It's that time of year again, and Christmas is just around the corner. But wait, are you really prepared? Have you bought all the presents? Do you have all the ingredients for your family's Christmas dinner? Have you sent out all your cards? And are your social media profiles full of holiday content? The following tips will help you make sure your channels are filled with content that drives engagement in the run-up to Christmas.
Basics: Decorate your profile
Get your followers in the Christmas spirit by making your profiles festive. Change your header or profile picture to a holiday theme. Wish users a Merry Christmas, relaxing holidays, or a Happy New Year in your pictures. For example, show your employees in front of a decorated Christmas tree, dressed as Santa Claus, or choose appealing images from stock photo providers. Canva offers great templates for this as well.
Now you have kicked off the holiday season. Of course, that's not all, especially since profiles are rarely visited and header images are less likely to be noticed. Nevertheless, a "decorated house" is always nicer to look at.
Tip 1: Use video and live formats
It should come as no surprise that video gets more attention online than photos. But what about incorporating one or more live videos into your pre-Christmas content planning? Reels on Facebook & Instagram, YouTube shorts or TikToks are great for generating high engagement in the short term. Live formats also pay off: Facebook Live videos generate six times more interactions than traditional videos and receive ten times more comments than regular videos.
From recipes to tutorials, there's no limit to your creativity. Show your followers how to decorate cookies in a fun way or explain how your fans can make last-minute gifts with little effort. Encourage your viewers to take quizzes or post comments with questions. This increases interaction and makes your followers feel like they're part of the live video experience. If you opt for short video formats instead of live video, you can also pre-produce the videos and schedule the posts (using Facelift, for example) and publish them in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This gives you more time to buy gifts yourself. 😜
Tip 2: Storytelling
Use the magic of the holiday season to tell emotional stories about your brand or products. Storytelling has great potential to build a strong connection with your audience and drive engagement. For example, share special holiday moments with your products or how your company helps people during the holiday season. As a celebration of charity, your written stories and visuals (pictures can talk too) can be deep and emotional.
A particularly successful example of storytelling is the Coca-Cola Christmas truck. It's an iconic image that's known almost around the world and across generations. Every year, the campaign shows the red Coca-Cola Christmas truck driving through snowy landscapes, spreading holiday cheer. This ad has a strong emotional impact and is often associated with Christmas itself. It tells a story of community, joy and the magic of the holidays.
Tip 3: Let Your Community Decide
Your mother-in-law likes to give her opinion without being asked. My point? People love to share their opinions. Set up weekly polls and let your followers choose between two of your products, for example, and explain in the comments why they chose them. The products can also have something to do with the holiday season (e.g., Christmas hats, candy canes, gingerbread, etc.).
Make sure the polls are relevant to your audience. Voting is now available on many social networks, including Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also use poll stickers in Instagram Stories to gather opinions from your followers.
Tip 4: Fundraisers
Holiday fundraisers are a wonderful way to not only increase engagement, but also have a positive impact on the community and your company's image. Transparent communication is key. Let your community know how the fundraiser is working, where the donations are going, and how they are being used. Transparency builds trust and shows that your company is acting honestly and responsibly.
Stories of people or communities that benefit from the fundraiser add a personal touch to your campaign and show how your efforts are making a real difference in people's lives (back to storytelling!).
Encourage your community to participate by offering additional incentives such as matching gifts or special recognition for donors. Also, consider long-term partnerships with nonprofits to demonstrate ongoing social responsibility, not just during the holidays. Invite your community to submit suggestions for nonprofits or projects to support. This allows your community to actively participate in the selection process. Because there are many things to consider when using social media for fundraising, we have written a separate blog post on this topic.
Tip 5: Organize raffles
One of the easiest ways to generate high levels of engagement in a short period of time is to run sweepstakes. Every day or every Advent Sunday - it's up to you - your followers will enjoy the prizes, and you will enjoy the interactions. Remember to offer prizes that are particularly popular with your target audience.
Let's take Facebook as an example: Here, the "likes and comments lead to wins" mechanic would work. Ask your target audience to
- Like a post
- Comment on a post
- Tag a friend or follow your page
- To follow your page.
Bonus tip: Don't set the bar too high to get more people to participate in your sweepstakes.
