If you’re like us, you’ve been seeing tons of social media holiday posts recently. Halloween slid into Thanksgiving with is snowballing into the behemoth of December. We’re not complaining in the least! There’s nothing like social media holidays and their trends, no matter the time of year.
Seeing so many creators sharing their holiday social media content got us thinking: how do you make the best use of these trends? How can creators take advantage of a festive spirit? In this article, we’re taking you through planning and creating your holiday social media posts. No matter the holiday you want to highlight, this guide will give you everything you need!
What’s in it For Me?
There are a lot of reason to post holiday content, but there’s two main reasons the idea gets us all giddy.
For one, who doesn’t love a good holiday season? We’re not just talking about Christmas. Any holiday is worth celebrating – and there’s probably one or two you really enjoy. Creating content about a holiday you love can help you get more invested in the season. Or it just makes your content creation more fun!
For the businesses minded amongst us, holidays are trending topics, which means more people will see your content. If you play your cards right, it might be something they’re actively searching for, too! Take me, the writer (hello!) for example. My search history has been full of “holiday baking,” “gifts for dad who has everything and doesn’t want anything,” and “holiday cocktails to impress my coworkers at the Christmas party so they think I’m cool and hip.” This led me to a ton of new content creators, some of whom I’ve followed!
Whether you’re looking to have a little fun or to broaden your reach, holidays are the perfect outlet. They’re right there, just waiting for you to jump onboard! And while you could jump in with both feet, let’s test the waters together. As we always say, a little prep goes a long way.
Preparing for Social Media Holiday Content
Choose Your Holidays
If you’re just starting to make holiday content, don’t start with all of them. We recommend picking a couple! Choose the ones you’re the most passionate about and start planning the content you’ll be creating. This doesn’t have to be an extensive list or script: just jot down the ideas you have.
The exception is, of course, if you want to start creating only holiday content. Then we’d suggest getting a list of all the holidays you want to cover and jotting down all the content you’d be interested in creating. The more the merrier, both in terms of content to create and holidays to create for.
Do Some Research
Spend some time looking at what other creators have shared in the past. You may see a lot of really similar content year after year; try starting with these topics. If it performs well and people like it, throw your hat in the ring! Just make sure to put your own spin on it.
You may come across gaps in content, or videos you love that didn’t perform as well as the others. Make note of those, too! This is a place where you can really stand out and create some more unique content. And seeing what’s lacking may be more inspiring than seeing what performs well.
Also, spend some time researching the holiday itself. You’ll find write ups from History.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, and even on Wikipedia. If the holiday has some cultural/religious importance, do some research into that aspect and try to find articles written by people with that background.
Keep it Similar
Try creating holiday content similar to what you already create. This is a new style of content for your followers, so you don’t want to do a complete 180 immediately. If you usually review movies, start sharing reviews for holiday movies. If you’re a singer, try your hand at covering or writing some holiday originals.
That doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with new styles or formats. Of course you can! That singer can still share some cookie recipes, and the movie reviewer can post tutorials or challenges. Just keep in mind that your audience will still be expecting your regular content.
Making Your Holiday Content
Once you’ve settled on the content you want to create, it’s time to…well, create the content. After preparing and doing your research, you may feel ready to dive in. Go for it! But if you want some extra tips to make your holiday content irresistible, read on.
1. Plan Ahead
You don’t have to start planning for Halloween 2024 in October 2023 (unless you live in Halloween Town, of course). But do try to plan ahead a few weeks or months in advance. This will make it easier to work holiday content into your regular schedule, or give you time to develop the content and figure out what you’ll need.
2. Timing is Everything
To truly capitalize on holidays, you have to carefully consider when you’ll start posting your holiday content. Post too early or too late and no one will care. You can’t share a Christmas gift inspo post on December 23rd: people have bought all their gifts! Likewise, you won’t reach a huge audience if you start posting Halloween content in July.
A good rule of thumb is to start sharing content around a month in advance. Most people will be looking forward to the holiday by then, so you’re more likely to reach a wide audience. If you want to target a really enthusiastic but smaller audience, you could try posting two months ahead.
3. Understand Your Audience
Think about your followers and supporters, your community, and whatever niches you fit into. What’s something they’d want to see? What holidays or traditions might resonate most with them? Try to work some of that into your content, if you haven’t already. You may want to even start off posting content tailored to your audience and communities, just to grab their attention.
4. Stay Consistent
This oft-used adjective is especially important for holiday content. You have limited time to post your content and capitalize on the holiday. Create a content schedule and stick to it! Planning ahead will make this much easier.
5. Make it Shareable
Create content that your audience will want to send to friends – or will want to save. If you’re making holiday content, you’re already hitting on trending and relevant content, which will make it shareable. But if you really want to take it a step further, there’s a few other things you can hit on.
Make it Emotional
Holidays are a big time for nostalgia and getting emotional. You may have success if you nestle into these areas, like recreating your grandma’s Christmas cookie recipe in a video.
Make it Practical
Content like how-to’s, tips and tricks, and gifting/celebrating guides are easily shareable. Think of how many times have you shared a game or craft idea with a friend saying “we should do this!”
Make it Visual
Seems intuitive for a short-form video app, but hear us out. Infuse as much holiday imagery into the video as you can. It makes people feel festive! A day in the life is cool, but it’s even better with a Santa mug and a debatably-ugly sweater.
6. Notice the Trends
You don’t have to follow every holiday trend that pops up, but do keep an eye out for them. It might be bandwagon you want to hop on, or may provide some extra inspo. The easiest way to follow trends is to notice what sounds people use in their videos. Just using a really popular audio as a background can boost your video!
7. Pay Attention to Hashtags
We talk more about hashtags and how to use them in another article, but it bears repeating here. See what hashtags other people are using, and try to create a few of your own for the season. A little hashtag research can go a long way.
8. Have Fun
The entire point of creating holiday content is to have fun. Even if you’re thinking of it from a views and engagement standpoint, you know it’s supposed to be enjoyable. Your audience is looking at holiday content for this very reason. And they’ll notice if you aren’t having fun or enjoying the process.
A Gift For You!
What social media holiday article would this be without a little treat? Below you’ll find a small list of some potential holiday content you can post.
- Share your favorite holiday traditions.
- Show off your decorations.
- DIY something, or try a festive craft.
- Post a video showing us how to make your favorite seasonal recipe.
- Tell us about your favorite books/movies/TV shows to watch this time of year.
- Share how your pets get into the holiday spirit!
- Vlog about a particularly festive day in your life.
- Take us to one of your festive celebrations!
- Host a holiday themed Livestream or Radio.
- Create a challenge for your followers. Make it related to your niche!
- If you have the resources, host a seasonal giveaway!
Good luck, creator!
