The holidays are a great time to use Instagram to connect with more people. Everyone is in a festive mood, there are lots of good opportunities for unique photos, and the holiday season is a great time to give your online community a chance to see a more personal side of your business.
The following 4-step formula will help you prepare and optimize your content strategy on Instagram during the holidays.
Step #1: Determine your Goals for Holiday Content
What are your goals for holiday-related content:
- Are you using holiday-themed content to offer sales or special promotions?
- Is this an opportunity to give people an inside look at you/your employees/your business in a fun, personal way?
- Will you be sharing or promoting a cause or charity?
Once you’ve identified your goals, then determine how many holiday-related posts you’ll be sharing on Instagram along with your regular content.
Keep in mind that most people post 1-2 times per day, and if you suddenly increase your daily posts by a significant number, you may risk turning off some of your current Followers.
Step #2: Identify Top Holiday Hashtags and Choose the Ones that Work for You
There are a variety of tools to help you find appropriate and popular hashtags, but here are a few ideas:
Hashtagify.me – this tool shows related hashtags across social networks
Instagram Search (on mobile and desktop) – enter a hashtag, like #Halloween to see how popular it is. You will also see related hashtags, like #HalloweenFun that will help you improve the reach of your post.
Scheduling tools like the TailWind App and Planoly – each allow you to create and save lists of Hashtags. So you can research and create a list for each holiday’s top hashtags and re-use them for all your holiday-related posts.
Hashtag Searches and Trends on other social networks – Twitter’s built-in Search bar and trending hashtags are good places to start. Facebook’s hashtags aren’t as powerful as Instagram and Twitter tags, but you may find some useful ones for holiday seasons in the platform’s Search bar.
Save time during the holidays by saving Lists of appropriate hashtags:
I mentioned the TailWind App and Planoly above (which both have free versions) for creating hashtag lists, but you can also use “note” tools to save and access hashtags from your phone, like:
- Notes or Google Keep on your phone
- Dropbox or Google Drive
- Evernote
Simply copy and paste your list of holiday-related hashtags on your Instagram posts.
Step #3: Create your Holiday Posts
Whatever type of content you want to share during the holidays, you can save time with a few free tools and systems:
Desktop tools: PicMonkey or Canva to create images and then save to Dropbox or Evernote to access from your phone, or use a scheduling tool (Buffer, Hootsuite, Tailwind, Planoly) to set up the posts.
Phone Apps: There are numerous photo-editing Apps for both iPhone and Android. The best way to see the latest is to do a Google search for photo editing apps. I personally use PhotoGrid and PicStitch for iPhone plus WordSwag and Typorama.
Photography session: Take a bunch of holiday-themed photos at one time (or at one event) so you have multiple images to use in your content calendar.
Optimal posting times: Check your built-in Instagram Insights or use a free tool like Square Lovin or a paid tool like Iconosquare to determine the best times to post on Instagram.
Step #4: Put a Schedule and Plan in Place to Promote your Holiday Posts
Create a separate “holiday” posting calendar or add the holiday-themed posts into your regular posting calendar.
Cross-post to other social accounts. You can link your Instagram account to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to share across platforms.
Note that sharing to Twitter displays your photo as a link. Use a “recipe” from IFTTT (If This Then That) to display your Instagram posts as photos on Twitter.
Create a widget to share Instagram posts on your WordPress blog. Or embed individual Instagram posts on your website or blog.
Or maybe you want to make your holiday-themed content exclusive to Instagram. In this case, you may want to promote the exclusive Instagram content on your other social sites and drive traffic to your Instagram account.
So there are 4 easy steps to create and promote holiday-themed content on Instagram. You can use this formula for any holiday or special event throughout the year as another way to connect with your target audience.
Need some help putting together your Instagram strategy? Let’s chat! Contact us for a free consultation to learn how we can help your business.
[last updated 9-26-18]
About Terry League