The holidays are upon us, and shoppers across the globe are turning to social media to find the best deals and gifts for everyone on their list. But they’re not just looking at profiles and pages of big brands; they’re also looking to their friends and followers for holiday gift-giving inspiration! Studies have shown that a whopping 90% of consumers trust recommendations from their social media contacts more than any other form of advertising. To make the most of the holiday shopping season, check out these tips you can use to maximize your social media efforts during this time of year.
Create a social media plan for the holiday season
To maximize the weeks leading up Black Friday and the 26-odd days before the end of the holidays, create an outline detailing how you’ll promote various products and features on your SHOP.COM portal. In it, include when and how often to share gift recommendations (make sure these are tailored to your unique network and personal preferences), product testimonials (personal or from a friend or family member), and features like eGifts and MyLists.
Helpful tip! Before heading into the holiday season, make sure all your social media profiles contain a link to your SHOP.COM portal. This is especially true for Instagram, since the “website” link in your profile is the only clickable link you can post on Instagram!
When putting together a plan for the holiday season, don’t be afraid to be creative! How? For example: each week, share a list of 5-10 of the hottest gifts for kids, teens, husband/wife, or friends, with links to each on your portal. When posting to Facebook, include a holiday-themed photo that will catch your friends’ eye and make them click, and when sharing on Pinterest, pin each product individually onto appropriately-categorized holiday boards. To post on Twitter, tweet individual links to the products along with a short caption and appropriate hashtags (which will help increase the reach of a tweet). Not sure what the hottest gifts are this year? A simple Google search like, “The hottest gifts for 2014 holidays,” will do the trick!
Be prepared for major shopping days
As you create a social media game plan for the holiday season, don’t forget to develop a strategy for big shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday! To do this, brainstorm what to post on your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the days leading up to and during the big event. For example, pre-write a few posts about how shopping online – rather than waiting in line – is the way to go on Black Friday, or make a few notes about what to post in an update about why your SHOP.COM portal is the only place to be on Cyber Monday. Make sure to jot down a reminder to share deals from the SHOP.COM Black Friday and Cyber Monday landing pages throughout these two big shopping days, which go live the day-of the big shopping event.
Helpful tip! When preparing your social media holiday plan, remember to include the text you will post in the caption of the post! Regardless of what you’re posting – whether it’s a photo or link to a product on SHOP.COM – failing to add a caption tells your friends, “This isn’t very important, move along!”
Loved these tips for preparing your social media pages for the holidays? Make sure to visit our blog next Monday for part two of this two part series on social media success during the holidays!
