11 Dec
6 Ways To Use Social Media For Holiday Marketing
Posted in Social Media, Synergy Suggestions on 11.12.14 by John Meloche
The holiday shopping season doesn’t just present a time of year when malls are crowded and people are spending more than ever before. It also marks a time when business owners are marketing their businesses in new and inventive ways in order to attract more customers. And if you’re thinking that “new and inventive” means making use of the internet, you’d be right! To be more specific, social networking is a top choice for holiday marketing.
On Inc.com, Jim Belosic writes that there are several ways to make use of social media in order to market your business over the holidays. He offers a list of great tips with the assistance of fellow business professionals. We will be dedicating our next two blogs to this amazing list of suggestions. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss six ways to utilize social media for your holiday marketing campaign.
1. Ask your customers what they most want from you. Belosic believes that gathering information about the likes and dislikes of your customers will help you to better plan your marketing strategies in the future. “You’ll learn what kinds of products and services your users/customers like about what’s already in your line-up, what they don’t care so much about, and what they wish you offered,” he writes, “It’s cheap market research.”
2. Showcase charitable activities that your company participates in. Social media profiles are great for showing the “personality” of your brand. As we’ve often said, it’s a win-win situation when you donate your time or money to charity. Not only are these worthy causes helping people in need, but your efforts reflect very favourably upon your brand. “Show how the people in your company celebrate or honour certain traditions,” says Ann Handley of Marketing Profs.
3. Provide valuable content. People don’t just want to be advertised to, they want to learn, they want to be entertained and they want their opinions to count. Remember that social networking is all about being social. “As business owners, we should approach our marketing as ‘how can I give more valuable content in a bigger way so that I can reach more people?’” says online marketing expert, Melanie Duncan.
4. Engage your audience. Speaking of being social, some of the best ways that you can promote your brand is to encourage your audience to engage in conversations with you. The holiday season provides many reasons to get talking. “To increase engagement on your Facebook Page, ask your fans to post their favourite holiday photos from their childhood or share details about their favourite holiday treats,” suggests Facebook Marketing author, Amy Porterfield.
5. Focus on relevance and context. “Ask yourself – how does your brand tie into the holidays?” says Shama Hyder of Marketing Zen, “If you are B2B company serving sales professionals, chances are that they are scurrying to meet year end goals or they thinking about how to reward their current customers. You can share with them ideas on how to make last minute sales or provide gift ideas for their best customers.”
6. Make it about your customers. Place the focus on those who support your business and they are bound to support you even more. Jesse Stanchak of Microsoft UK insists that you ask what your customers are focused on. Don’t be afraid to ask them about exactly what makes them tick. “Ask yourself what your best customers – the people who support you all year round – are doing this month,” he advises.
Be sure to check back for tomorrow’s blog as we continue our look at this expert list of social media holiday marketing suggestions.
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