As the year draws to a close and the number of hours spent at holiday celebrations seems to outweigh the hours you spend in the office, it may seem like a good time for B2B marketers to lessen their social media presence (presents?).
But it isn’t.
‘Tis the season to deck out your social media accounts with many forms of festive cheer throughout the close of the holiday season.
How is this done? There are many ways to beat the B2B winter freeze, while thawing the hearts of your customer base with warm holiday greetings.
Give the Gift of Content and Discounts
In the spirit of giving, consider releasing or re-releasing an asset that your followers might normally pay for like a webinar, whitepaper, really anything that your followers view as valuable. Make it a special release, something that they will really genuinely enjoy. You could even go so far as to make a coupon or discount code for the product or service that your brand offers.
Release Holiday Themed Articles (Like this One)
Going along with giving the gift of content, holiday-themed articles are a fantastic way to spread festive cheer across your social media channels.
The holidays are a strange time in the B2B world, a lull where in the B2C world there is a massive spike in business. Talk your business colleagues through this difficult time in the best way you know how. Tell them about what your business does during the slow season or how you manage your customers during a time when there are a lot of “out of office” pingbacks.
Have fun with your holiday content. It’s the time to play with whimsy in your articles. Puns and holiday jokes are your friend. It’s likely your followers aren’t feeling super serious so why should you be?
Share Your (Appropriate) Work Holiday Photos
This may not be the place to show off the selfie your vice president took while falling over drunk onto the sales guy, but a nice photo at dinner or a planned group photo shows a lot about your company. It can be good for hiring because it shows that you care about your employees enough to hold a little shin dig for them.
It also shows your clients who they are working with. By posting these photos, you show them that this is the team that fulfills their requests, when a majority of work is done behind a faceless computer screen.
Feeling charitable?
Does your company encourage its employees to volunteer during the holiday season? Do you donate to organizations? Post about it!
This is the season of giving so if you are doing something charitable, share it! Your followers love to see that you are doing more than just trying to sell them something and showing them that your or you employees participated is a great way to make your organization one that customers enjoy supporting with their business. Experts say that 83% of Americans want brands to support causes and 41% bought a product from a company because they knew it was associated with a cause. This is why people buy from Toms, which promises to give a pair of shoes, for every pair that is bought. The efficiency of that cause aside, it works and its customers love it. Why should your B2B service be any different? This is the time of year for charitable dinners and donations. If you’re doing it, share it!
Look Ahead
As mentioned before, the holiday season is also the end of the year, so it’s a good idea to post things that look forward towards the upcoming year. For many, the new year signifies a new start and it’s good to acknowledge or even help that process along. This is the time for end of year trend reports or predictive articles forecasting the trends of the future.
Now you have some strategies to try out, but when should you send out the tweet?
Timing is everything and it may be best for you to time these special content tweets during the few days that people are actually working during the holiday season. The week of Christmas would be a good time to send out these sorts of messages, but avoid sending them outside reasonable hours or on the actual holidays themselves. While people are likely scrolling through their social media at family gatherings and holiday parties, it is unlikely they will be in the mindset to download your whitepaper or suggest to their boss that they buy your product. Catch them in the festive mood but in the work mindset. Another optimal time will be in the days of work squeezed between Christmas and New Year’s. Everyone is trying to cram in a few days of work before the New Year and those looking for a change in the New Year will be receptive to tools that will make the new year better for them.
If you want to, send out tweets on actual holidays that your company recognizes, but be mindful of the religious implications of this and how your customers might react to this.
It’s time to think of this time of year not solely as a slow sales time, but a brief lull which you can use to add a touch of humanity to your B2B brand. Your company is made up of people who are participating in the same holidays as your followers. Why wouldn’t you acknowledge and connect with them over that?
Let us know what you think:
- Are you planning any special promotions for the holidays?
- Are you and your employees dedicating time to give back?
- What are you doing to get ready for the new year?
