The key component to running your socials over the festive period is effective social media management. Whether you’ve created a content plan for a Christmas campaign on social media or you’re harnessing CMS and social listening—there are plenty of ways to do so.
No matter which sector you work in, the festive period is always a busy time for businesses. Social media is often the cherry on top of what can be an already stressful endeavour. But the power of effective social media use during this time is not something to be underestimated. Christmas time provides a great opportunity to bring in new customers and clients and establish a stronger connection with your existing fans.
There is a trend towards people using social media for their Christmas shopping or inspiration. A survey found that three out of every four shoppers plan to use social media to learn about products. Combine this increasing popularity with more time off of work and more time to scroll and you see why it is important to continue posting online.
In 2023, 75% of marketers were publishing holiday content earlier than in 2022. In fact, by the end of November, 89% of marketers will have already begun their holiday push.
That’s a lot of content to be planned, created, and scheduled in advance! You also need to be careful of causing any ‘Christmas fatigue’ before the big day arrives.
What are some of the key considerations to make when it comes to social media management over the festive period?
Create a content plan in advance
Creating a content plan well in advance for your Christmas campaign on social media can be beneficial. Social media management is different for every business, and you should consider your audience when you begin your planning. For example, what you’re trying to achieve will differ depending on whether you’re B2B or B2C.
Are you going to focus on themes? Are you going to create an advent calendar or a 12 Days campaign? What you post is up to you and will entirely depend on your brand image and goals. Some will tell you to avoid gimmicks but for some brands—that’s entirely what works. For others, the sentimentality of the festive period is a great time to be authentic. Tell people the story of your brand, and remind them of your goals and mission.
One important thing to keep in mind is quality over quantity. A heavy time for consumerism, users are going to be bombarded with people trying to sell their products and services. Start with a timeline of key dates, frequency of posts and decide which platforms you’re going to be using.
It’s a good idea to post on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve to remind people when you are closed. Remind users that feeds won’t be monitored so queries will be answered upon reopening. You don’t want users to think that just because you’re posting you’re actively working and ignoring them!
When it comes to imagery, it’s good to stick to your branding but you can add a festive twist. With all that competition at this time of year, it’s good to be familiar to your followers. There are great, free tools out there to help you create too. Canva has hundreds of templates to use, and websites like Pexels and Unsplash are great for finding copyright-free imagery.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
If you’re an SME or a one-person marketing machine, a Content Management System (CMS) really takes the stress out of social media management. While beneficial year-round, it’s going to be even more crucial to use an effective CMS over the festive period.
These online tools allow you to schedule posts in advance from your content plan. Once that work is done, you can sign off for Christmas and let your CMS do the rest! Your Christmas campaign will be ticking over nicely on social media.
A key consideration to make here is time. While a CMS can save you time overall, consider the time it will take you beforehand. Researching the right CMS, learning how to use it, and performing a test run is a long process. Can you spare that time in the busy run-up to Christmas? Getting to grips with the software and knowing what to do to prevent failures while you’re away will be key to running a successful Christmas campaign on social media.
Social listening
Social Listening tools have become increasingly popular over the last few years. They are a great way to find out what people are saying about you and not just to you. These powerful tools allow marketers to see the types of conversations people are having about your company. Social listening tools are great for catching up on what people were saying about you while you were ‘gone’.
This valuable data can then be fed into your marketing strategy for the New Year or the next festive period. While this isn’t a key aspect of social media management over the festive period, it’s certainly a handy tool to have.
DCA PR's social media management
From learning vast CMS to thinking up and creating the content plus regular monitoring—it’s all quite a lot to deal with when you’re trying to tie up loose ends before the Christmas break.
Spending time and money on costly social media management tools can be quite the burden to bare at any time of year, let alone during the festive period. As a marketing and PR agency, we understand how important it is to keep up appearances online to keep those activity levels going into January.
Our expert team consists of copywriters, content creators and dedicated social media and account managers. DCA also have the software and tools to offer you fully managed social media services to help keep your feeds populated, monitored, and listened to for life—and not just for Christmas!
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