The holidays are finally here! We know it's a super busy time of year, especially for small business owners like yourself. It may seem overwhelming, but it's worth it to set some time aside to focus on your holiday social media strategy.
To help you out, we've compiled 25 days of social media best practices for your small business to implement during this holiday season. Try a few—or all!—of them out to look professional and spread some much needed holiday cheer this year.
1. Always define your goals
Without goals, how do you know how to approach marketing on social media for your small business? Set some goals for the holiday season and make sure you revisit them regularly.
2. Make sure you know who your audience is
Determine who your target audience is so you can best market to them on social media. What's their age, what do they do in their spare time, and where do they live? Once you nail down your target audience, you can start marketing to them on social media this holiday season.
3. Scope out what the competition is doing on social media
Do a little light stalking and find out what types of social media efforts you're competing with, then use it as inspiration to level up your own social media.
4. Social listening is your friend
You should be monitoring your brand mentions, what people are saying about your type of product or service, and any hashtags you own or use regularly.
5. Define your brand if you haven't already
Figure out your logo, brand colors, fonts but also tone and voice on social media. Then, stay consistent.
6. Run a holiday contest or giveaway
Running a holiday contest is a great way to interact with and engage your customers on social media. Thinking of running one? There's a ton that goes into it! Learn how to run a holiday contest or giveaway with this 10 step guide.
7. Refer to your content calendar
Your content calendar is your guide to social media. Plan it out ahead of time and reference it regularly. It makes everything easier, especially during the busy holiday season!
8. Schedule posts in advance to save time and brainpower
Ripl has a scheduling tool. Use it. Seriously. Trust us.
If you need convincing: read this article about the importance of scheduling your social media posts during the holidays.
9. Try posting some UGC
User generated content is basically free content you don't have to work for. Got it? Use it! Highlight customer posts about your product or brand on your own social accounts this holiday season. Bonus points for sharing super festive content!
10. Optimize those profiles
Your bios should be fully filled out and optimized! Don't know what we're talking about? Follow these links:
11. Post a customer engagement post
Engage your customers with a customer engagement post: ask them questions, do a this or that, or share a fill in the blank post. Ripl has tons, here's some holiday customer engagement templates.
12. Try out polls in your stories
Polls are an excellent way to facilitate engagement or ask your followers specific questions you want the answers to! A great tactic is to ask followers what types of content they want to see more of; this will help inform your content calendar!
13. Respond, always
We know the holidays get hectic, but you should prioritize responding to anyone who comments or sends you a DM on your social channels. Plus, don't delete any negative comments. Always respond in a calm, respectful manner and utilize those customer service skills!
14. Don't get frustrated
Remember that building up your social media following takes time. It's important not to get frustrated, and don't beat yourself up if you aren't where you thought you'd be by now. Keep going and don't give up!
15. Get down with the social media lingo
Here's a quick rundown:
UGC: user generated content
CTA: call to action
DM: direct message
RT: retweet
Handle: someone's username, prefaced by an "@" symbol.
Just the basics! And remember, Google is free people.
16. Post about your product or service, but don't be too "salesy"
A good basic rule of thumb is the social media "rule of thirds": post one third to promote, another third to inform or inspire, and the last third as personal or behind the scenes.
17. Share something super relatable
Having holiday shopping troubles? Decorating woes? Maybe the turkey didn't turn out? Post it on social (stories are more informal, try it!) and come off super real and relatable to your followers.
18. Use CTAs
Call to actions are major in social media. Ask your readers to take an action like following the link in your post, clicking the link in your bio, or swiping up on stories. Change it up and use a couple different CTAs to see what works best.
15. Try video
Video marketing remains the best performing content type on social media. Don't just take our word for it:
Tweets with video see 10x more engagement than tweets without video.
Video performs better than any other type of content on Instagram in terms of engagement.
Each day on average 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook.
When people see a video on LinkedIn, they are 20 times more likely to share it with their connections than any other type of LinkedIn post.
According to Pinterest, pinners are 54% more likely to say they’re inspired to action by videos on Pinterest compared to videos on other media platforms.
Ripl makes it super easy to create professional video and animated content, so try it out today!
20. Think ahead to the New Year
What types of content do you want to post in the New Year? Are you launching a new product? Changing up your marketing approach? Trying to just post more consistently? Consider drafting a content calendar for the first part of the New Year if you haven't already.
21. Measure, analyze, adjust
Use Insights on your Instagram and Facebook business accounts to see what's working and what's not, then adjust accordingly. You can monitor stats around followers, engagement, and accounts reached among other things. Use it to your advantage!
22. Always give credit if re-sharing
Don't rip off anyone's content. Always give credit where credit is due! If you're re-sharing something, credit the original artist, writer, photographer, or poster.
23. Take a social media break
This time of year is stressful. Make sure you're taking some much needed breaks!
24. Experiment with different content types
Which type is more engaging? Do a test and find out! Try out different content types and run some tests on social media. Experiment with video or static posts, different messaging, or different color palettes to see which types of content your audience responds to more.
25. Post a holiday message! Or several, we won't judge.
Spread some cheer this holiday season with seasonal messaging. Try out some of our seasonal templates in your next post!
