try different tactics and content. Experiment with your marketing to find the best ways to connect with your followers. Constantly grow your business by learning from your successes and failures.
Using holidays and special events to your advantage is one extremely effective way to boost your startup’s social media marketing results. Keeping these 7 tips in mind will produce even greater results from your holiday marketing.
