Are you wondering how important social media is to your holiday sales this year?
A recent survey from Statica.com reported that in 47% of consumers claim they will use social media to get gift ideas. Couple that with the forecast from Shop.org that online holiday sales this year will grow between 8% and 11% over 2013.
One thing we can all count on for sure, more people will be online than ever before and people will be thinking about their holiday gift lists — whether they are actually making purchases online or just thinking about it while they check into social media.
Here are 3 simple ideas on how to make the best of social media this holiday season.
- Plan a 12 days of Christmas give-away on Facebook. Take advantage of those high traffic shopping days before Christmas. Every day leading up to Christmas, give away one prize. Begin promoting the contest in November so that you get lots of entries and be sure you can collect emails. Then you can announce the prizes via email. To make this easier, be sure to sign up with one of the more popular sweepstakes and contest tools that coordinate with Facebook.
- Increase your reach with holiday hashtags. Hashtags are an excellent was to increase the reach of your message when using Instagram, Twitter and even Facebook. Create a hashtag for the holidays or take advantage of other popular and timely hashtags. Not sure how much traffic a hashtag is getting? Do your homework on Hashtracker or Tagboard. #holidayshopping, #blackfriday and #holidaygifts are some of the most common holiday hashtags that are already seeing a lot of activity.
- Use visual marketing to engage your customers. We all know that engaged customers are more likely to recommend products and services to others and come back for repeat business. Why not ask your customers to tell you which products THEY think should be on sale? For example, a photo on Facebook could show three purses side by side and ask your Facebook fans which one should be 25% off on Friday. Once your customers have weighed in on your specials, they are much more likely to remember them when gift giving.
Interested in more tips for leveraging your social media influence during the holidays?
Click here to download the 15 Tips to Increasing Holiday Sales with Social Media now.
