How to Give Your Facebook Business Page a Holiday Makeover

The leaves on trees may have only just started to change color, but now is the ideal time to start thinking about your holiday marketing plan.

A simple and affordable way to embrace this festive time of year is to coordinate your small business’s social media channels to reflect the holidays this season. Decking the halls isn’t just for your home or storefront anymore! Have some fun on your social media channels too.

Facebook Cover Photo

When a Facebook user visits your Facebook Business Page, the cover photo is the first and most prominent thing they’ll see. Design a cover photo or multiple cover photos and update your page to coordinate with any of the upcoming big shopping days, the next holiday, a holiday promotion you are running or simply to reflect the season. It’s important that your cover photo represents your business, but also feels specific to the current time of year. Around the holidays, I recommend using fall or winter colors and incorporating traditional items such as pumpkins or snowflakes.

When creating a holiday cover photo, remember that the image you use will be stretched to fit across the top of your page (851 x 315 pixels). PicMonkey is a great photo-editing tool that lets you crop images to create perfectly-sized cover photos and cover photo collages too.

For inspiration, check out these 16 small businesses with awesome Facebook Cover Photos.

Facebook Profile Photo

Many businesses upload their logo as their Facebook Profile Photo when they create their business page, and never think to change it again. These businesses are missing out on a key asset that can be customized to reflect the mood of your page during the holiday season. As a best practice, you should always stick to an image that helps people identify your small business, but you can have some fun with it too. A simple way to give your profile picture a seasonal feel is to overlay your logo on an image.

Social media content

There is nothing more disappointing than a bad gift wrapped in pretty packaging. Make sure you alter the content you share to also harmonize with the season. Remember what has worked for your business on social media throughout the year, and simply add a holiday twist to it.

And you don’t have to be a graphic designer to make your Facebook Business Page look outstanding. Online photo editing and design services like PicMonkey and Canva have tons of terrific seasonal templates, graphic overlays, filters, and fun fonts.

Try incorporating a few (or all) of these holiday social content ideas:

• ‘Tis the season to think outside the gift box. Remember, a deal doesn’t have to be a steep discount. It can be relevant content your customers care about, free wrapping, or a matching gift donation.
• Make it easy for your customers to shop. Let them know if your shop is burning its candles late into the night with extended holiday hours in order to give them more time to shop.
• Highlight your company’s holly jolly culture. Share pictures of your business’s holiday parties, your staff’s holiday spirit, or your participation in charitable events.
• Holiday shopping doesn’t jingle everyone’s bells. Help struggling shoppers by sharing suggestions for “last-minute gifts” or “gifts for that hard-to-buy-for person.”
• Instead of guessing, ask. Ask your fans and followers what they’d love to receive this year and tailor a deal that makes their wish come true.
• Remind your fans and followers of your shared values. If your business is supporting a particular cause this season, warm their hearts by sharing your story.
• Be a resource, not just a sales pitch. If your customers value your content for more than just discounts, they’ll be singing carols to the tune of your business all year long.
• You don’t have to go overboard. Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean you need to create an elaborate or cheesy marketing campaign. Share a personal holiday experience you think your customers will enjoy to humanize your brand and show your customers it’s not all about the promotion.

Pull out all the trimmings this year to help your business embrace this festive time of year.

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