5 Holiday Social Media Campaign Essentials

The holiday season is a time of increased of socializing on and offline.

People have always shopped and celebrated with friends and family in person. They expect to do the same online through social media.

Social Media Drives Holiday Ecommerce

The holiday season, Black Friday through New Year’s Day, is a gift to businesses — an extended opportunity to thank customers while decking social channels with special campaigns to attract new customers.

In fact, flash sales site Fab.com reported more than 50% of sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday last year came from people who joined via social sources. Half of that were people who joined the site through Facebook.

This year, online holiday shopping is expected to increase 17% from $46.63 billion in 2011 to $54.47 billion. That means nearly one quarter of the $224.2 billion in U.S. retail ecommerce forecast for 2012 will occur during year-end holidays.

Moreover, keeping social engagement strong through December 25th is essential since a third of holiday shopping takes place in the 10 days prior to Christmas.

Savvy shoppers, however, are not waiting to the last minute. Last year, 76% of seasonal shoppers researched online prior to purchasing, including studying up on brands and products via Facebook and Twitter.

Seasonal social campaigns are imperative to staying in front of price-driven and less loyal shoppers and meeting the year’s sales goal.

Deck the Halls & Social Channels

With Black Friday — November 23, 2012 — defining the starting line for the holiday season, businesses and retailers should implement an exciting holiday campaign or deal through their branded social media networks.

Create a fan- and follower-friendly mix of status updates with 60% focused on your limited-time campaign or deal and 40% devoted to sharing holiday cheer.

Consumers seek personalized interactions on social networks, so be personable. And funny. And spirited.

Show off your office decorations. Shoot a group Christmas photo. Share your company’s charitable efforts. Fans will appreciate your product or service more when your profile icon next catches their eye.

Combining seasonal goodwill with exclusive offers to fans will stoke excitement and generate greater virality — the large-scale word of mouth that will generate traffic and sales through the season and into the next year.

5 Social Media Holiday Campaign Musts

1. Develop season-specific social media campaign. Capture your fans and followers’ attention and inspire them to comment on and share content.
2. Design seasonal branded image. Make your logo and brand imagery more festive for your Facebook page profile image and/or cover image and Twitter background.
3. Create a unique holiday-themed landing page. Associate your brand message with the spirit of the holiday. Reuse page design with theme for the next holiday.
4. Post corporate donations and holiday events. Share your corporate culture’s seasonal generosity and festivities.
5. Establish pre-season baseline to measure success. Compare dates of seasonal promotion to prior timeframe and metrics to evaluate results.

Social Media Tactics by Holiday

Halloween

1. Sponsor a holiday costume contest in line with product.
2. Host a Twitter contest where the first fan or follower to Re-Tweet an update containing “trick or tweet” wins.

Thanksgiving

1. Give back to community to boost brand reputation and document company-wide volunteer efforts.
2. Partner with food back and donate a certain amount of food based on the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers were added during a set time.
3. Match donations to a certain charity and post fundraising levels in content status updates.
4. Upload a YouTube video on a charity and offer to donate a dollar amount per video views within a specific period.
5. Ask fans to Tweet photos of Thanksgiving dinner featuring your product.

Christmas

1. Offer a “12-Days of Discounts” campaign to build anticipation on daily basis
2. Post gift ideas for your target audience

Remember to always establish pre-holiday social media baseline to measure the gifts of your campaigns.