25 Tips for getting the most from your Social Media in the build up to Christmas

I could do a list of 100 but no point in overwhelming everyone plus we only have 24 hours in a day!! Hopefully the 25 points below will inspire you to ‘up the anti’ over the next couple of weeks, ready for Christmas plus for 2021.

1. Always define your social media goals

Without goals, how do you know how to approach marketing on social media for your business? For example, think about what you want to accomplish during the Christmas season. Do you want to increase sales through leads gained via social media? Do you want to increase your followers? Increase engagement on social media? Define specific, measurable goals for your social media marketing and structure your social strategy around these goals.

2. Make sure you know who your ideal audience is

Determine who your target audience is so you can best market to them on social media. What’s their age, what are their hobbies, and where do they live? Once you nail down your target audience, you can start marketing to them on social media this Christmas.

3. Check out what your 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. I don’t suggest copying for copying’s sake, but seeing your competitors being more active can spur you on!

4. Monitor what is being said about you online

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. Use the search bar/explore features and type in your business name, your products/services or just the town/city you operate in, then get involved in the conversations.

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.. Using apps like Canva or Snappa are easy ways of adding your logo or brand colours to images to keep them ‘yours’ and saving you on graphic design costs.

6. Run a Christmas contest or giveaway

Running a Christmas 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 Christmas contest or giveaway with our 10 Competition Tips

7. Create a 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 Christmas season, especially if scheduling posts in advance!

8. Schedule posts in advance to save time 

Why put yourself under pressure to post EVERY day ‘on the fly’? Find a quiet time in your week and schedule posts for the following week/fortnight/month. Being ‘in the zone’ keeps things consistent, especially if you are creating graphics to go with posts. There are loads of scheduling options, but I find that Buffer is the easiest to start off with

9. Try posting some U.G.C

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 Christmas. Ask clients to tag you in posts using your products/services. Offer incentives for this, asking them to use #yourbrand hashtags so that you can easily find them on social media.

10. Optimise your profiles

Your biographies should be fully filled out and optimised! Are yours up to date? Have they got links to your website? Personalise them wishing your followers Happy Christmas etc with links to any offers or competitions. (make sure you set a reminder to amend after Christmas!!)

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. Facebook/Instagram algorithms are looking for your fans to interact with you, so asking questions is the best way to achieve this. 

12. Try out polls in your stories

Polls are an excellent way to get 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! Asking nostalgic questions work really well, like “what di you used to ask Santa Claus for as a child” etc. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have these set up as one of the options when creating a post and Instagram has this as part of Stories.

13. Respond to any interactions

We know that Christmas gets hectic, but you should try to prioritise 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 utilise 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.

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 Xmas shopping troubles? Decorating woes? Maybe the turkey didn’t turn out? Post it on social media (stories are more informal, try it!) and come across authentic 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. Using a tracking function like Bit.ly is a great way to see how many people actually click on the links within your posts.

19. Collaborate

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. Just a piece of paper with the days of the week and then put post topics in each day ie Motivation posts, sales posts, behind the scenes posts, links to blog posts/articles etc

21. Measure, analyse, adjust

Use Insights/analytics on your social media 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. Without looking at this kind of data, how do you know how well you are really doing on social media?

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! Rather than picking up your phone every 5 minutes, why not make a pact to only look at it 4 times a day etc? Yeah, I know. I need to take my own advice!!

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 Xmas message! 

Spread some cheer this Christmas season with seasonal messaging.