Social media holidays are quirky, popular ways for brands to break up their content schedules and add some flair. Every year, the list of holidays grows, giving marketers new opportunities to leverage the latest social media trends and forge stronger connections with customers.
Integrating these dates into your calendar can improve your brand’s engagement and visibility. (Plus, it’s an open invite to flex your creative muscles!)
If you’re ready to shake up your strategy, here’s a look at how social holidays work, which ones you can’t ignore, and how to include them in your social media calendar.
What are social media holidays?
Social media holidays are promotional days that marketers usually invent, like World Emoji Day, though they can also correspond to national holidays. These days are pivotal in marketing, because they throw the spotlight on different topics and either start a conversation, promote awareness, or simply give people a reason to celebrate.
To celebrate National Selfie Day, you might use the hashtag #NationalSelfieDay, while tailoring the rest of the post to fit your brand. So, if you were marketing T-shirts, you might have models pose for selfies while wearing different styles.
For some companies, the connection is obvious. For example, National Pizza Day is the perfect time for a restaurant to offer a discount on their pies or advertise a limited-time menu item.
For others, it may take more creativity to authentically take part in the festivities. For example, a car company might celebrate National Soup Day with a saucy nod to its souped-up engines.
Examples of social media holidays you can’t miss
The best social media days for your brand vary based on your audience, so it’s important to understand their interests and expectations. If you try to shoehorn your company into an unrelated holiday, your content may fall flat. Fortunately, there are tons of social media holidays to choose from, including:
Major shopping and promotional days
The most important shopping holidays are Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Singles Day, with the latter global holiday taking a tremendous lead. In 2021, consumers spent $8.9 billion on Black Friday, $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday, and an astonishing $132.6 billion on the cheeky anti-Valentine’s Day.
Whether you’re advertising in America, Canada, Europe, or around the world, holidays like Small Business Saturday, Father’s Day, and Mother’s Day give your audience an excuse to spend. Shopping holidays prime customers to splurge, search for deals, and find the best gifts for their loved ones.
To create anticipation before the big day, consider anything from countdowns to sneak peeks to exclusive offers. For example, you might hint at a new product release three days before Singles Day, then post a sneak peek two days before, and finally offer a limited-time discount just before the big reveal.
If you’re going to get in on shopping days, it’s important to have very clear calls to action (CTAs). If you’re looking for free social media management tools, Bitly links make it simple to experiment with a few different CTAs and track the engagement for each.
Celebrations of culture and heritage
Cultural and heritage days can draw attention to everything from historical events to spiritual reminders. Independence Day, Diwali, Cinco de Mayo, and St. Patrick’s Day can all serve as symbols of where people come from and how different customs shape their identity.
Cultural days can also be a springboard for reminiscing, as people typically spend these holidays with loved ones. So you might ask your followers to share a favorite memory or unique family tradition.
If your brand celebrates cultural holidays, such as Juneteenth or Chinese New Year, the goal is to honor diversity while promoting unity. It’s a great time to connect with relevant influencers in related niches to ensure authenticity and expand reach.
For example, a U.S. company might partner with a Native American influencer for Indigenous People’s Day. Their authentic content will be as culturally sensitive as it is respectful to your audience.
Global awareness and advocacy days
Advocacy days educate, inform, and encourage audience participation in global causes. For example, Earth Day, World Mental Health Day, and World AIDS Day unite people towards a common goal and encourage national conversation surrounding these topics.
The best social media posts often incorporate narrative storytelling to both provide a framework for complex concepts and connect with the audience’s emotions. For example, you might tell a triumphant tale on Veteran’s Day across several posts that illustrates how a former soldier overcame adversity.
Global awareness and advocacy days, such as World Autism Day, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, or World Environment Day, often rely on social proof for success.
In fact, 92% of people trust recommendations from other people over traditional advertising. (That explains why researchers estimate that fake reviews influenced around $152 billion in spending in 2021.)
When you leverage social proof for a good cause, you may witness a domino effect as more and more people feel motivated to take action on the issue. Holidays like Safer Internet Day, World Wildlife Day, or International Day of Charity provide a broad base for any brand to take part in.
Seasonal festivities and major holidays
Major holidays like Labor Day, Christmas Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving Day are great times to spice up your content with relevant themes. For example, in the days leading up to Independence Day, you might post recipes made with red, white, and blue ingredients and invite followers to share photos of their results.
Or maybe, before Halloween, you challenge followers to include non-traditional items in their Halloween costumes and award a small prize for the most creative entry.
Whatever your strategy is, ensure the content fits with your overall social media marketing and core demographic. For example, you may want to tread carefully when posting on religious holidays like Easter, as some followers may treat the day with more reverence.
