Who cares about interest days?
“What are we doing for [insert generic trend here] day? Can you share the plan with me”... says your boss. It’s the third time this month, last week was Earth Day, this week it's May the 4th, and you know they’re irrelevant to your products - so why do we keep promoting them?
We’ve all felt the pressure of feeling like we missed out on a big trend, but have we actually missed out? In an age where social plans are actively suppressing organic content (we’re looking at you, Twitter), and impressions are no longer the metric that measures success, what can we do to leverage interest days and their audiences?
Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves some very important questions.
What trends and interest days are relevant to your brand?
Is the audience following X trend relevant to your objectives?
Do you know enough about X day to generate good engagement?
Are you biased towards a portion of your audience by promoting specific trends?
How does X day fit with your existing marketing plans?
Before we guide you to the best interest days for your business objectives, it’s pivotal that we understand how interest days, also known as social media holidays, attract their audience.
As with many social media campaigns, it all starts with a hashtag - and there are plenty to follow. Users will see trending topics in their social media feed, delivered to them by the algorithm or their favourite influencers. The more people who share a specific hashtag, the more likely it will appear on your feed or in recommended topics. Equally, a large number of posts with exact phrases will also be delivered as a trending topic.
Interest days, social media holidays and events take advantage of this algorithmic decision by encouraging as many people as possible to post about specific topics. This system can certainly be forced and often is through competition and clever marketing - and it’s this clever marketing which we want to leverage for our own gain. So, ask yourself, what trends and interest days are relevant to your brand?
Aligning your brand to interest days…
For those days when your boss asks “what are doing for X?” you need to be prepared. For us marketers, it’s easy to say “Ed Balls day doesn’t align with our brand”, but it’s not always that obvious.
Memes and shenanigans are everywhere on social media, and many will big so big you just can’t ignore them. Think back to the Harlem Shake or Gangnam Style and you may have not-so-fond memories of recording your executives twerking all over the office - but the trends were that massive we had to be involved.
For those trends which don’t transcend cyberspace to flash mobs and newspapers, we need to revisit brand tone and guidelines to make sure that we’re talking to the right people in the right way. The Superbowl may be the biggest sporting event in the world, but does it align with your AI webinar that broadcasts in the same week? Probably not.
May the 4th be with you, and also your audience…
We all know the power of big brands like Star Wars and their cross-industry, multi-demographic potential - but why should the May the 4th audience care about your products? As well as aligning your brand to specific interest days, think about how you can leverage the audience of popular trends to reach new markets and demographics.
It’s not good enough to post content “because our competitors do it”. Yes, it can be a part of the reason, but it is not THE reason. For the Star Wars brand, May 4th is more than a single day, it’s the collection point of millions of social media users which they can convert into sales and audience acquisition.
Take a look at this post promoting Star Wars merch, notice anything strange about this May 4th campaign?...
Source: Twitter user @StarWars
It was actually published the day after the big trend, taking advantage of the algorithm pushing Star Wars content to the top of everyone’s feeds. Not only did Star Wars get the benefit of fans flooding to them for 24 hours, they also increased their audience for weeks afterwards.
“But my brand can’t start a trend” we hear you say. Maybe not to this scale, but do you need or want something this big to manage? Remember, a single phrase can trend, so while you may not start a new craze you can promote an event with the support of your network. If enough people say the same thing at roughly the same time, their network becomes yours as the algorithm pushes your content to new profiles.
Make the algorithm work for you…
We’ve already mentioned the need to focus your attention on trends and interest days that matter to your brand, but how can you leverage your resources to maximise the exposure of a trend?
Easy, talk about what you know and encourage your in-house experts to engage with the community.
All too often we’ve seen brands confuse their messaging with vaguely on-brand partnerships and messaging - or worse, comment on posts which have serious negative connotations with their audience.
The reverse is also true. The most effective brands on social media are those which go out of their way to engage with relevant topics, and their community and relate it all back to their expert knowledge in a specific field. Take a look at Ryanair for Aldi for a masterclass on engagement while maintaining brand tone
Source: Twitter user @Ryanair
Just remember - while you might be experts in your niche, there is always someone smarter or willing to start an argument online. Be careful to avoid contributing to divisive conversations, unless you plan on disrupting the status quo…
Keep ALL of your audience engaged…
Social media naturally draws a certain demographic. Twitter is often seen as political and business-oriented, Facebook is ‘for mums’ and communities, LinkedIn is all about your professional network, etc. But are these stereotypes holding us back?
Let’s take Christmas as an example. If you’re a business in the UK, you may have a following which predominantly celebrates Christian holidays, but by only wishing your followers a Merry Christmas, is your content biased against those who celebrate other religious holidays?
The simple solution to this problem is not to post at all about religious festivities, but where is community spirit in that?! Instead, we post about all the holidays which we feel are relevant to our audience. So why do we not think this way for trends and interest days?
When was the last time you counterbalanced a spicy meme with a detailed breakdown of why your products are appropriate for your 50+-year-old audience? Did you post about International Woman’s Day but forget about highlighting how you tackle equal pay?
Because social media has so much potential for criticism and public commentary, we recommend planning well in advance of any interest days to help you balance the messaging your audience receives. We’re all guilty of planning last-minute campaigns but sometimes it's better to let Veganuary go by without a mention before you post pictures from the company Q1 BBQ.
How should you plan for interest days?
The simplest solution is to research and strategise your social communications when you’re developing your strategic objectives. Too often we see marketing strategies that neglect the biggest days in the calendar because they don’t align with sales or ops objectives.
When you sit down to write your next strategy, take a look at the topics and interest days that resonate with your audience and objectives. You don’t need to write every post out in December to deploy your strategy in January, but you do need to know which events fit within your other campaign plans.
Take Mother’s Day as an example. Each year we encourage our product focussed clients to do a little something extra for the mums in their community, but not everyone is a mum, and some people want to avoid the topic altogether - but how can we do that?
A few weeks before the Mother’s Day cards hit the shelves, we recommend sending an email, far away from social media or your planned campaigns to ask if your audience wants to be involved in the campaign. If not, we segment them, if yes, it’s business as usual.
These small administrative communications may seem like a waste of time if 70% of your audience opt-out, but to those who have experienced a loss, it could mean the world that you’ve considered them. We can only enact these plans if we strategise well in advance, so make sure you’ve aligned your interests before your boss asks “What are we doing for Mother’s Day”. Now you can answer “nothing, because we’ve listened”.
