Are you using holiday hashtags to reach new and more diverse audiences?
In many parts of the world or at least the Western Christian dominated areas, this past weekend was Easter. It is a vast and sacred holiday for Christians, but it has also been Passover, another important holiday for the Jewish community. And let’s not forget the more secular celebrations of chocolate eggs, the return of spring, and a lovely long weekend – that’s enough reason to celebrate, in my opinion. Did you make the most of the holiday in your marketing strategy?
No? Why not?
The chances are that unless your business revolves around breaking news or pop culture, you will probably not get your business on the trending lists.
But what if you could?
What are Holiday Hashtags
You’ve probably noticed that organic reach on social media has been declining for a while now. However, companies can attempt to boost their reach with the emergence of social media holiday hashtags.
Here’s a tip, they don’t all revolve around actual “holidays”.
Some are actual international observance days officially declared by the UN, such as World Health Day. Others are national celebration days (particularly in the US), such as National Beer Day, and some are, in fact, public holidays in countries worldwide. And then you get those created just because the internet can be an odd place. Such as Pi Day on March 14th and Star Wars Day on May 4th, #Maytheforthbewithyou
You can combine your marketing tags with holiday hashtags to find your audience and reap some of the benefits of having a standard tag on your posts. And when you use these tags used by individuals, companies, and organisations worldwide, you can gather new followers and clientele from the vast pool of the internet.
Get on the Holiday Hashtag Trending List
Have you ever wondered how you get a hashtag to trend? The trick is to get everyone talking about the same thing. Now when the holiday’s come around, everyone is talking about it.
So, while your industry-specific hashtags might not be getting the attention you desire, the holidays always do.
Go on Twitter or Instagram and check what’s trending. The chances are that it will be the newest news, but it was Easter last weekend. If you want to section your audience geographically in Orthodox Christian countries, Easter is this coming weekend. If you have a localised business, you might want to ensure you include the local holidays and national days, along with the international ones.
It’s not just national, religious or public holidays either. If you see World Book Day or International Women’s Day, these all end up on the trending lists of most social media platforms.
Celebrate Diversity of Clients, Staff, and Partners
Did you know that April is “Celebrate Diversity” Month?
Just because you may operate in a region dominated by one religion or even no religion doesn’t mean you don’t celebrate your staff and clients’ diversity. The world has become a much smaller place. People of many faiths populate almost every corner of the globe. So even if you don’t have a diverse staff group, you may find clients with a broader reach.
Social media holiday hashtags are not just restricted to religious festivals and national holidays. In keeping with celebrating diversity, April also has World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD
Encourage People to Find You At Gift-Giving Times
Nearly all cultures celebrate at least one gift-giving festival throughout the year; it isn’t confined to Christmas. Does your business offer a perfect gift?
During Ramadan, many Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast, by giving gifts to each other – it’s coming up soon, in May.
Purim traditionally was the most important Jewish holiday associated with exchanging gifts.
Gift-buying and exchanges are also a staple of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which lasts for four days and represents the triumph of good over evil. The holiday is important among Hindus even outside of India and has become popular enough abroad to gain the informal title of “Indian Christmas.”
And let’s not forget that gifts are a year-round thing when it comes to birthdays,
Holiday Hashtags, when people have time to catch up
We’ve noticed an interesting trend in our pageviews regarding the holidays. We get more visitors.
Have you ever noticed that you sometimes don’t know what to do with it when you have more time, so you end up scrolling through your news feeds and trending tags?
Go on, admit it; we all do it.
When you use the holiday hashtags with your Twitter, Instagram and even LinkedIn posts, you get your message beyond the reach of your followers and into a wider community who might just be looking for what you have to offer. Embedding Twitter feeds on your website can further amplify this reach by showcasing live updates and social proof directly to your site visitors.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think this through as well as I should have, today is #NationalLookAlikeDay and I’m not admitting who the internet thinks I look like most.