How your business should use awareness days on social media

British Pie Week, World Sleep Day, International Dance Day – there are days, weeks and months for pretty much everything you can think of.

But these events should be used wisely and with an element of caution when it comes to your business on social media.

Awareness days on social media – five things to keep in mind

1. It must be relevant

First and foremost, the awareness day/week/month must be relevant to your business and your audience.

If the awareness day is clearly linked to your business, and you have engaging content that adds value to the occasion, go ahead and get it out there.

2. Authenticity is crucial

Authenticity is as important as relevance – posting content should not be a box-ticking exercise.

Do your business’ values align with the awareness occasion?

If you:

Don’t have any women in leadership positions
Don’t pay women anywhere near the same as men
Don’t include any women in decision-making processes
Don’t have any policies supporting women in the workplace

Then I wouldn’t advise associating your business with International Women’s Day.

People aren’t afraid to publicly call out businesses who don’t back up their awareness day social media posts with genuine action behind the scenes.

Want an example of this? Look no further than Gender Pay Gap Bot on Twitter – click here to read about this with the Metro.

3. Have a plan

The luxury with awareness days is that they’re on the same date every year, so you can plan ahead.

At the start of the year, pick out the dates that are relevant to your business, and align with your values, and then block some time out in your diary to create the content in plenty of time.

This is social media, though, so stay flexible when it comes to real-life events that could impact your content, and react to any in-the-moment opportunities that may arise on the day.

Some of the best content can’t be planned for.

4. Get social

It’s called social media for a reason.

Be sure to get social with your business’ employees on awareness days, as they may create some user generated content that can be repurposed for your company channels.

That UGC will give your audience a look inside your business and its culture, to show the awareness being supported and celebrated on the ground.

Also, get social with anyone who engages with your business’ content – that’s a must every day of the year.

5. Don’t just stick to awareness days

This is a big one for me – consider how the messaging and content you are posting on any given awareness day can be used throughout the year.

Let’s take Mental Health Awareness Week, for instance.

If mental health is a top priority within your business you will be posting about its importance and how you look after your employees during the first week of October.

But those messages are important all year round, so look at how you can integrate that into your ongoing social schedule.

What’s important to your business? Make an enquiry with me to find out how that can be shared effectively on social media.