How to Make Your Social Media Stand Out This Holiday Season
Best practices for creating uniquely shareable holiday content.
There is no denying that the holidays are upon us. No matter how much or how little you celebrate, the holidays open the door for sharing. And there is no sharing without social media. But in a flood of holiday posts, how can you make your content stand out? Give these techniques a try.
Share your process.
Everyone is guilty of being sucked into the whirlpool that is process videos on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. There is something terribly satisfying about watching ink flow across the page at a snail’s pace, seeing an entire painting completed in 60 seconds (thanks timelapse!), or learning from someone’s Creative Cloud shortcuts in a YouTube tutorial. Watching someone through their creative process also connects us to them. What better way to share part of yourself this season than by sharing a process video? Make it more festive by showcasing a holiday-themed project, or taking your process into a live stream.
Turn traditional on its head.
Nothing is more quintessential holiday than the Greeting Card. This year, buck tradition and make the greeting card your own by designing it specifically to be shared on social media or use an Adobe Stock template to save yourself some time during the busiest season of year.
In fact, here are 14 great (and free!) Adobe Stock templates to get you started!
Don’t forget that by using Adobe Spark, you can format your images to fit on whichever platform you prefer with ease. Right now, we’re offering 19 free Holiday themed templates, including one for the image below.
The best part? You can even do it directly from your mobile device.
For ideas on how to get started making your own greeting cards, tune into this archived version of Terry White’s livestream.
Create a “Year In Review.”
Social media is all about feeling connected. What better way to connect to your friends, followers, and clients than reviewing the highlights of your year through a devoted Instagram album, blog post, or an entire web page. It’s an ideal way to let past, current, and potential clients in on what you’ve been working on, and using a web page can showcase your work by utilizing the web design itself.
Make it move.
Moving images are great for the holidays and great on social media because they add a little something special to an otherwise average post — and they can stop a scroll. Amp up your holiday posts by creating a GIF. It can be a GIF of your team, an illustrated animation that shows off your design style, your favorite quote in motion, or you can even create a GIF advent to engage and delight your followers several days in a row. For inspiration, check out the great holiday loops below, and download this free animated snowfall GIF creator.
You can also use a cinemagraph to turn an average holiday photo into something truly spectacular.
Image Source: Daria Khoroshavina
Or tell a story with stop-motion. Create a short stop-motion video greeting card or put your personal spin on a holiday tale.
Celebrate ALL the December holidays.
Even though holiday festivities may seem skewed toward Christmas and Hanukkah, there are an endless number of holidays to celebrate at this time of year. What better way to spark your creativity than to celebrate something you are passionate about and share it with others? From Festivus (Dec 23), to National Cookie Day (Dec 4), to International Human Rights Day (Dec 10), there are a plethora of choices and innumerable ways to celebrate. Don’t limit yourself to just one holiday — celebrate them all!
Image Source: Bryan Villagonzalo
Make it customizable.
More than simply sharing something, you can give your followers an actual gift by creating a template or stock assets that they can download and use for their own enjoyment. Share a set of assets that can help them make their own holiday card, a PDF version of a print they can hang up year-round, or an invitation template. You can even create your own emoji or stickers for their phone.
Make it interactive.
Bringing people together is the hallmark of the holiday season. Social media allows you to bring people together in ways that were once impossible. Interact with your followers by taking it live! Host a giveaway in your Snapchat story or Instastories, do a Facebook live event to support your favorite charity, or launch your own interview/Q&A to allow people to learn from your experience and get to know you better.
No matter how you share it, sharing is caring. The holiday season is the perfect time to up your social media game. By trying something you haven’t before, your posts are bound to get noticed, and they’ll brighten the season for everyone who see them.