No matter who your audience is, though, your posts can benefit from festive visuals and popular hashtags to increase visibility and engagement.
Fun and unique occasions for niche audiences
Quirky holidays, such as National Puppy Day, National Cookie Day, or April Fools’ Day, are a fun way to get involved and show off your lighter side with whimsical content. Just like major holidays, you can leverage user-generated content to nurture community interaction.
For example, on Talk Like a Pirate Day, you might invite followers to post a short video of their best impression. On World Kindness Day or Random Acts of Kindness Day, you can encourage people to honor the holiday in their own style.
Keep your requests simple but powerful enough for people to associate your brand with a unique experience.
Industry-specific holidays
Industry-specific holidays, which include National Nurses Day, World Teachers Day, and Entrepreneurs Day, help your brand honor and connect with professionals across various sectors. For example, you might offer a discount to teachers, especially if they can use or feature your products in the classroom.
Some holidays, like Community Manager Appreciation Day or World Humanitarian Day, call attention to the critical work of a profession. Most people know that nurses work long hours performing grueling tasks, but they may not know exactly what it takes to be a humanitarian.
To connect better with followers, consider partnering with industry leaders for webinars or social media events. Choose topics that inspire industry professionals to share their opinions, and use industry-specific hashtags to improve discoverability and increase reach.
How to integrate these social media holidays into your marketing strategy
With endless holidays to choose from, it’s not always obvious which ones to integrate into your social media holiday calendar and how to encourage participation. So let’s look at a few tips on how to organically weave these celebrations into your current marketing strategy and social media content.
Focus on planning and preparation
Advanced planning for social media holidays sets the stage for your content. This is where social media monitoring tools are critical, as they help you assess your followers’ sentiments and develop an appropriate strategy.
For example, if you notice that recent posts about International Women’s Day carry a somber tone, you can use this information to craft relevant content.
Whether it’s Book Lovers Day, Ice Cream Day, or International Lefthanders Day, your content should be clear and cohesive so you can grab your audience’s attention and inspire action. For example, you might ask followers to share tips on biking safety a week before National Bike to Work Day.
Or, if you notice a niche audience has big plans for National Relaxation Day, you can use common themes to create engaging copy. For example, you could ask social media engagement questions like “What’s your favorite place to grab a quick nap?” or “What does a lazy Sunday afternoon look like for you?”
If you’re looking for ways to track your promotional activities and posts, use Bitly to create custom links prior to the holiday. Quickly generate descriptive links with Bitly’s URL shortener, and then monitor the results for each post.
Create high-quality, customized content
The best content for each brand will ultimately depend on its followers. After all, World UFO Day, National Trivia Day, and International Podcast Day all appeal to vastly different interests and sensibilities.
But no matter who your audience is, your posts should represent the general quality that customers expect from your brand. So, if you’re celebrating International Cat Day, your brand should have something valuable to share—not just another generic photo.
To gauge what your customers consider compelling, even for light-hearted holidays like National Donut Day or National Video Games Day, take a look at your past content.
Your best posts likely have a theme to them, so it’s important to emulate that theme while still tailoring your content to the holiday. For example, if your colorful product photos elicit the most likes and shares, you can adapt the style for the holiday by dressing up the graphics to match.
Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need to go all out to make an impression, especially if you have a loyal customer base. In other words, posting a pup “using” your product on National Dog Day may be plenty.
To enhance the user experience and click-through rates, use Bitly to generate short, memorable links for easier sharing. These links provide friendly, branded text that clearly spells out the digital destination, whether it’s related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, International Youth Day, or International Coffee Day.
Track and monitor your campaigns
Data-driven campaigns are the best way to avoid wasted resources. For example, if your traffic on International Day of Happiness surges, while posts on Star Wars Day go largely ignored, you can adjust your content calendar accordingly.
You can also leverage Bitly Analytics to monitor your success during social media holidays. With Bitly, it’s easy to generate links, separate them by campaign, and then track engagement with each one.
You can use this data alongside tools like Google Analytics for an in-depth understanding of how your posts drive awareness and conversion. From there, you can refine your social media strategy to keep content fresh and alluring or change tactics altogether.
Celebrate social media holidays the right way with Bitly’s toolkit
From World Smile Day to Memorial Day, social media holidays offer new opportunities to connect with your audience and join in on new trends. Whether you speak to mathematicians on Pi Day, partygoers on New Year’s Day, or football fans watching the Super Bowl, it’s a great way to creatively promote your brand.
Plus, Bitly makes it easy to measure and improve your social media management on holidays and beyond. Generate branded links, separate campaigns, analyze impact, and more with all the tools and metrics you need to make the most of social media holidays.
Drive connections and engagement on holidays and every day—get started with Bitly now.