The Christmas lights are going up. The decorations are in the stores. The holiday commercials are taking over TV. Yes, it's that time of year. It's time to incorporate holiday content into your marketing strategy. If you haven't yet started to plan for this or haven't gotten around to crafting your holiday content, it's ok.

You're cutting it close, but there's still time. And with these tips I outline here, you can be quickly on your way to crafting quality holiday content for your social media strategy.

Holiday Themed Cover Images

Whether for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, or any other site, if you have the real estate of a cover (or background or banner) photo, update this for the holidays.

Create a custom image with a holiday theme that promotes your business or marketing strategy. If you have a holiday promotion or event you want to promote, include this information on your image.

Choose colors, graphics, and content that are in line with your brand but that incorporate a holiday theme.

Display Your Products in Seasonal Decor

I love a good photo shoot. I love staging content around a theme - especially holiday themes! But even if you don't love setting up crazy photo sessions, you can still find ways to incorporate seasonal decor into your product content.

Instead of just taking photos of your content on a shelf, or in a box, or on a model, or on display, ramp up your content by including holiday decor. Place your product next to a Christmas tree (or IN a Christmas tree!). Put your products in boxes with wrapping and bows and ribbons. Lay out Christmas lights around your products. Put your models in holiday themed locations or decor.

There are so many fun ways that you can incorporate seasonal decor into your content and products.

Showcase You or Your Employees Celebrating

Hosting a holiday party? Going to holiday events? Decorating your office space? Having an ugly sweater contest? Whatever you do to celebrate this holiday season, you can share those experiences with your audience.

When you share the photos of you or your employees make sure to include the story of the situation. Where was this taken? What was going on? How much fun did you have? Tell the story and share the event with your audience.

Share Holiday Recipes or DIY Projects

People are always looking for helpful tips or fun things to do. If you can find fun, relevant, and easy-to-do holiday things to share with your audience, they will eat it up!

It can be holiday recipes, holiday crafts, holiday decorations, or holiday party ideas. Find articles, links, or sources that are full of tips and information. And while it's great to share this content, even if it's not your own content, it's great if you can tie it back to your business too. Maybe they can get the items to do the craft at your store, or they can incorporate your products into holiday celebrations.

Ask Questions About the Holidays

Not only will asking your audience questions boost your engagement, but it's a great way to actually connect with them and get to know them better.

Ask them about what their favorite Christmas carol is. Or what their favorite holiday memory is. Or what traditions they continue to enjoy every year. You can ask them, pose fill in the blank questions or other fun ways to get them talking.

Incorporate Videos

Videos are so big right now and have so much power. Incorporate holiday videos into your social media strategy to take advantage of this tool and boost engagement.

Videos could be as simple as a holiday greeting for your audience. Or you could put together a video of your team celebrating the holidays throughout the season. Or create special holiday tutorials or tips to help your audience during the holiday season.

Videos can be as short or as long as you need to get across your holiday message.

Holiday Sales and Promos

Of course, if you want to boost sales or take advantage of holiday promotions, you can always offer holiday discounts, promos, sales, or events for your business. Offer holiday exclusive discounts or unique holiday promo codes. Advertise holiday sales or markdowns.

Use this peak shopping season to incorporate sales and promos into your business!

Holiday Gifts and Opt-Ins

Everyone loves a good gift this time of year. So why not reward your audience with exclusive holiday gifts? Give away a free ebook, or tutorial, or white paper, or video training. BUT, give it away with the condition of an opt-in. This way, they get a gift, and you get the gift of more emails on your list!

Additional Tactics

These 8 tips are great ways to seriously boost your social media efforts and marketing this holiday season. But you might have to go a little more strategic than just creating these types on content. To really see success this holiday season, you may want to use ads to increase reach and results. You may also want to consider running a contest to produce better results. Combing through your analytics and determining your most strategic posting times may also help increase your reach and engagement. Don't be shy about using targeted scheduling to reach maximum audiences.

I also recommend finding a custom hashtag for your holiday marketing. Use this to further promote your content and reach new audiences faster and effectively this holiday season.

This is a lot of information, but it's far from specific and tailored for your business. If you want to get even more targeted results with your holiday marketing on social media this year, contact me. I will work with you one-on-one to help you craft a powerful holiday social media strategy.