What to Post on Social Media in February

It’s that time again! Here are our picks for the holidays to make the most out of for your February content calendar.

Ground Hog Day – February 2

Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow or not? This annual event is certainly one to note on social media. We recommend a post prepare for both situations. If you have a company mascot, maybe they see their shadow (or not) on Groundhog Day!

Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day – February 3

Well, this is one to celebrate! If you have a food-related business, might we suggest waffles with ice cream on top? Asking your community how they are celebrating, what their favorite flavor is, a cool recipe, etc., are all good ways to write a fun piece of content for the day.

Superbowl Sunday – February 4

When appropriate, especially food brands, should participate in Superbowl Sunday prep. We do want to note, however, you should refer to the Superbowl as “the big game” unless you have licensing rights. Yes, the NFL does pay attention to see if someone is saying “Superbowl” when they are not a licensed sponsor of the event.

National Pizza Day – February 9

What a great day to serve pizza to the whole office! Share photos on your social channels as a company culture moment.

Make a Friend Day – February 11

We like the idea of bringing your social communities together. Ask a question that prompts people to answer and find their twin. For example, asking users to share their birth date and month and find their birthday buddy is a fun way to get people engaging on your content.

Clean out Your Computer Day – February 12

Have a tip to keep your computer organized and clean? Share it with your users!

Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday – February 13

Share tips to a Mardi Gras celebration with your users! Help them bring New Orleans home and prep for the Lenten season.

Valentine’s Day – February 14

Write a Valentine to your users! If you have the time and budget, record one!

Chinese New Years – February 16

If your business is impacted by the Chinese New Year or would benefit from sharing information about the Chinese New Year, share it! You also may want to post a few times leading up to the day. PS – this year is the Year of the Dog!

Random Acts of Kindness Day – February 17

This is a great date to give people ideas of Random Acts of Kindness and ask them to complete one (maybe complete one to be entered to win?!) and share their experience.

National Drink Wine Day – February 18

Wine pairings? How to have an at-home wine tasting? The best wines for your product? If it is a natural fit, showcase National Drink Wine Day on your social channels!

President’s Day – February 19

So many sales, so little time. Prep your audience ahead of time, letting them know of any President’s Day sales. Or go a Patriotic route – the choice is yours!

Love Your Pet Day – February 20

Let’s see those pet photos! Everyone who owns a pet has more than 1(000) photos of their furry friends on their phone. Ask your followers to share their best photos. It could be a good day to have dogs in the office, share photos of that with your community, too!

National Tortilla Chip Day – February 24

Have a fresh twist on classic nachos? Great recipe for tortilla soup? Share share share!

What wacky holidays will you be celebrating this month?

7 Tips to Awesome Influencer Marketing

One of our all time favorite ways to leverage social media for your business is through influencer marketing. 92% of consumers trust an influencer more than a brand (source). We’ll let that sink in for a minute.

Let’s define an influencer:

• An influencer is an individual who has the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of his/her authority, knowledge, position or relationship with his/her audience.
• An individual who has a following in a particular niche, which they actively engage with. The size of the following depends on the size of the niche.

An influencer can be an incredibly powerful asset for your brand, not just in social media, but in your overall broader communication efforts. It’s important to remember the 3 A’s when you are getting into influencer marketing: audience, aesthetic and authenticity. You want influencers that can deliver on all three of those in a way that suits your brand, product or business.

Here are our 7 tips to executing an awesome influencer marketing campaign for your brand.

1. Know what result you are looking for. Do you need to drive users to a specific link? You’ll want to make sure you have bloggers with good traffic and high click through rates (ask for their media kit). Do you need to showcase your product in a beautiful, fresh way? You’ll want to get Instagram influencers that can take great photos and who has a high engagement rate. Do you need a compelling story told about your brand or product? Make sure you like the influencer’s writing style.
2. Know your budget. Budget determines everything: how many influencers you will work with, the quality of influencer, the number of posts. If you average $500-$2,000 per post (depending on your niche), you’ll have a head start on figuring out how big your list needs to be.
3. Tier your list. Let’s say you want to work with 10 influencers. Have your list of top 10, then tier down from there and have at least 20 back up influencers (a list of 30 total). Remember, follower count isn’t everything. You also want to make sure your influencers’ have engaged communities. Ensure that their blog posts have comments/shares, their Instagram posts have comments/likes, etc.
4. Negotiate. Reach out to your top ten all at the same time. Find out what they charge and you’ll be able to see how your budget comes together. Negotiate the budget and the terms – make sure you get permission to use their content if need be. For example, make sure you can use the post for a promoted post on your channels if you needed to, or use their recipe on your website for a set amount of time.
5. Give your influencers loose guidelines & creative freedom. Show some examples about what you want to see and then let the influencer run with it. You picked these influencers because of their audience, aesthetic and ability to create something authentic for your brand. Let them be themselves and create something authentic for their audience.
6. Be clear about expectations. Make sure your influencer knows what you expect in terms of keywords in the captions (try not to over do it), features of your product discussed, hashtags, account tagging, URLs, etc. Also, be especially clear on the expectation of posting on certain dates.
7. Amplify influencers’ posts. You will have gotten permission to use the influencers’ content how you wanted to in the negotiation phase. Make sure you share their content to your social channels, blog, website, etc. Remember, you can share the pieces of content more than once or twice!