5 Simple Valentine's Day Ideas for Social Media

Valentine’s Day – an annual tradition of love and commercialism. Despite its romantic roots, it's a significant spending holiday for consumers.
As cupid would have it, there is a shift in who shoppers spend their money on when it comes to Valentine’s Day. According to Bing, consumers are buying gifts not only for their romantic partners, but also for their co-workers, family, friends and even their pets! This creates a tremendous opportunity for small businesses of all kinds.

The most important statistic is that social networks have a major influence over buying decisions. In fact 47% shoppers choose either “social networks” or “visual social networks” as their main sources of inspiration. Think it’s too lat e to act? Social Media provides an instant platform for any business to run a successful marketing campaign. It’s worth the time and effort for this ever-growing widely celebrated holiday and give your customers a warm and fuzzy feeling.

You’ll simply love these five ways you can boost engagement and sales using social media today!

#1 Run a quick-hit one day promotion
If your business sells chocolates, flowers or jewelry, Valentine's Day is a no-brainer for you, and probably one of the biggest sales opportunities of the year. However, if you own a fitness center, bookstore, or spa, or any “less romantic” product or service, with a little creativity you can tie in Valentine’s Day with great success.  Search the internet for inspiration and follow those industries that align with your business for ideas.

#2 Share the love
This may sound sappy, but everyone has something to share that could help someone else. So if your product is a hard-sell on Valentine's Day, or you just aren’t up for celebrating the holiday with a sale, why not offer up some of your expertise instead?
This “sharing moment” could be in the form of useful content about the holiday, or tie into the holiday traditions. For a spa, this could be a string of posts with tips on great skin care regimes or guidance on how to apply makeup for date night.
You can also take aim at Pinterest by creating lists for unusual gift ideas, romantic restaurants or the best deals on local leisure activities, and share it with your readers.  

#3 Hashtag Valentine’s Day
Hashtags are a great way to promote any business on social media. You can easily track how many people are sharing your campaign based on who’s using the hashtag. You can use a combination of hashtags, one that’s singular to your company and popular ones that are used by others. But don’t just throw the hashtags out there without purpose, and don’t be afraid to use them in conjunction with questions. On Twitter, you might ask for a short description of the best Valentine’s Day a person has ever experienced. Or on Instagram, you might ask followers to post images of a great Valentine’s Day dessert with your hashtag. A visually engaging image and a question can drive the awareness and engagement boost you need. 

#4 Organize a quick poll
The past year was all about driving organic engagement and meaningful conversations on social media. 2019 goes beyond this, and is totally about authenticity and original content. So why not spin the bottle and try your hand at a user-generated content (UGS) campaign?  Run a series of polls to test how engaged your audiences are.  For instance, Dunkin Donuts is famous for their fun and colorful social media presence, fueled by photos taken by their customers. In 2017, they did a heart-shaped donut campaign and last year they focused on love stories.

#5 Advertise on social media
The old organic reach isn’t what it used to be, and with recent changes to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm, businesses are seeking alternative ways to ensure their posts are seen by their followers. Advertising on key social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn extends your reach to those who are yet to follow you. Always think what you want to achieve with each campaign:

• Number of visits to the site or landing page
• Number of times a promo code is used
• An increase in engagement rates
• New followers or email submissions