Holidays are always tricky for publishers. You want to make sure you’re hitting the topic without doing too much holiday content. Between running on a skeleton crew, the average publishing load, and the obligation to create seasonal content, it can feel like it may not be worth it. Social media holiday tips and tricks can help, but you must know your goals.
Don’t worry! We can help. Now is the time to start prepping your content and strategy so that you aren’t blindsided when the end of December rolls around.
Come up with a strategy
You need to know how your posts and videos will fit into the bigger picture. Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish, it’ll be a lot easier to plan. So here are some places to start:
- Define your goal. You should be able to answer this question easily before creating content.
- Are you trying to increase subscriptions?
- Sell product?
- Increase traffic?
- Build brand awareness?
- Initiate conversations with your readers?
- Know your audience. What holidays do they celebrate? Should you be aware of local traditions and preferences? What’s your primary demographic? Do they have families? Use every piece of information you have to make your content as relevant as possible.
- Focus on 1-2 platforms. A scattershot approach to social media is likely to exhaust you. Decide which platforms are your most profitable, and create content for them first. This doesn’t mean ignoring others entirely. It just means that you need to focus on what’s working. The most successful content creators have 1-2 platforms they focus their energy on, and the others are there to crosspost content and maintain a presence. It’s okay not to master everything. You probably don’t have the time.
Create content
In 2022, social media holiday tips can be passé. We’ve all seen the lists, right? However, things still work, and knowing how the platforms have evolved and what works broadly can help you.
Last year, we gave you a list of 12 types of holiday content you can create. Here’s a quick recap of our list of post ideas:
- Gift Ideas.
- Holiday decoration ideas.
- “12 days of”…
- Polls.
- Trivia.
- Safety tips.
- Contests!
- “Caption This” photos.
- “This or That” photos.
- Favorite holiday recipe.
- Humor content.
- ENGAGE!
- BONUS TIP: Find catchy hashtags to use on your posts to get in front of even more potential followers!
However, the most important part of this is that you deliver content that helps you accomplish your goal and serves your audience well.
Some platform specific advice:
If you’re a news publisher, chances are a ton of your traffic still comes from here (though definitely not as much as it did five years ago!) Facebook is still the largest social platform and has the least defined set of content rules of all the platforms. Here are things to consider on Facebook in 2022:
- You can post anything. Videos, text, images, polls, stories, links, etc.
- Hashtag contests are a no-go. In fact, just don’t hashtag at all on Facebook.
- If you are a True Anthem customer, we can help you set up your campaign and let the AI handle it! Plan in advance and get all of your holiday content in the queue early so you’ll be ready to go.
- Getting engagement should be easy here if you’re active on the platform. You can engage in so many different ways! “Caption this” photos, contests, polls, and anything that requires an ask of users will likely be easier on Facebook since they can post photos in captions.
- The easiest place to drive traffic off-site since you can link almost anywhere on platform. Take advantage of that!
Instagram is an excellent opportunity to build brand recognition. To make this work, you are going to need some buy-in from your anchors/reporters/meteorologists/whoever the face of your online brand is. People want to see faces on Insta. Social media holiday tips for Instagram:
- Update your profile and bio link! Make it all shiny and festive. If you’re running a contest, sale, or anything, make sure your bio link reflects it. If you need an updated link in bio option, check out Smartlink from True Anthem.
- Instagram is still trying to be TikTok, so Reels are where it’s at. Be sure to have some short-form videos ready to go!
- Know that it’s still tricky to drive traffic from Instagram. However, engagement can be really good. Contests, getting people to share your posts, and hashtag games can be valuable for your brand and visibility.
The name of the game on Twitter is humor! Short, sweet, and funny. Here are some ideas:
- You can post things several times. Just swap out the copy/image and try again!
- Let True Anthem’s AI tool handle things for you. We’ll prepare the campaign, and your holiday posts will be optimized and recirculated. All you have to do is approve the automatically populated queue!
- Engage, engage, engage! You have to show up and interact on Twitter more than anywhere else. Retweet people, reply to Tweets from other people, and make sure to answer when someone replies to you!
Campaigns
Once you’ve got your goals and content ideas, you need to figure out how to execute them. This is where campaigns come in.
First, staffing is tricky over the holidays. Everyone wants to be with family and take some time off, and many people are trying to use up their annual PTO. That is where social media automation comes in.
True Anthem’s AI can fill all the gaps in your social posting. Truly. We can crawl your catalog, identify evergreen content, and work with you to get it tagged appropriately. Once it’s tagged and ready to go, we can run a fully automated holiday campaign across your social platforms. The hours and stress you’ll save are insane.
Things you’ll want to do differently in 2022
The social landscape is constantly changing. Social media holiday tips from last year may be irrelevant. So here are a few final things to consider:
- More than ever, it’s all about video. Instagram has consolidated its video options and extended the story length. Facebook has added Reels. All these things are new developments you should consider in your content creation.
- Be aware of the Twitter TOS shifts as new management takes over. Things will likely change rapidly, so stay on top of their policies and opportunities.
- Remember that you can’t do everything well. Play to your strengths and build your strategy around them.
Good luck and happy holidays!
If you would like to know more about getting set up, contact True Anthem. We’ll give you a personalized demo and help you get started. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to get the most up-to-date news and tips on social media.
