Clever Ways Your Retail Business Can Leverage Social This Holiday Season 2017

This time of year is the big dance for retailers, with holiday shopping officially in full-swing. Larger retailers like Macy's and Target have been planning their holiday campaigns for months, but even if you're lagging in your digital marketing planning for the busiest time of year, we have tips for how your retail business can leverage digital this season.

FACEBOOK

Facebook has launched a targeting segment called "holiday shopping season" that "reaches users engaged with holiday planning and retail-related activity." The campaigns are also ran through Instagram, broadening brands' reach. Retail Dive reports that the new targeting segment "can be found in the 'behaviors' section within the 'seasonal and events' category and will be available from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day [for both Facebook and Instagram]."

Facebook targeting allows retailers to create specific audiences for promotional targeting, honing in on your ideal audience. Check out these stats from Facebook on how successful retailers have been using the promotional tool:

·         60% of people on Facebook in the 2017 holiday season found Facebook extremely influential to their holiday shopping

·         89% of holiday shoppers who shared their holiday shopping experience on a social network did so on Facebook

·         4.2x more often that people access Facebook on mobile phones before holiday shopping, compared to search engines

Set a goal to determine your budget for Facebook promotions, and choose a message that resonates specifically with the audience you are trying to target. One of Best Buy Facebook Like UK is targeting the company's frequent deal shoppers to drive maximum sales for its Black Friday event:

INSTAGRAM

Retailers can promote their Instagram ads by connecting their Facebook pages or run their own promotional content, like contests, on their Instagram pages.

Retailers can entice Buy Instagram Followers UK to share content and participate in the campaigns by running contests around reposting, sharing, tagging friends, or participating in the campaign by posting on their personal pages.

JustFab, a large online retailer, ran an Instagram campaign to drive followers to promote and engage with the brand via SnapChat, after using analytics to identify that they had a large presence on both social platforms. Winners received a credit to the brand:

PINTEREST

Holiday shoppers are looking at Buy Pinterest Followers UK more than ever for gift inspiration, and your brand can leverage the increased traffic by promoting a contest. Makeup retailer Urban Decay performed a wildly successful Pinterest contest to promote a new collection of makeup in 2017.

Urban Decay gave away two tickets to the large music festival Coachella by asking followers to pin their favorite festival looks on their boards. Urban Decay also asked users to fill out a form with their account name and email address, capturing even more information to promote future ads through email. The campaign gave Urban Decay over 50,000 more followers on its promoted board.

Run a similar campaign by giving away an experience your followers would love or a credit with your brand. Promote your contest through a promoted pin targeting your ideal audience, maximizing your contest reach: