Structuring Your Social Media Strategy for the Holiday Season

With the beginning of fall approaching, many marketers are gearing up for the holiday season.  For most businesses, this is the time of year where revenue and marketing spend is at its highest and their Social Media efforts are at their most aggressive.  Tweeting and posting on Facebook more often can help with brand goals, but Social Media marketers need to incorporate additional strategies to their holiday season planning in order to maximize their return.  Below are five tips to consider when planning your Social Media strategy for the holiday season.

• Listen to Your Consumers:  Most Social Media campaigns consist of listening whether it’s through Radian6, Google Alerts, or another tool.  Before selecting individual products to promote heavily for the holiday season, listen to what your consumers are saying about your brand on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Honing in on what the current demand is for your brand through Social Media will help better structure your Social Media campaign.

• Partner with Bloggers: Get the word out about your brand and products by partnering with influential bloggers. There are thousands of popular blogs out there that regularly host reviews and giveaways. Find a few that are relevant to your brand, use a tool like Compete to assess their current traffic statistics, and generate a list of bloggers you intend on contacting for the holiday season.  Influential bloggers allow you to “piggy back” off of the popularity of their readership which can help with driving brand awareness and revenue.

• Get Creative: Sweepstakes and contests are a great way to utilize Social Media, but can also get lost in the clutter of thousands of other brands who are implementing the same strategy.  Make your brand stand out by incorporating a unique element to your Social Media strategy this holiday season.  Strategies that encourage engagement from current and prospective consumers tend to perform better overall.

• Don’t Ignore Forum Communities: Social Media isn’t just Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. If you’re offering any sort of discount this holiday season, make sure to take advantage of the hundreds of forum communities that regularly list coupons and promos. FatWallet.com and SlickDeals.net are a couple of examples, but there are hundreds more that exist. These websites are especially popular during Black Friday. As with any forum community, make sure to read the Terms and Services before self-promoting your coupon.

• Utilize Past Data: Whether you use Google Analytics, Omniture, or another analytics platform, make sure to check the Social Media sites that helped to drive the most revenue during last holiday season. While Social Media generally isn’t a direct ROI marketing strategy, if you notice that one channel referred a substantial amount of revenue last year for your brand it should be part of your holiday season planning for this year as well.  This is especially helpful for marketers who didn’t promote a brand during the last holiday season.