Social media is a powerful driving force when it comes to retail sales, and it’s a tool that can be easily leveraged during the holiday season. Modern social media campaigns can help businesses get the word out about their spectacular holiday deals in a variety of ways. Here are a few tips and strategies to consider:

Promote Interesting Product Collections

Forget everything you’ve learned about “salesy” promotions. The social media world won’t stand for them. If you sound like your trying to sell, the majority of folks will be turned off, and they might even stop following you so they’ll never again see your posts. And if you’re perceived as spamming you’re doomed. It’s much better to create posts that are collections of interesting or unusual items from your offerings combined with those from other companies that would appeal to the same audience. Alternatively you might create several posts showing selections targeted to a specific niche market, that way you can check your stats to see which of your social media posts is gaining the most traction.

Mastering QR tags

Yes, people overdid it when these came out a couple of years ago. But some experts, including those at MarketingLand, agree that a well-placed, well-executed tag can deliver something useful to enhance your company’s message. Utilize the code to promote a movie, your latest Christmas commercial or reveal an exclusive online coupon. Toys ‘R Us, for example, has used them in its newspaper inserts to show insider videos of specific toys in action.

Playing with Pinterest

Pinterest has evolved into a tool much more powerful than just showcasing pretty photos of clothes and crafts. Retailers have mastered it and have taken big steps to make sure their brands are represented in the pins you’re browsing, liking and pinning. Several retailers have added “Black Friday Special” deal boards to their regular pin boards this year. Lowe’s Home Improvement has gone even further by creating a Holidays 2013 pin board and “blacking out” some of the items available for the holidays. PracticalECommerce.com reports that Lowe’s followers have been asked to guess the items, as well as follow the board to see new deals as they are revealed.

Make It Easy

People feel busier than ever this time of year and just about anyone will tell you they have too much on their plate to stop and browse. Smart businesses are considering the busiest season of the year and making efforts to focus on efficiency and simplicity for their shoppers. A retailer, for instance, could create a special Black Friday section, along with a Holiday Gift Guide for quick add-to-cart items to help minimize the time a shopper spends browsing to complete their list.

Be Wise with Hashtags

You’ve probably noticed the growing popularity of hashtags: random words strewn together, preceeded with a ‘#’ symbol, that have invaded commercials, social media posts, and even everyday speech. If you’ve never used these before, now might just be the time to learn the art of hashtagging and educate your customers at the same time. For example, digital marketing agency iAcquire uses specific hashtags in its Twitter feed to post relevant articles that bring in more readers. Using relevant hastags or creating a special one for your company can widen your audience and let you track discussions and topics. Hashtags basically create discussion topics on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Anyone can create a topic area just by adding the pound sign to it (#christmas, #decorideas, #mamaneedsanewpairofshoes, etc.), which then allows other users to locate the topic, view photos or messages that have that hashtag in common, and even add new ones of their own. Think of it as a way to aggregate multiple conversations that are all on the same topic. Target stores, for example, created the tag #mykindofholiday and invited people to come by and share their own holiday traditions all season long.

#Hashtag the Holidays

If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to check out these others:

Combining Blogging and Social Media into a Truly Effective Strategy
7 Steps for Getting on Board With Social Media
5 Ways You Can Benefit By Using LinkedIn
How To Amp Up Your Visibility With Facebook
4 Essential Tips for Growing Your Business with Pinterest
3 Tips for Social Media Marketing Brilliance

This article is published by Will Sherwood | The Sherwood Group |Website Design | Graphic Design | Marketing Communications: The Sherwood Group has over 30 years of experience working with all sorts of companies, small and large. Our clients range from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 firms, in nearly every business sector, from across the street to around the world (and yes, even Europe, China, and South America). Our goal is to create advertising,  graphic design, website design, and marketing communication that still looks fresh and relevant 10-15 years later. Our mission is to stir your imagination and leave your competition shaken and wondering,  Now what do we do?”  We are located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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