How to make your social media shine this Christmas season

Written by Sarah Russo – Head of Content Marketing, Localsearch

The festive season has well and truly arrived, rounding off a big year for all Aussie businesses. However, for businesses wanting to capitalise on the season, ensuring your social media content and accounts are getting the attention they need should be on your Christmas list.

If you’re selling a service or product that could be a gift, this is the time of year you want your digital presence to be the most active and driving business. This is when people truly want to be seeing your products, suggestions and solutions for their Christmas shopping. It is the one time of year you are allowed – and encouraged – to scream and shout about your products, so do it in style and volume.

Here are five savvy social media tips to spark inspiration and put into action in your Christmas social media marketing campaign.

Celebrate with a 12 Days of Christmas campaign

Christmas is the time for giving, and as a business, this is a way for you to connect with your customers and community. A 12 Days of Christmas campaign is an easy way to tie the sentiment in with the season and your business’s persona, either on your own or by partnering up with other local businesses for some cross-promotion.

You don’t necessarily even need to be giving away prizes. One day could be a 10% discount, another a bonus gift or even a surprise for a randomly selected commenter on a post. Once you have your list of what you’re giving, creating the content for your campaign is simple.

Create one great template, then simply switch out your photos, graphics and text as you need — also remembering to switch out the day number. Be sure to include some basic terms and conditions to cover you legally and abide by your chosen platform’s guidelines for promotions.

Marketing your business through festive colours

In marketing, colouring is crucial as it has been shown to have a huge impact on how people shop. Red and green are not just associated with the traditional meanings of Christmas, but they also have powerful marketing messaging too, ones you can easily tap into.

With platforms like Canva now at a business owner’s disposal for free, you can easily incorporate the urgency of red and tranquility of green into your social media content over the month of December. Simply switch out your typical brand colouring for a holiday season takeover, remembering to use contrasting fonts-to-background to ensure your designs are accessible.

If a full colour takeover isn’t your style, simply adding a little Christmas tree graphic or a santa hat to your visuals will make all the difference and catch people’s eye.

Engage your followers with some Merry questions

Capitalising on the Christmas season is a great conversation starter! Remember, social media is ‘social’. Conversations and engagement with your posts, stories and content helps not only your business in direct ways, but also helps drive up your visibility of those posts to even more people. Running a

Christmas themed ‘This or That’ on Instagram or Facebook stories can create that direct engagement with your followers, and even those who don’t.

Keep it simple by utilising the poll feature and some complementary imagery and ask your followers some seasonal questions. Everyone loves to give their option, so ask them if they’re ham, turkey or tofurkey family! Do they like gift wrap or gift bags? Are gift cards a faux pas or much appreciated gift? It shakes up your static posts and helps people feel included, while also boosting your analytics too.

Update Christmas trading hours (extended trading hours)

People go mad during this season. Trying to squeeze in Christmas shopping on top of groceries, working and maintaining a social life, there's nothing worse than going to a store and realising they closed two hours ago.

A simple marketing tip is to regularly update your Christmas trading hours, via Instagram, Facebook and Google My Business. You must update ALL your online platforms to minimise confusion from your customers. Not only should you update your actual hours on your profile, but make it a post, story or reel.

Spotlighting Christmas discounts

‘Tis the season of giving, so you should be letting people far and wide know about any discounts and sale promotions happening in the lead up to Christmas. Given Australia’s recent economic recession, people are more likely to shop savvier.

Whether it be through creating an Instagram story or investing in Google Ads to promote these discounts, customers are more likely to engage with your online presence when they see a big SALE sign.

From switching your account and website graphics to festive colours to utilising user-generated content and encouraging merry engagement, you can easily harness the power of social media to engage with your consumers this festive season.

For more information visit https://business.localsearch.com.au/