OWB’s 12 (and a bit) days of social media twinkling tips:
The countdown to Christmas has already commenced, people are flocking to the Christmas markets and the shops are pumping out the Christmas tunes, but more importantly it is time to add a little sparkle to your festive social media strategy and plan.
Don’t let it tail off during the period, everyone from big brands to small, are competing for the same space across Social Media to reach out to their target audience and prompt them to act.
Here’s our little gift to you, some twinkling tips to implement into your marketing strategy, to increase visibility and enhance the effectiveness of for your Christmas and New Year social media and digital campaigns:
Marketing Christmas to do list:
1) Carefully organise your messaging and plan your content schedule: Review last year’s social media campaign, what worked, what didn’t, what could be done differently. What type of posts received the highest engagement or the least? Create a timeline of events, so that you stay on track and maximise the campaign to it’s fullest.
2) Plan your marketing message: to capture your audience, amplify this through paid advertising for further reach. Personalise some of your tweets or posts and spread the Christmas cheer, a little personal touch goes a long way.
3) Spread the Christmas cheer and create specific hashtags: generate targeted twitter followers through creating your own custom made hashtags that are more likely to get in front of your target audience – something festive and fun will strike a chord with them.
4) Brand identity: tailor your profile and header images to better project your brand. Your profile and header images are a staple part of your brand identity you should ensure that they are a projection of your brand personality, as this will impact on how your audience resonates with you!
5) Ensure landing pages are shareable: if you’ve created a landing page specific to your Christmas campaign or promotion, make it easily accessible for your intended audience to share it.
Include clear call to actions and share buttons to encourage people to share. Dependent on the nature of the campaign you can incentivise sharing, with added value competitions or special offers to evoke curiosity and intrigue amongst your audience, you are more likely to get in front of a targeted audience.
6) Optimise use of socials ads to increase your reach: if you have the budget, utilising social media ads is a quick way to increase the visibility of your campaign. The countdown to Christmas is the prime time to spend big and is a key opportunity to sell your goods and services.
Social advertising targeting has a degree of robustness that means you can hone in on your current following and expose your brand to new eyes. Specifically segment out your different audience sets to reach people who will be interested in your brand.
7) Share a story behind your brand: This could be Christmassy related and will be more likely to show some personality behind your brand. You can tell a story via a blog or a series of images to invite your audience in – the key is brand cohesion and a structure.
8) Maintain a theme: Serve your audience with a consistent theme, including colours and content, that is also seasonal relevant, to give off a warm fuzzy vibe, which should translate to your audience’s attachment to your brand.
9) Be in tune with your audience: Connect with your customers and show your audience engaging with your brand during the festive period
10) Follower campaign: generate targeted twitter followers and grow your audience base, leveraging your centre of influence. Focus on following direct customers or target complementary competitor followers, who are likely to be interested in your sector and are hence a more relevant audience.
11) Giving back to customers: Look into giving something back to your audience, everyone loves a good giveaway, especially around this time of year. Add value to your offering, for example offer special discounts or free delivery. If you provide consumer goods, run a fun competition perhaps, ie. Instagram photo sharing competition on your Insta story. But, think about the incentive behind the competition – it is to raise brand awareness, or grow your email list?
12) Try something new: give the gift of insight behind your brand, showing “behind the scenes,”, enabling your audience to connect with your brand on a more personal level.
13) Track your campaign results: Keep track of your campaign results and everything you do, so that you can improve future efforts and take away key learnings. Tracking your level of impact can help you set benchmarks or recognise areas where more intense planning is needed to increase visibility for your next big marketing campaign.
14) Share a bit of wisdom: LinkedIn is a platform built on connections and personal experiences. Share relatable quotes from your company page or a story on your timeline to connect with others and drive engagement. Equally, you can use this time to highlight the past year and what’s to come in the next. Keep it short, relevant and cheerful.
15) Showcase a charity: the idea of giving is at the forefront during this time of year. If there’s an organisation that you’re affiliated with, promote this on LinkedIn to further drive impact and allow your connections to participate as well, or at least gain awareness.
Let it snow and grow your brand, by refining your social strategy during this period you will be more likely to project your campaigns in front of a more relevant and engaged audience. These simple tips could be key to bringing some sparkle in to your marketing campaign and make it the most wonderful (and most profitable) time of year for your brand going forward.
MERRY MARKETING from everyone at OWB.
