5 of the best Christmas social media campaigns all wrapped up

by Alison Fordy Christmas is right around the corner, which gives every business the chance to close the year with a bang. Spending is expected to increase in the next few weeks as customers prepare for the festivities, but in order to get a piece of this Christmas pudding, you must invest in proper marketing and advertising.Social media marketing is a fantastic way to raise brand awareness and expand your customer base this holiday season. You can utilise social media in various ways, so let’s look at some of the best Christmas social media campaigns. 5 of the best Christmas social media campaigns Here are 5 social media Christmas campaigns to try: 1. Decorate your social media profiles Give your social media profiles a festive look to get your customers to take notice. Updating your profile picture, cover photo and brand logo using Christmas-inspired texts, colours and visuals can signal to customers that you might be offering goodies and giveaways, and can also show that you take pride in the little details.Decorating your social media pages for the holidays doesn’t have to be expensive, just look at Tesco's Twitter logo. Adding a Christmas tree, star, snow, or lights in your logo or pictures is enough. You can also treat your cover photo as a billboard and use it to promote any products and offerings you want your customers to know about. 2. Run a giveaway Running a giveaway is your chance to be Santa Claus to your customers and make their wishes come true. It is also an effective way to boost your follower count, increase brand-user engagement, and enhance the virality of your social media posts. Here’s how to run an engaging giveaway:Choose a prize: The ideal gift should be of value to your audience to encourage them to participate.Decide on the entry criteria: Whatever rules you come up with should help you achieve your marketing goals, but be careful not to ask much of people as this could discourage participation.Set the judging criteria: Make sure entrants know how their entry will be judged or the winner chosen, and by who, to provide peace of mind.Set a deadline: Give your followers ample time to enter but avoid running your giveaway for too long as participants could run out of steam.Announce the winner: Tally the results and announce the winner to get in touch with you directly to arrange delivery of the prize. 3. Collaborate with social media influencers Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective ways for brands to establish their social media presence. Influencers have a large and loyal following, so collaborating with them during Christmas could help you improve brand awareness and increase sales.Influencers can create sponsored content for you, or you can collaborate to create gift sets with their favourite products. Gift sets are a sure way to boost sales because they push customers into buying several products at once. 4. Post content audiences want to interact with Customers are in dire need of information and inspiration during the holiday season. As a marketer or a business owner, take this opportunity to create engaging content for your followers. Here are some content ideas for the holiday season:How-to posts: This kind of content gets instant engagement on social media because it is helpful and educative. Show your followers how to wrap gifts, decorate the tree or add some magic to their kids' Christmas, etc.Gift ideas: Every year, customers turn to social media for gift ideas. Reach out to these customers by publishing your gift recommendations for Christmas. Ensure that you include a few of your products in the list.Tutorials: People are shopping for gifts and want to be reassured that they know how to use your products or tell the recipient how to get the most out of them. Providing a helpful tutorial (text or video) can enhance buy-in and peace of mind.Recipes: The holidays are a time for food, and people are always looking for new recipes to try. Even if you aren't a supplier of food, posting recipes on your social media can help you generate engagement from new audience segments. Add a call to action asking your followers to leave their favourite holiday recipes in the comment section.Safety tips: Contrary to what people think, safety content is very relevant during the holidays. A good example is Budweiser’s wise men don’t drink and drive campaign that was designed to discourage people from drinking and driving during the holidays.Holiday videos: Video content performs extremely well during the holidays as an opportunity to capture the true spirit of Christmas. Create YouTube videos, TikTok videos, and Instagram reels to promote your brand and increase engagement. 5. Launch a hashtag campaign A hashtag campaign makes it easier for your brand’s message to spread across the internet. If you want to create awareness about your brand or product and increase sales this holiday season, create a unique hashtag and promote it across all social media platforms. Share it with your followers and encourage them to use it in their posts when they share anything related to your brand.Usually, a hashtag campaign goes hand in hand with a contest or giveaway to incentivise people to join in. But it can also be tied to a good cause to help boost positive reinforcement for your brand. When it comes to Christmas hashtag campaigns, UPS's #Wishesdelivered and Ted Baker’s #TedsElfie are some of the most successful hashtag campaigns ever. 3 tips for running the best social media Christmas campaigns These 3 social media Christmas campaign ideas can give your marketing a competitive edge: 1. Take advantage of user-generated content Your hashtag campaign will generate a lot of user-generated content. Use a social media aggregator tool to collect all user-generated content and then curate and display it on your social media pages.UGC is critical to the success of your social media marketing campaign because customers trust images taken by people like them over brand-created images. It provides the much needed social proof to your brand’s marketing efforts which reassures other customers and encourages them to buy from you. 2. Create Christmas offers and discounts Customers expect holiday offers and discounts from their favourite brands. Other than free shipping, there are a lot of other offers that you can use to incentivise customers:Offer gifts, loyalty points, vouchers, discounts and trial-size products to entice customers and bring more traffic to your business.Add a countdown alongside your offers to create a sense of urgency.Run a 12 Days of Christmas social media campaign to generate momentum and keep customers coming back for more each day.Don't forget to add a call to action or a direct link to your website where customers can shop the deals! 3. Use Facebook and Instagram ads While organic marketing is great, advertising can help boost your visibility and increase traffic. When creating your ads, make sure that you use Christmas keywords and highlight your offer.Start your paid social campaign well in advance because the customer buying process begins much earlier than the time of purchase. Often as early as October. This will help create excitement about your offers and help customers plan how to spend their money this Christmas.If your holiday social media campaign is in good shape, it could be you that ticks the boxes on their Christmas shopping list this year.✏️Looking for help with your seasonal marketing? Get in touch to discuss how Copify content agency can help with your campaign.Main image: Sabri TuzcuEmbedded images: Screenshot courtesy of Twitter, Bianca Ackermann, Screenshot courtesy of Twitter Spread the word: Facebook Twitter Linkedin Envelope