This week as we commemorate Remembrance Day, World Kindness Day and Children in Need, this begs the question “should you use Awareness Days in your social media content?” And if the answer is yes, how should you use them?
Awareness days, weeks or months continue to grow in popularity, which can be an ideal tool for your business. They provide inspiration for your social media content which can prove challenging on a daily basis. Set up by individuals, organisations and charities to mark a particular event, or raise awareness about causes from health and wellbeing to environmental, history and beyond: there really is something for everything, or so it seems.
When looking for social media content ideas, awareness days are a great place to start. It’s a great way to create content that can be timed well in advance and can really increase your visibility which includes recognisable hashtags and the potential to reach bigger, wider audiences.
Keep it relevant
Although it can be tempting to get involved with as many of the awareness days as possible, its better to stick to those that are relevant to your business. Some days are national commemorative awareness days such as Remembrance Day, Queens official birthday, whereas others celebrate religious holidays and beliefs such as Easter, Eid, Shrove Tuesday, Hanukkah and Christmas. The annual calendar is peppered with something every month, for example:
- Dry January
- Valentine’s Day
- Movember
- Blue Monday
- International Women’s Day
- Christmas Jumper Day
- World Cancer Day
- Social Media Day
For a good list of the awareness days check out daysoftheyear and there are plenty of others.
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Carefully select your awareness days
Used correctly awareness days can be a fantastic way of adding another dimension to your social media content strategy. Awareness and national days, weeks and months are incredibly popular on social media and are generally associated with standard or annual hashtags. You’ll find that these are a great opportunity to get involved and join the conversation. Increase engagement will come from being involved. The trick is to choose carefully, so they are relevant and aligned to your business and your brand.
Many businesses are active supporters of local and national charities, so getting involved with related awareness days, is 100% aligned. Others select involvement based on alignment to their business values and actively encourage their staff to get involved.
You can have some fun with it too, so your selection may be influenced by staff interests and staff engagement. The Christmas Jumper day has become one of those days where staff have some fun, but also support a good cause. The link can be tenuous, but they have to make sense from a business perspective. Use the following five principles to guide your decision making.
- Causes that align to your business
- Awareness that matches your business values
- Aligned to your CSR goals
- Something you’re passionate about
- Driven by staff interest or staff engagement
How to use Awareness Days in Social Media
The best thing about awareness days is the ability to plan ahead, a long way ahead. Dates for annual events are set well in advance so you can more easily plan your posts and campaigns. You can plan your approach and tactics and get your social media content calendar mapped out. Consider what is relevant for your each of your social media channels, and how much.
They are also an opportunity try out alternative approaches to language and associated images. But remember some or your choices my not engage your customers or target audience, as its not a cause or celebration of interest to them.
Get visual, take the time to create and source images, gifs and video’s. Add them to your social posts.
Do your research with hashtags, stretch beyond the associated hashtags to reach other audiences – getting involved needs to be good for your business too. Your activity should represent a win-win, supporting a cause as well as increasing awareness and engagement.
Make sure to include your active involvement in appropriate emails and any newsletters. If your involvement is purely on social media, then keep this to a minimum. For some causes, such as Children in Need, and MacMillan Coffee Morning, businesses get very actively involved, so be proud and share that along with photos and any fund raising achieved.
Try a little humour, but only if its appropriate as it’s a great way to humanise your business and your social media feed. Its likely to keep your audience engaged too. Do keep an eye on when you are scheduling your posts to go out to make sure they don’t clash with other breaking news, or posting light hearted content alongside tragic incidents that might reflect badly on your business.
Final tips
Although it’s tempting to get involved with as many of the awareness days as you can, don’t. Be selective and choose those that are the most relevant to your business.
But… its good to support the causes that you are passionate about. Proactively select those that align to your values and your CSR (corporate social responsibility).
Be supportive, getting involved is good for your reputation and engagement with both your audience and your staff.
Need help?
If you would like help with your marketing then engaging a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference please get in touch hello@intelligentmarketing.uk.com or book a free 30 minute consultation at a time that works best for you.
