Halloween is a fun time of year, and brands jump into it by sharing content that fits with the season. Here are some ideas to get you started.

It is a fun time of year for kids, as well as social media marketers. Halloween allows us all to create fun content and to bring a light-hearted feel to the work that we do. Just in case you’re at a loss for what to do for Halloween this year with your social media, take a look at the following tips.

Your ‘look’

Your developers need to be on top of their game when it comes to Halloween. Take a look at any major brand this time of year and they’ve got the Halloween colours (orange and black) all over their social media profiles, which shows their audience that they know what time of year it is.

Don’t stop there. For profile pages and posts themselves, focus on making sure you have spooky imagery and lenses, as well as filters that really convey that Halloween feel.

Generally speaking, your audience will expect to have some acknowledgement from you that Halloween is coming, and the easiest way to do that is to have your developers make your platform spooky in a visual sense.

Video content

Video has always been an important part of any social media strategy, and Halloween is the perfect time to create engaging content.

You can offer a ‘mini-series’ of videos leading up to Halloween, which tell a story and build suspense right up to the big day. This is a great way to introduce a narrative element to the story you tell your audience, and it keeps them engaged. All it takes is a little creative brainstorming and you should be able to pull together a spooky tale that you can create a series of videos around.

Teaser videos of new products or events can have a Halloween theme. This is actually very effective, and due to their short length, these videos can be posted pretty much anywhere.

Finally, bring some humour to the situation by filming behind the scenes at a staff Halloween party. It makes for great fun, and your audience will appreciate the relatable aspect of messing about in silly costumes.

Treat rather than trick

Happy audiences are engaged and loyal audiences. Head down the ‘treat’ path this Halloween by giving your audience something valuable.

This could be your product at a discount. Or it could be an experience linked to your company. You could even give away free stuff (that always makes people happy).

It’s nice to get value, and if you tie it into the trick or treat you will have a happier audience and a loyal one too.

Limited time promotions

Halloween is in such a small window on our calendars that it makes sense to run a very short promotion that gets attention and engagement before disappearing.

Whatever you are promoting at this time of year, keep it short and simple. Your audience will appreciate having a bit of fun at the same time as a spooky time of year. It’s the time of parties and trick-or-treating, you should be very visible.

Whatever you do, keep the emphasis on fun, and not selling. You could even treat the promotion as an awareness raising tool, or a chance to build even deeper engagement for your social feeds. The more fun, the better, and don’t forget that the promotion can run in the week up to Halloween so you can really amp up the excitement around the offer.

UGC

User generated content (UGC) is always a great idea. Take the opportunity to make Halloween extra fun for your audience by asking them to use your products to celebrate the spirit of Halloween.

One obvious industry for this kind of UGC is the makeup and beauty industry. Brands in this area have, in recent years, encouraged audiences to create spooky looks that celebrate the season. At the same time, the brand gets content for their platforms, and extra advertising because the audience is using their products.

It shouldn’t be too hard to think of some UGC ideas that will engage your audience and also fit in neatly with the Halloween spirit.

Hashtags

It kind of goes without saying that you should be using Halloween-related hashtags. Work hard at it and you can run a campaign around an original hashtag where your brand name is linked to Halloween or spooky goings-on. This way, as your promotion gathers steam, the hashtag has a chance at trending and gaining the right amount of traction by the time Halloween comes around.

It’s a great opportunity for word play and having fun and using hashtags should be an absolute prerequisite for any seasonal campaign.