Important note: Following the Facebook Sweepstakes Guidelines for all sweepstakes promotions is important. Don't encourage people to share your post to get more entries, and don't encourage people to tag other users. Finally, make sure your terms and conditions and privacy policy are clearly stated in the contest post. That way, your followers know right away what they can win and what you plan to do with their personal information.
Tip 6: Vary and Create Variety
If you will be active in the pre-festive season and have various posts planned, be sure to add some creative variety to them - not only in terms of copy and visuals but also for the type of posting itself. Here are some ideas and templates for Advent on social media.
- Eat a red apple day (on 1.12.)
- Speculoos day (on 2.12.)
- Music empowerments (read more in the Advent Calendar article)
- Santa Make a List Day - challenge your followers to write their wish lists. You can also package it as a challenge & have them send you the wishes.
- Ugly Christmas Jumper Content
- Celebrate Advent (4 days of content ideas again)
- Will December bring a bestseller product? Name the product of the month and inspire your followers with gift ideas.
- Ask to play Secret Santa
- Ask to post pictures of this year's Advent calendars
- Post photos of Christmas decorations, Christmas markets, Christmas trees and mulled wine - evergreens.
- Give tips on creative gift wrapping
- Post a to-do list: 5 days I like to do during the festive season
- Ask for the most stupid/best gift so far and vote on it
- Use poll stickers and ask your followers if they think a white Christmas is likely
Let them know your opening hours during the holidays - A classic that can't be missed: Wish your followers a Merry Christmas
- Caption competitions, where you post a picture and ask your community to write a caption.
- Another option is to post a puzzle related to one of your products: This gives you the opportunity to generate additional conversions to your site as users search for the right product on your pages.
Tip 7: Launch Challenges
We can expand the topic since we just discussed the Caption Challenge. Challenges, in general, are another way to increase engagement with your brand. You can even kill two birds with one stone by asking people to share selfies or pictures/videos of the most bizarre Christmas gift. This is how you get user-generated content. User-generated content refers to images or videos created by users rather than a brand. Brands often use this content for promotional purposes on their social media channels.
The best way to do this is to ask them to post a creative image with a pre-defined hashtag on their own Instagram profile. The community can then vote on the top 10 images, which you determine in advance - the photo with the most likes wins. This creates a sense of community. Users are more likely to create content for a challenge if the campaign is tied to a contest. The better the incentive, the more likely people are to participate in a challenge. Again, be sure to include terms and conditions and a privacy policy.
Deep Dive: Hashtags: A unique hashtag for your holiday campaign can go a long way on social media. A creative and relevant hashtag can grab your target audience's attention and create a vibrant community around the holiday season. It is important to communicate with your community. Explain how the hashtag will be used and encourage your followers to create and add their posts. You can offer incentives, such as the chance to be featured in your posts or enter a contest. Sharing the best posts shows that you value participation and creates a sense of community. Sharing your followers' posts shows that you value their voices and are active.
Tip 8: Social media advent calendar
Advent calendars are popular with users but time-consuming to create. Either as a series of different posts - starting on December 1 - as a programmed Facebook tab, or as a story. The formatting options are virtually limitless.
Here are some content ideas for an Advent calendar:
- Tell a story about your products in 24 parts.
- Present 24 facts about your company
- Offer a Christmas wallpaper for download
- Post a public (shared) holiday playlist
- Share Christmas-related recipes, tips, curiosities or crafts.
Outlook: Community management is key
Now that you've gotten a lot of tips on how to increase engagement, here's a final note on community management. Especially if you have reached your goal and the engagement rate is high, you should focus on it so that it contributes significantly to customer satisfaction and the perception of your brand.
This means responding quickly because, during the holiday season, customers are often in a hurry (they need a gift fast, or they're waiting 7 days for shipping and getting cold feet that it won't arrive on time) and therefore have high expectations for customer service. Make sure your team can respond to inquiries and issues in record time. Quick and helpful responses show that you respect your customers' time and are willing to help them in the best way possible. The holiday season is a time to build real relationships with your community and leave lasting impressions.
If you're still manually responding to incoming likes, DMs, and comments on your networks, or your tool aren't giving you the best support, don't hesitate to take a closer look at Facelift, we have a free demo for you.
P.S. And we also have great customer support.
