'Tis the Season for a Jolly Social Media Campaign

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Well, we pretty much skipped fall, annnnnd it snowed yesterday, which can only mean one thing... It's that time of the year again. Every advertiser's dream or worst nightmare.  

Soon, you will see holiday advertisements everywhere imaginable, if you haven't already.  Each year, the web becomes increasingly popular for consumers.  According to Fast Company, 66 percent of Black Friday purchases resulted from social media interactions and it is projected to be 87 percent this holiday season.  

Also, 80 percent of those who interacted with a brand's social channel ended up buying from that brand.  Basically, social media has become the main battlefield for the holiday sales war.  As businesses and brands compete for our attention how are they going to make their campaigns stand out from the competition? 

Here are three tips to ensure you have a jolly ol' successful social media campaign this season. (please excuse my annoying optimism there, it just fit, okay?!)   And, you're a consumer this still could interest you, look for brands that are following these tips, and I suggest that you buy from them, because they are doing it right! 

1. Start Early!

 I know it's really annoying as a consumer, to see Christmas ads in October, but this is strictly strategy folks. Brands use this to their advantage because it gets people talking and creates a buzz around their brand . Change your website or twitter background to something festive and make sure your website is ready for promotional codes or offers.  

Neutrogena 12 Days of Giveaways Facebook Campaign

Share your holiday promotions.  According to eMarketer, 86% of retailers said they use Facebook to promote their holiday campaigns. Sharing coupons and giving only exclusive offers via social media, creates traffic.  

I am a big sucker for coupons and if I see it's through the social media I use, even better because I did have to do virtually any work to get the deal.

Facebook and Twitter competitions are a great way to gain exposure over your featured products.  Many businesses include a free gift through a daily draw prize campaign.  An example I've seen used on social media is for the 12 days of Christmas, giving something away each day.  It encourages followers and fans to visits your page and enter every day.

2. Stay Active!

You're already ahead of the game by planning and starting your campaign early, but you must also stay engaged with your audience.  Your work is not done Friday at 5:00, social media never takes a holiday vacation.  In fact, you should become even more active on weekends during the holiday season.  As I mentioned earlier, people are more likely to buy from your business or brand if you respond to them.  

Social Media 24/7 via Flickr

Digital Sherpa gives ideas to promote your business every day this holiday season:  

• Use Mondays to start asking your followers on social media which products and services they like and want to see more of from your business. The key to executing this properly is to then respond back to your followers on social media to address their specific requests.

• Make Tuesdays your countdown to this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays. This year Black Friday is scheduled for Friday, November 29th and Cyber Monday will take place on Monday, December 2nd. You can use your various social media channels to offer certain promotions for these sales to help measure the success of your social media marketing strategy this holiday season.  
• On Wednesdays you can share images or videos of your business giving back to the community. Since charity is a big part of the holiday season, this will tie in nicely with your marketing strategy and show that you can deliver much more than just products and services.  
• Embrace video marketing on Thursdays and use Twitter’s Vine video app or Instagram video to create brief snip-its of how-to content or provide a sneak preview of a new product that will be arriving this holiday season.  
• Use Fridays to raise the awareness of Small Business Saturday, which will take place this year on Saturday, November 30th.

3. Track your success!

Quite honestly, a holiday social media campaign can be fun.  Who are we kidding, it's the season of giving and if you did it right, you should see success in your business or brand this holiday season.  As a consumer, maybe you will score some free stuff from online giveaways.  Either way, it's a win/win situation.

Photo Credit: Media Bistro

But, don't forget to track your campaign.  That's the beauty of social media is you can measure the success on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.  This will help you make changes for the following year!

With these tips,  holiday social media campaign should be ho ho hopefully a success! (Sorry, I had to)  As a consumer, look for those exclusive coupons and giveaways!  I know I will!