Alexis Kestler
‘Tis the season to take into account your business and how it can thrive during the holiday season. By incorporating various social media techniques, your company can boost seasonal online traffic and hopefully increase revenue. Here are ten tips to get you started.
1. Know Your Goals
Ultimately, the holiday season is the best time to focus on your business goals, whether that includes generating more traffic or building more engagement with your customers. Just make sure your social media for business strategies match your goal and you remain relevant with current trends. The holidays are not simply for retail stores; you have the opportunity to craft a flawless approach, but remember to keep it clear and concise.
2. Be Respectful of Cultural Differences
Always consider your customer and client base first when generating anything relating to the holidays. Your audience’s cultural backgrounds may differ, so make sure that your business remains neutral or considers all cultures during the holiday season. As a general rule of thumb, avoid political and religious implications whenever possible. In doing so, your company will build a stronger rapport with your customers.
3. Stay Connected
Be involved and keep the communication open between your employees and customers. While remaining professional, you can include photographs of your company celebrating the holiday season and spending time together. For example, WebpageFX utilized social media for business by sharing their reasons for being thankful over Thanksgiving. Without getting too personal, they demonstrated they are a company that cares about their job and their clientele.
4. Create Holiday-Themed Campaigns
This is the perfect time of year to try some holiday-themed campaigns to boost your company. When using social media for business, you have a great opportunity to focus on topics that matter to you and your clients. If you are in the medical field, you can focus on health care issues that are common during the winter months. Or, if you work closely with a charity, you can include giveaways or promotional goals to help those in need. Whatever your target, make sure you follow through.
5. Take Customer Polls
Naturally, the holiday season is busy and we often become overwhelmed by the “bells and whistles.” Give control back to your clients and offer them the chance to reflect and share their opinion. Take polls from your followers on your products and provide follow-up conversations through avenues like Facebook or Twitter. By addressing their requests, you make your clients feel like they have a part of your company and you help build interest and engagement.
6. Launch a “Sneak Peek” of Products
With all of the different platforms available online, utilize programs such as Vine or Instagram to take photos of upcoming products that will be released over the holiday season. These “sneak peeks” will help increase traffic to your site and your customers will anticipate its arrival. Hopefully, using social media for business will increase your sales during this huge spending season. Make sure to include special promotions for Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday!
7. Hold a Contest
Contests are a great way to build traffic and interest in your social media sites. Try connecting to your audience by having clients submit photos or stories about holiday topics. For example, they could share one moment from their life that they felt pure joy. Then, you can tie it in to your holiday-themed campaign. Always make sure that you ask for permission to post any submissions. This way, you can turn the contest over to your customers to vote for their favorite submission and your company can reward a winner.
8. Give to Charity
Becoming involved in the community shows loyalty and demonstrates that your company is more than just products and services; you care about your customers. Share videos, images or stories about your business going out and volunteering in the community or participating in a charity. Remind them the reason for the season.
9. Offer One-for-One Promotions
Similar to philanthropy, you could utilize social media for business strategies that focus on donating an item when a product is purchased. This promotion is very similar to the old-fashioned toy drive, but it’s gone digital. In doing so, you can increase your revenue and help a good cause at the same time.
10. Express Your Gratitude
Always remember to thank your customers. You could offer simple discounts or offers, but a sincere letter can be thanks enough. Be sure to stay connected as a team and thank your employees as well.
Whatever your method, make sure you follow through with your efforts and keep your goals in mind. Don’t forget to always represent your company in a good light and keep open communication with your customers.
