Does Your Social Media Strategy Incorporate Religious Holidays?

In 2018, we find ourselves living in a multicultural society where it is not uncommon for those from other ethnic backgrounds to be celebrating special days in their own religious calendar. While holidays such as Easter and Christmas are always at the forefront of many of our minds, so too should religious festivals celebrated by Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and others.

When trying to compete on the global stage, your social media strategy has to target interests of your potential audience around the world. This means speaking to everyone, rather than segregating, which is a mistake that many businesses social media accounts unwittingly do. While it is becoming more and more common to see social media accounts of large businesses mark different religious holidays, it is still something that strategists could better utilise.

In the Calendar

While you may know the holidays of your own religion and/or culture off by heart, you may not be as familiar with the dates of other such festivals. For example, in the UK the dates of Eid may not be common knowledge unless you come from a Muslim background, while the date Diwali, a Hindu festival, also changes every year.

In order not to miss a major festival that your audience (prospective customers) are marking, make a point of listing all of the key dates in your social calendar and schedule social posts on these days. While this may not seem like a big deal, for your business to be seen to acknowledge different festivals can go a long way to reaching out to a new audience.

What are the Major Festivals?

Quite simply, there are too many to even begin to create a list. You can find online calendars that will list all of the major festivals and, when you do, you will understand why we could not include a list within this article.

Of course, not all festivals will require a social media post; otherwise your social feed will leave little room for any other posts. Mixing this in with your regular content, as opposed to replacing, is the best way to approach your social media strategy.

Holiday Promotions

The business may be pushing certain promotions to coincide with religious holidays and, if so, then great! You can use this to your advantage in creating engaging social posts, but be careful not to talk solely about the company because this can turn your audience off.

Make your social media accounts relatable, fun and engaging by posting on issues that matter to your audience. The holidays that they are celebrating matter to them, so a quick mention of an offer or promotion that the business has going on can generate quite a bit of interest.

Graphics

If you don’t want to risk clogging up your audience’s feed with a post on every major holiday, why not change your banner or profile picture to suit the occasion? This way, your audience won’t feel as though their feed is being taken up by content that does not matter to them while your social media account is still seen to be marking the occasion.

It is also good to change up your social graphics every now and then, whilst still keeping to your brand identity, of course. This is a tactic that many businesses employ to great effect, especially during major festivals.

If your social media strategy does not account for any of the major religious festivals that we have mentioned, chances are that your competitors are reaping the benefits of reaching out to a wider audience.