Christmas is almost upon us, but one of the most popular tools in recent years is to use advent as a hook to get your followers in the festive spirit for the big day, as well as promoting your business! Each day reveals a new photo, video or graphic on your social media platforms, and we’ve pulled together a list ideas you can use to make the most of advent on your own social media.
The first step to making the most of advent, is to decide what you would like the outcomes of your advent marketing campaign to be. For example, is your advent calendar just a bit of festive fun? Are you looking for more engagement online? Perhaps you want to drive traffic to your website, or promote a product or service? Whatever it is, make sure that your objectives are always in the back of your mind when making decisions and planning your campaign. And while an advent calendar offers up a nice opportunity to share 24 separate messages, it’s usually best to keep things coherent and consistent to ultimately achieve those defined objectives.
Here’s our list of advent ideas, and we can’t wait to see you go to town with them:
Christmas Quiz – a bit of festive fun to get everyone in the mood, but also a great way to engage your audience, because who can resist a quiz question each day?
Link with Partners – Christmas is certainly the time for giving, so why not spread the love for likeminded businesses and organisations you work with, and shine a spotlight on their great work? The bonus to this one is that the more businesses you tag in your posts, the more likely they are to share your content with their own audience! Win, win!
Product Highlights – this one’s a no-brainer if your objective is to promote a product on service, and it does exactly what it says on the tin: highlighting your products! Tell your audience all the details of what you have on offer, and why it’s so great! You could even pop a client review in there whilst you’re at it, for the final star on top of the tree!
Special Offers – a popular option for if you want to drive traffic to your website, or get people through the front door. Think about running an offer for each day, that only lasts for 24 hours – you might consider discounts, BOGOF or even festive freebies with certain purchases!
Staff Features – why not take the opportunity to say thank you and to highlight the brilliance of your staff? Your audience want to get to know the people behind the business, so use this as a tool to do just that and build trust between you and your clients. This one might be best if you have a large workforce in order to fill the full 24 days.
Giveaways – another great one for audience engagement and growth, because who can resist a freebie!? Do have a think about what participants need to do in order to enter (try and make it as easy as possible!), and make sure your competition T&Cs are up to date on your website!
Christmas Crafts, Recipes or ‘How-To’ Tutorials – especially at this time of year, people are looking for activities that get them in the mood for Christmas! Maybe if you’re a food-related industry and you’re whipping up some festive feasts, you could consider sharing your own favourite recipes, or if you’re a family-centred business you could do step-by-step activities for some festive family fun!
Festive Team Photos and/or Video – spread some joy, and get your team in on the action! From signing carols to re-enacting your favourite scene from a Christmas film, this idea for advent might take a little more work and planning, but it will certainly spread some cheer!
Christmas Quotes – another bit of festive fun to get everyone in the spirit for the big day! Another great one for audience engagement, especially if the quotes are inspirational or amusing, as they’re more likely to be shared.
Industry Top Tips – show you’re an expert in your field with top tips from your industry! If they’re useful and make a difference to the day-to-day life of your target audience, there’s no reason they wouldn’t keep coming back for more!
Have you got additional ideas we may have missed? We’d love to hear them!
We Ho-Ho-Hope your Christmas is a roaring success, but if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed and need some festive magic spreading over your social media channels get in touch with our elves here at Social Progress for help with your digital marketing: info@socialprogress.co.uk