Catapult Your Creativity With A Social Media Holiday Calendar

Social media holidays are a great source of inspiration for content creators and social media managers. They provide an excellent starting point for companies that want to create trending content for their market. What are social media holidays? These are holidays that are unrestricted to being official. Instead, these holidays extend to niche celebrations. Developing a social media holiday calendar for your business provides a foundation for what to share and promote throughout social channels. A thorough social media calendar with social holidays included can aid in clarifying content themes and the voice of a business. When brainstorming content ideas, strategists must consider how celebrations can be an opportunity to get creative. For instance, a women's clothing store might highlight pink clothing every Wednesday, referencing the iconic movie Mean Girls. 

Before engaging in a social media holiday, there is a checklist that businesses and brands need to consider:

1) Where is the business currently on the brand awareness scale?

2) What is the brand motive other than selling a product?

3) What kind of storytelling is the brand willing to engage in?

4) How does the business want its community to interact with the story?

Once these objectives have been assessed a brand can choose what holidays are vital to center content around. 

There are many benefits to implementing social media holidays into your content calendar, some of them being:

Something For Every Occasion:

When implementing social media holidays into your content calendar, you will find that running out of ideas is never an issue. There is always a special (official and unofficial) occasion to celebrate. These celebrations spark ideas for campaigns that have the potential to go viral if a business catches wind of them first. 

Humanization:

Social holidays are a way of engaging with consumers without overtly pushing products with no rhyme or reason; it is a way to create a feeling of humanness on the other side of the screen. Acknowledging a celebration gives the impression of warmth and personability. The holidays chosen to engage with will set the tone for the voice and identity of a business.

Community Engagement: 

Social holidays inevitably create a space that an audience feels more comfortable engaging with. A sterile media presence often leaves social media consumers feeling disconnected from brands. When brands engage with a fun or humorous holiday, an opportunity is created in which a business can emotionally connect with the audience.

What Can You Do With These Holidays? 

Use social media holidays as a springboard for promotional content. Find creative ways to implement products or services into the celebration. Strategists must brainstorm ways to create offers that align with the holiday selected. Hosting giveaways or contests through Instagram Live is another option that promotes community engagement. Businesses should not be afraid to engage in global or religious holidays that are not their own. Doing so only widens the net of their potential audience.