Incorporating Holidays in Your Social Feed: The Do’s & Don’ts

Everyone loves the holidays, right? Cooler weather, hot drinks (unless you’re like us and have been drinking chai lattes since June), food that’ll put you into early hibernation, the list goes on. What’s not to love, however? The stress of seeing your family, first of all. But also getting bombarded with holiday-related posts on social media. Your favorite bloggers are probably already posting their DIY tips for Halloween decor and the countdowns for Christmas are definitely being prematurely posted in September. While we recommend your company be ready to jump on the holiday bandwagon when the time comes, we know it can be difficult to balance that fine line between a seamless, quality holiday campaign and a forced, cheesy post.

Here’s our take on what you should and probably shouldn’t post around the holidays:

Don’t be lazy with your holiday posts. During the holidays, you’re busy, so we know you’re just going to want to throw up a post with colors for “insert holiday name here” and call it a day. Simple, right? Yes, but it’s also lazy, and your audience can tell.

Do stick to your current branding strategy, even during the holidays. If your feed is normally full of muted colors, make sure you continue that even during the holidays.
Similarly, if your brand voice is more serious, we recommend not posting holiday-related memes or humor-filled content. Stick with your brand. Throwing your brand’s carefully curated look and vibe out the window even for one post is a good way to lose followers.

Don’t forget your audience! This should always be something you do, but especially during the holidays. Say your audience demographic is mainly men in their 20s. You would want to stay away from posting your favorite holiday cookie recipe, right? Who knows, you could have one audience member who is really into it, but probably not the majority. Make sure you keep your audience’s interests in mind, because, at the end of the day, you’re catering to them. You want them to continue being involved with your brand, so make holiday content they’d appreciate.

Do create demographic-specific content. Going off of the males in their 20s demographic, try including something about the difficulties they’re about to face in buying presents for their significant other. Maybe you have a product their partner will love, or, if your brand voice allows, let them know you feel their pain with a meme about it.

Don’t maintain the same post across all platforms. It gets boring. Different types of content do better on different social platforms. Your demographic is usually much younger on Instagram, so we recommend posting a relevant meme or reposting a trending holiday-related video. Facebook is where you can get more personal and share images with heartstring-pulling copy.

Do incorporate stories. Stories are a great way to really engage your audience and show them the “real” you. Post a quick but meaningful video going around your office showing how your team is getting “holiday ready.” This is also a great place for reposting trending gifs and memes about the holidays. Create a series of graphics with quotes from employees about how they plan on celebrating this year.

Don’t overdo it. Keep in mind that you are not the only page your audience is following. Come October (even as early as September), their feed will be flooded with holiday content from the businesses they follow, and their own friends. To not overdo it, we suggest 1 post about a particular holiday leading up to it and one on said holiday. That way, you are maintaining a bit of relevance without spamming your followers’ feeds.

Do find a way to stand out during the holidays. Not only will your audience have way too many ads and posts to look at during this season, but they’ll also probably all be very similar. Before Thanksgiving, we recommend that you come up with a solid advertising strategy and other ideas for organic reach. This could include partnering with influencers, giveaways, videos, etc. Anything that will make your audience stop scrolling and think, “Huh, this is pretty cool.” If you’re still stuck on how to make yourself stand out, give us a call!

If you take anything away from this article, it should be to always maintain your brand’s voice and personality, especially through the holidays, and be mindful of your audience. Otherwise, have fun with it! The holidays are a great way to show your audience your fun side and connect on a more personal level with your followers!