12 Tips for Social Media at Christmas

Adding Christmas spirit to your social media channels is a great thing to do. With more and more people shopping online and especially through their mobile, social media is an increasingly influential channel which should not be ignored. Taking the time to plan your social media during the weeks before Christmas can help boost engagement, increase sales and is a great way to have some fun and show your brand’s personality. Here are 12 of our top festive social media tips.

1.    Give your profile a Christmas make over
This is a simple one but can make a big impact. You don’t have to go over the top, but simply adding a festive spin to your logo and or your cover photo can help get people into the festive spirit. People browse social media a lot at this time of year, so refreshing your cover photo can motivate people to click on your profile. Always ensure that your brand remains recognisable and that you continue to reflect your brand personality in a seamless way. Always use your cover photo to reflect your brand or a key selling point. Do you have a Christmas promotion or seasonal products? Then social media can be a great place to highlight this.

Ensure all your social channels look similar to maintain a theme for a consistent, professional look.

2.    Giveaways and Competitions
A popular method to increase engagement and brand awareness is by hosting a giveaway or competition. You could run one big competition that lasts throughout the festive season or create excitement with multi-day giveaways (e.g. 12 days of Christmas or an advent-based giveaway).

In addition to being lots of fun, running a giveaway over several days will entice people back to your page. If you are offering a prize that would make a good Christmas present, ensure the cut-off date for entry ends early enough that you have plenty of time to pick a winner and get their prize sent to them before the day itself.

3.    Christmas Offers
Christmas is one of the biggest purchasing seasons of the year. People expect to see offers and promotions so create an offer if possible. Create some urgency by running short promotions, such as for one-day only. You can also run several offers within the festive build up. Don’t feel like you must stick to one.

The benefit of running several offers is that not only does it grab the attention of the customers but also helps providing valuable information for your business about what offers work with particular audiences. You can then use this information for future promotions.

When planning promotions just be careful to not run too many at once as this can cause customer confusion and have the opposite effect.

4.    Create conversation
Social Media is named social media for a reason. The platforms are designed to facilitate communication and Christmas is the perfect time to start a conversation with your followers. Ask them what their favourite thing about Christmas is or what their favourite festive film or food is? Although the questions may not be directly related to your product or service, it helps create excitement and shows that your brand is sociable and approachable.

5.    Have great customer service
As Christmas is such a busy time, you may have an influx of customer queries to deal with. Always ensure you respond quickly and as helpfully. Even if you are dealing with a complaint, dealing with it efficiently and politely could lead to them becoming a repeat customer. Ensure you have enough manpower to deal with the increase in customer queries, even if this means hiring temporary staff. Customers will be eager to know when their parcel will be delivered so make sure your opening hours, delivery information and returns policy and clear and easy to find.

6.    Make the most out of hashtags
You can improve your reach by using festive hashtags. If you are running a Christmas campaign, then you can create your own hashtag. Encourage your customers to use this hashtag when they purchase products and use a hashtag as part of a competition to significantly improve reach and engagement.

7.    Try Paid Ads
If you have a particular product or message you want to push, then consider using paid ads. They are available across the main social channels and ensure that your message is being seen by the right people as you can target who sees them. Organic posts from businesses are being less and less due to family and friends’ messages being given higher priority, meaning that paid ads are an effective way of pushing a particular sales message.

8.    Go Live
If your business is doing something Christmas related, then going live is a great idea. Your customers and followers will like to have behind-the-scenes access and live videos are a great way to do that. On Facebook and Instagram, your story can have video content that lasts 24 hours (unless you save it to a highlight) This makes it a great way to reveal offers that only last a short amount of time, answer questions from your audience or just have a chat.

Remember that stories and live videos can be more informal so use it as an opportunity to have a nice conversation with your followers and show your brand personality.

9.    Have some fun
Christmas is a time to have fun. Share the festive fun you have in your office. Share your Christmas playlist or show how your office has been decorated. A popular option is to take part in National Christmas Jumper Day. Not only is it a great way to donate to charity and back a great cause, it is fun to see members of staff where festive jumpers. The cheesier the better!

10.    Keep an eye on competitors
Competition is at its most vigorous over Christmas so always keep an eye on competitors. You should never copy your competitor, but it doesn’t hurt to be aware of any marketing tactics being deployed. 

11.    Make shopping as easy & nice as possible
Buying Christmas presents can be stressful so ensure you make it as simple for customers as possible. User experience is a huge factor in online sales. If your website is hard to navigate, slow to load or there are too many barriers, customers won’t return. Always link your social media posts to your website. If you are pushing a particular product, send them to that product page rather than your home page or a page with lots of products on. If you are an ecommerce company, you can tag items directly to your Facebook Business page, which opens up another channel for sales.

12.    Wish them a Merry Christmas
It is tempting to have a break from social media between Christmas and New Year as the traffic may be slowing down. However, continue to post regular updates. Social media activity increases on the days between Christmas and New year as customers are not only looking out for the Boxing Day sales, they are also wishing each other Merry Christmas. So, why not do the same?

On Christmas Day and New Year, try and post something to wish everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from your brand.

These are just 12 tips for social media at Christmas. It is important you try and make the most out of this increased traffic as it can not only lead to sales but also improve brand awareness and customer loyalty. 

If you would like any more advice about social media marketing, then the DBS Internet Marketing team will be happy to help. Give us a call on 01522 811688.