• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World (Mar 13-15)
    • Other Industry Events
  • 💡 Society
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • Social Media Marketing World10th annual. Biggest industry event. Get the recordings!IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING

    5 Ways to Prepare Your Facebook Page for the Holidays

    by Jim Belosic / October 31, 2013

    social media how toHave you prepared your Facebook page for the holidays?

    Are you looking for tips on how to use your Facebook page this holiday season?

    If you haven't even started thinking about the holidays yet, it's time!

    In this article, you'll find five ways to make your Facebook page festive for the holidays.

    Why Customize For Holidays?

    According to Mashable, 65% of shoppers tap social media looking for the perfect gift.

    Any day now, your fans will start to look at your business's Facebook page for holiday offers, promotions, events and deal information.

    To make the most of these page visits, it's important that your Facebook page is ready for the season.

    Here's how:

    #1: Holiday-themed Cover Photos

    When visitors land on your Facebook page, the cover photo is the first thing they see. Use this 851 x 315 px banner-style image to get your visitors into the spirit of the season!

    You should change the cover photo of your page on a regular basis, especially during holidays. Why? Because people are browsing more than usual, looking for special offers and gift ideas, and checking out friends' recommendations. Fresh cover photos motivate them to check your page often.

    Your holiday cover photos should be representative of your brand, but reflective of the season as well. If you don't want to use a holiday-specific cover photo, try a general holiday message or feature fall and winter colors.

    non specific holiday themed photo
    An example of a nonspecific holiday-themed cover photo that wishes fans a warm and happy holiday season.

    In the above image, you can see how Media Barista themed a seasonal cover photo for their fans.

    Use your cover photo to direct fans to a custom holiday app, showcase your holiday products, promote exclusive holiday deals and even encourage interaction from your fans.

    Think of your cover photo as a large billboard. What information do you want to promote during the holiday season? Create a number of cover photos to help you!

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

    #2: Spruce Up Your Profile Photo

    Your profile photo is a major asset that can be used to complement your cover photo. Most brands don't change their profile photo very often, but you should use the holiday season to change things up and get creative with it!

    Ask an employee to dress in fall or winter clothing—or if someone is willing, like an elf or Santa. Decorate your company mascot or simply feature a special holiday product.

    If you prefer to keep your logo as your page's profile photo, add some holiday accents to your logo like DKS Systems did, below.

    dks profile photo
    Adjust your profile image for the holidays to keep your Facebook page looking fresh and up to date.

    #3: Run Seasonal Social Campaigns

    According to HubSpot, 81% of retailers use Facebook to alert shoppers about their in-store holiday deals.

    Facebook recently updated their promotion guidelines, opening the door for more opportunities for promotions and giveaways. Businesses can now use the timeline in addition to custom Facebook apps to run promotions.

    Here are three ideas you can implement this holiday season:

    Reward Fans With a Holiday Giveaway

    During this time of the year, the most popular kind of Facebook app to build is a giveaway app.

    holiday ebook
    Businesses can offer fans a holiday-related giveaway, including free resources, coupons or prizes.

    Build an app to offer Facebook-only coupons, host holiday-themed photo and video contests that award a prize or run a special Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas giveaway.

    Drive Online and In-store Sales With an App

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL

    Fans appreciate free gifts and opportunities to win fun prizes and awards, but as a business you still need to drive online and in-store sales.

    Use your Facebook page to showcase a popular product to customers. Once you have their attention, make it easy for them to find you with a store finder app to direct your fans to your brick-and-mortar location.

    Everywhere Travel promotes travel deals on their Facebook page year-round.

    everywhere travel
    During the holidays, Everywhere Travel can drive traffic to this app for holiday travelers.

    Boost Engagement With a Giving App

    Holidays are a time for giving, so charitable-giving apps are really effective during the holiday season. Consider running a campaign that benefits a local or national charity and ask your fans to get involved.

    fundraiser app
    Apps that require direct fan engagement during the holidays draw in fans.

    All of these ideas can be combined with timeline promotions, which allows you to capitalize on the engagement and reach the campaign generates. You can host your competition on the timeline and use a Facebook app to offer extra entries, share additional offers and collect information from your fans.

    #4: Decorate Your App Thumbnails

    App thumbnails continue to be one of the most neglected areas of a business page's timeline. Your app thumbnails are the 111 x 74 px images located underneath your cover photo on the bottom right side of your page. Edit your tab apps with custom images that are adjusted to fit your holiday branding.

    Design your cover photo with an arrow that points to your app thumbnails and use the thumbnail space to create a call to action that encourages fans to learn more about your holiday offers.

    In the image below, notice how Burt's Bees does a great job of drawing attention to their current campaigns and offers with their branded app thumbnails. They haven't updated their profile for the holiday season yet, but I bet they will soon!

    burts bees thumbnails
    Update your app thumbnails to coincide with your latest offers and social campaigns for further reach and engagement.

    #5: Schedule Holiday-related Facebook Ads

    Most businesses on Facebook are using Facebook ads, at least on occasion. If you're still on the fence about Facebook ads, the holiday season is a perfect time to jump in.

    If you're ready to experiment with Facebook ads, first set a budget. Then create a few different ads and implement some A/B testing. Andrea Vahl provided some great tips for seeing results with Facebook ads.

    You can also experiment with promoted posts and sponsored stories. Promoted posts and sponsored stories are existing Facebook posts that you pay to promote, versus creating ads.

    If you post a status update promoting a holiday deal or app, I recommend putting money behind your posts to reach a larger audience. If you need to catch up on Facebook's latest advertising offers, check out this eBook from Jon Loomer.

    holiday ad
    Test a holiday-themed ad for your business to drive more traffic during the holidays.

    Over to You

    To make sure that your Facebook page is ready for holiday traffic this year, take time now to plan your seasonal campaigns and prearrange your holiday ads.

    Be creative with your seasonally themed cover images, profile photos and custom app thumbnail images. Most of all, be giving and remember to experiment with your social media activity.

    What do you think? How do you plan on using Facebook in your holiday marketing efforts? What other tips for holiday readiness can you share? Leave your ideas and comments in the box below.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Facebook, Facebook Ads

    About the authorJim Belosic

    Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service software that allows businesses to create engaging campaigns for social, web and mobile.
    Other posts by Jim Belosic »

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media Examiner®
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility