The holiday social media season for publishers is chaotic to same the least. Teams seem to shrink while content demands increase. You want to touch upon the holidays with your posts but don’t want to overwhelm your audience with holiday ‘cheer.’ It’s a lot, but we’re here to help you prepare some holiday social media strategies that work.

We’ve seen our fair share of holiday posting seasons at True Anthem and compiled some of our favorite marketing strategies to keep you on track. First, let’s discuss setting goals for the season before we cover the tips for accomplishing them. 

Strategize before creation 

What are you trying to accomplish with your holiday content? How do you want to reach your audience? These are essential questions to ask before creating content to help you meet those strict holiday timelines. Let’s get into some other things to consider when strategizing. 

Know your audience

Your social media team should know your brand and audience front to back; this all comes into play when creating your holiday social strategy. Consider how active your audience is online during the holidays. What holidays do they celebrate? What type of demographics are you speaking to? Use this information to create relevant content that hits right around this time of the year. 

Define your holiday goals 

While your brand voice and style should not change during the holiday season, your posting goals may shift. Decide with your team what your social media goal will be this season. Are you looking to sell products? Increase subscriptions? Build brand awareness? This step will help you create and schedule posts appropriately without a content or user engagement lapse. 

Don’t overload platforms. 

This one will be different depending on how many platforms you are on. It’s possible to manage multiple social media accounts with automation tools. However, during the holidays, focus most of your attention on the platforms you profit from and succeed. This doesn’t mean ignoring all the others, but you likely won’t have time to put 100% effort into every platform. Choose 1-2 to really show up on,. 

Creating holiday social media campaigns

Once you finalize your holiday social media strategies, the fun part begins: creating content! 

Ideas for creating holiday content are endless. We’ve written a few lists in the past, but here are some suggestions more specific to 2024: 

• Use a variety of posts. Shake up your account with Reels, photos, graphics, Instagram carousels (an algorithm favorite right now), linked posts, and short-form videos. Post variety will extend your reach to diverse audiences. 
• Build your email list. Highlight your latest holiday email to gain more interested newsletter subscribers. 
• Fun engagement posts. Try using features such as polls with holiday-themed questions related (or unrelated) to your niche. 
• Highlight events. If you have holiday events going on, post about them! Highlight team participation in food or coat drives, non-profit events, or a holiday get-together.  
• Contests. If you have something to give away or a new product to launch, holiday contests can be a fun way to increase engagement and get your stuff out there.
• Behind the scenes. Show your audience how your workplace functions over the holidays and what holidays your team celebrates. This can be a casual video of the office, at home, or out in the community—whatever you are comfortable with. 
• Industry-related tips. Connect your content to the holiday season by sharing industry-related tips and tricks. This may be a holiday recipe, a ‘how to’ tutorial, or special news stories. 
• Holiday hashtags. Participate in holiday hashtags to stay relevant and in tune with what’s going on in the community. Popular ones include #SmallBusinessSaturday and #GivingTuesday. 
• Connect locally. The holidays are a great time to tap into your local market. On your page, highlight some of the local causes, events, or organizations you support in the community. 
• Thank your audience. Give a warm shout-out to those loyal readers and subscribers who keep your brand strong. They deserve it. 
• Year ahead. If you have some exciting updates in 2025, drop a few teasers to get your audience looking out for what’s to come. 

Seasonal dates to remember 

When creating a content schedule for your holiday social media strategies, start with determining your bandwidth and availability. Remember, many staff take off during the holidays. Prepare for some holes in your typical process, and don’t overstretch.  

Some popular holiday dates to keep in mind when scheduling include: 

• Thanksgiving: November 28 
• Black Friday: November 29
• Small Business Saturday: November 30
• Cyber Monday: December 2
• Giving Tuesday: December 3
• Hanukkah: December 25-January 2
• Christmas Eve: December 24
• Christmas: December 25
• Kwanzaa: December 26- January 1
• Boxing Day: December 26 
• New Year’s Eve: December 31
• New Year’s Day: January 1

Knowing which dates your team wants to post on means you can schedule content ahead of time to save yourself more time. True Anthem’s automation tool is fantastic for accomplishing these goals. It’s one of our secrets to effective social media scheduling and our favorite tip for streamlining your content. 

Automation to hit holiday goals

If you’ve ever considered integrating automation tools into your social media marketing, the holiday season is an ideal time to start. This is one of the few times the year when the office feels empty, and staff can be hard to reach. Automation can help prevent pitfalls in posting and keep your content consistent. 

True Anthem’s tool is more than just a social media scheduler. We can help fill those notorious holiday gaps and identify the best use of your social media efforts during this time. Our tool highlights your best-performing content to build upon your success and flags Evergreen potential you can use as timeless content anytime. 

We currently support AI posting on X, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, and LinkedIn. We provide manual scheduling support for TikTok and YouTube.

Plan ahead for 2025

Looking to enhance your social media strategy after the holiday? True Anthem has you covered. Trends and updates change quickly, and most platforms have at least a few to drop right after the new year.

We can provide a personalized demo for your team to see where our tool best supports your strategy. Contact us for questions or more information.