The Ultimate Tips for Selling on Social Media During the Holidays
The holidays can be a stressful time for many, especially us small business owners! When you start to plan your business sales and offerings for the upcoming Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, especially Cyber Monday, and the month to follow, it’s crucial that you make social media a key part of your marketing plan. Let’s dive in to some of the most practical tips for selling on social media during the holidays!
Tips for Selling on Social Media During the Holidays
Optimize Shoppable Catalogs
This is a vital element of selling products on social media. If you are a product-based business, this tip is for you! Be sure to sync your e-commerce website with platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to make your catalog of inventory shoppable and engaging. Humans have the shortest attention span nowadays and offering the ability to convert them quickly on social can greatly increase your total profit this season.
Utilize Reels and The Latest Trending Mediums
Reels are all the rage on Instagram, and even Facebook! If your business’ ideal audience members can be found on TikTok, consider sharing videos there, too. It’s easy to repurpose video across all platforms. The secret? Tune in to trending audios and try to stay in the moment as best you can to capitalize on the latest trends. You can batch video content ahead of time, but also be sure to designate a staff member (or marketing consultant!) to manage video content to ensure you don’t miss a beat.
Create Eye-Catching Graphics
My all-time favorite visual tool is Canva. This design platform allows all of us to create beautiful, popping graphics without the lengthy graphic design knowledge! When planning your upcoming promotions, lean in to the possibility of visual graphics that will bring your social profiles to the next level. Remember: Most platforms still prioritize video content for the time being, so don’t make these static graphics an excessively large amount of your posts - sprinkle them sparingly and still let your photo + video content shine. Pro Hack: You can utilize Canva to make animated graphics that can be posted as a Reel video. This way, you tackle two things at once!
Make Engaging Stories
Utilizing Instagram and cross-posting to Facebook, you can make a variety of engaging Story slides with polls, question boxes, and more, encouraging customer feedback and getting them excited for your promotions. Click here to get more ideas on making engaging Stories.
Share Your Gratitude with a Giveaway
One of the easiest ways to give back and showcase the love and appreciation you have for your clients/customers is to host a giveaway on your social media. Listen to the feedback you’ve received on your most popular products or services the past year, and pick something good to give away! Consider the benefit it will have for your social platform: Do you want this to increase your following? Brand awareness in your community? Design the rules of the giveaway to reflect this. Make sure you also research the platform-specific regulations and include the necessary disclaimer text in the giveaway fine print!
Be Sure to Be Consistent
The best way to make an impact on social media this holiday season is to stay consistent in your postings. Develop a holiday social schedule and be sure you are sharing content at least every other day. The ideal frequency of posting will greatly depend on your industry and niche of business - ask around to see what your fellow industry connections will be doing for their strategy, and consider Googling the most common practices.
Arm Your Social Channels with Stellar Service
The make or break element of your social media on any given day, but ESPECIALLY the holidays, is going to be the customer service that your staff offers. Be sure to arm your channels with staff and/or a marketing manager who can answer questions and comments in a timely manner, both good and bad! Provide proper training to ensure that these people understand the promotions and the types of responses you want to give in a crisis moment (for example: Your site’s server crashes, a coupon code is broken, the list goes on! While you can hope to not encounter these problems, some are simply inevitable during the busiest shopping season of the year).
Tap into the Influencer Market
This one takes a bit more dedicated time and energy (and funds), but entertaining the possibility of bringing on micro influencers for your holiday social strategy may be worth it! These content creators have curated an engaged, loyal following that listens to their opinions and product recommendations. Always be sure to reach out to influencers who fit your brand values and overall vibe, and be prepared to pay them for their worth and work!
The holiday season is chaotic, fun, inspiring, frustrating, record-breaking, and so many more adjectives all in one! Most importantly, you must give yourself some grace and patience, and acknowledge how much work you are putting in to make your small business thrive during this busy time while also giving back to your people. It’s quite an accomplishment and I’m proud of you for seeking out fresh ideas this year. I hope this list gets you started, and don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments below if you’re feeling stuck! Happy Holidays!
