With Christmas just around the corner Adrian Cockle, Hootsuite’s EMEA Industry Principled shares his top tips for ensuring your brand stays relevant this Christmas.
The five tips to help brands drive their social media strategy towards the holiday season’s final push are listed below.
• Maximise social media efforts around delivery cut-off dates: ensure you have a social media plan to reach your audiences around the mid-month push, with clear messaging around when to expect deliveries. Last year, shopping peaked around 14th December, most likely one of the last days consumers feel comfortable buying gifts online to make the Christmas deadline. If you partner with companies like Amazon who offer shorter delivery times, this timeline may be extended; Amazon’s busiest holiday 2016 retail day was 19th December.
• Don’t close shop early: prepare your social media strategy for both last minute shoppers and Christmas day shopping. Some retailers saw conversion rates pushing 3 times higher in the final days before Christmas, showing how improved delivery capabilities are driving ecommerce growth. Additionally, while Christmas morning is less active online, once presents have been opened (including gift cards and new money to be spent), expect consumers to head online. Depressing, but true – in 2016, the online browsing peak extended all the way till 10pm.
• Mobile first, always: optimise your social media strategy for mobile and consider paid social (where relevant) for mobile first platforms such as Instagram. Smartphone adoption among UK adults rose to 85 per cent as of mid-2017 and as consumers flock home and power down, more time will be spent on these smaller devices. Last year, sales on mobile increased by 47 percent according to data from IMRG and Cap Gemini. They also made up 54 percent of all online sales in December, up from 39 percent in 2015.
• Match your tone to the Christmas season:. The holidays are a time for family and friends,, so embrace it with your messaging. Your business has a bottom line to meet, but you’ll get there faster by putting your customers first and delivering the best possible customer experience. This means listening to your audience (i.e. its wants and interests) and tailoring their experience based on what you’ve heard.
• If you automate messages, designate someone to monitor breaking news: designate someone to monitor the news cycle, or create an out-of-hours rota to ensure your messaging reflects current affairs. We understand automation is sometimes a necessity, especially around the holidays when employees are off the clock, but after you load up your messaging, make sure you monitor and react accordingly. No brand wants to be added to any “worst of” social media lists.
By Adrian Cockle
EMEA Industry Principle
Hootsuite