Ideas and Tips for Social Media Holiday Marketing

October 05 2020 | Best Practices , Social Media

2020’s holidays are, in fact, not canceled. They’re just a little different than the previous years. Still, with more people opting for online shopping experiences to avoid the crowds, it’s the perfect time for businesses and brands to leverage their social media audiences to drive engagement and sales this quarter!

Jump down for social media marketing ideas to try on each key platforms.

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Instagram

Post a $50 and under gift guide using Instagram’s Carousel feature. Reshare the post on your Instagram Stories and tag the relevant brands for potential reshares!
Feature your top services and products via Instagram Stories. Within each frame, you can get more creative by adding holiday-specific music, e.g. spooky songs in October or Christmas covers during December.
Test different ways to promote your existing content ahead of sales holidays to identify what resonates most. Using Instagram’s Promotion feature for Stories and posts will help your posts reach a larger audience and, in turn, increase account discovery.
Incorporate Instagram’s new feature Reels by creating bite-sized videos to educate your customers on products or services in a creative way. You can also create Reels to showcase a more fun and personal side of your brand by sharing snapshots of your Halloween costumes, setting up a holiday tablescape or gift wrapping.
Offer a free gift to followers who tag their friends in the comments section on a post.
Host a holiday-themed Instagram Live with a partnered brand. Provide incentives, like offering the first five followers to tune in can receive an exclusive promotional code for their next purchase!
People love Astrology. Lean into it and have fun. Create an experience on Instagram, where you swipe or tap through to discover which gift to give based on the person's Astrology sign.
Test new times to post. Look through your previous post analytics and strategize times around when your followers are most active this will improve your likes and engagement per post! PLANOLY’s Analyze Web Dashboard is great for grabbing post analytics!

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Pinterest

Small businesses and brands can turn their Ads on Pinterest into carousel Pins, recreating the catalogue experience for the users.
Recreate the window-shopping experience. Focus on beautiful product imagery and video that makes online shoppers feel less stuck and more inspired. Small businesses and brands can turn their Pinterest profiles into digital storefronts by keeping their boards organized and making sure they are featuring their most popular boards in their Featured Boards.
Create clear call-to-actions on Pinterest text overlay designs. Good keyword examples would be: 'discover,’ 'shop,’ or 'explore' to drive engagement or conversion.
Turn holiday recipes into little recipe books using Story Pins. You can list out all ingredients while also walking users through the experience of making each recipe through images or videos!
“Pinners are 30% more likely than non-Pinners to give themselves a special gift during this season.” Creating content around ideas for self-care, beauty, and health. For example, create a self-care checklist Pin linking to a downloadable that they can use for later!
Get creative with your Pinterest boards by centering them around movie characters from your favorite holiday movies. The boards can feature the products you think each character is most likely to use! Link each of the products back to their relevant websites or your website if they’re yours.
Try out PLANOLY’s linkit or sellit link in your bio tool to improve a customer’s journey! Make it easy to your followers to shop with one-click checkout.

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Facebook

Host weekly games through comments on your posts. Maybe the first five followers who respond with what they love about your business or brand, receives a promotion or gift!
Host a product giveaway. The chance of winning your most popular product or service without a lot of effort is enough to pique your followers' interest.
Change up your theme for the months (people are more inclined to participate if it’s timely)! Include holiday-specific cover images, profile images, or change up the color schemes for each respective holiday!
Offer exclusive deals only to members of your Facebook group.
Ask your followers to like your business page for holiday updates and sales!
Create ads on Facebook to boost posts and improve your reach (make sure you have a Facebook business page first)!
Build hype ahead of new launches by sharing teasers or sneak peeks into your new products.
Host a Q&A on the best ways to use your products or services to better engage with your community and build trust.

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Twitter

Share a poll asking your followers what they’re looking forward to, as it ties to your brand. For example, PLANOLY would ask "What marketing resources do you need from us to better plan for the holidays?"
Using Twitter's search function, search for users talking about your industry or brand, and engage with positive replies.
Tweet holiday images with thoughtful or witty questions like, “What's the Thanksgiving side that deserves more attention?” If it fits within your brand, curate meme-worthy moments by sharing iconic pop culture references along with your Tweets.
Offer discounts to people who Retweet your content. For example, “The first person to retweet this receives 15% off anything on my website!”
Host a costume contest on Twitter! The person with the best holiday costume can win an exclusive holiday bundle or free shipping for a whole year.
Create your own holiday hashtag that users can tweet with their content. This creates user-generated content to share across platforms.
Use holiday-themed hashtags on all your Tweets to improve discoverability.
Tweet during peak times! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the days that have the highest click-thru rate and have the highest potential of turning a follower into a consumer.