Beyond Christmas: Building a Social Media Strategy that Respects All Holidays
Image @maplerockdesign
What is your company policy on Christianity?
You probably don't have one, right? Most companies don't, even the large, well-established ones. At least not explicitly. And yet, as secular as business imagines itself to be, we all get an extra day off or two around Christmas time, don't we?
I had never really thought about this before until I was tasked with managing a content calendar for social media. We needed to come up with a post 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. As the team was brainstorming, we started filling in the calendar with what we thought were easy posts—holiday greetings. There are plenty of sites out there that list all of the holidays in a given year based on your location, and here in Canada, several of our national holidays are Christian. Good Friday. Easter Monday. Christmas. And while there's nothing wrong with that, we realized we didn't have a company policy about religious holidays outside of Christianity.
Do we create a post to celebrate and mark the start of Ramadan? We decided that we should. What about Hanukkah? Kwanza? Diwali? There were no rules about any of this, no guidelines. Tracking back through our company's history, we found mixed results. Acknowledging these types of holidays seemed to depend entirely on the discretion of the marketing manager in charge at the time.
We found similar results when it came to the Hallmark Holidays like Mother's Day and Father's Day alongside special awareness days like International Women's Day or the Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day. Our company didn't have a clear policy on whether we were strictly Christian or more inclusive and what important causes we routinely supported. And there are hundreds of these types of days throughout the year.
This is a problem. Especially in the age of social media.
We didn't want to celebrate every single holiday in existence—our social media feed would look too opportunistic and insincere. And yet, we didn't want to appear as if we didn't support certain causes simply because we didn't post about them. Our team decided it was better to look a bit opportunistic but egalitarian than to appear discriminatory—but that was an opinion—we needed an official, company-wide policy. A policy that would have to be decided by someone at the top. So, filling out the social media calendar quickly opened up a can of worms that gained "project" status as it necessitated a meeting between our HR and marketing teams and the CEO to level-set on company values and positions. It had never been done before and was probably long overdue. But the outcome wasn't what we had been hoping for—the "project" of being socially sensitive was too much for anyone to want to wrap their head around and got pushed to the back burner. And there it still sits.
So, we just kept the status quo and acknowledged the major Christian holidays, ignoring the rest. We selected the causes we felt were the most universally supported and least likely to cause anyone any offence and ignored everything else.
That was a while ago, but it still bugs me. It bugs me because it was an important question that got ignored because coming up with an answer seemed like it would have been hard work. But it doesn't have to be. And it's not something that should be dismissed as unimportant either. Big brands and marketers need to be sensitive about holidays and observances outside of the Christian calendar because failing to do so can alienate or even offend certain segments of your audience. This can lead to negative backlash and damage the brand's reputation. Not a good look.
Inclusivity in Action
Below are some tips for readers looking to implement their own holidays and observances policy for social media:
1) Assess Your Audience and Demographics:
Understand the cultural, religious, and demographic makeup of your audience.
Identify key holidays and observances that matter to your target demographic.
2) Engage Your Team:
Involve your marketing, HR, and executive teams in discussions about the policy.
Gather input from employees about which holidays they consider important or would like the company to recognize.
3) Consider Brand Values:
Align your policy with your company's values and mission statement.
Ensure that your approach to holidays reflects your brand's identity.
4) Define Clear Guidelines:
Establish clear guidelines on how and when to acknowledge specific holidays.
Decide which holidays warrant social media posts and which do not.
5) Avoid Opportunism:
Be sincere in your approach and avoid coming across as opportunistic.
Choose causes and holidays that genuinely align with your brand's values.
6) Put it in writing
Put all your decisions and guidelines together in one easy-to-reference document.
Make it official by getting C-Suite sign-off and keeping your new Holidays and Observances policy up-to-date.
7) Communicate Transparently:
Communicate your Holidays and Observances policy to your team and your audience.
Explain the reasons behind your choices.
8) Maintain Flexibility:
Be flexible and open to adjustments as needed.
Consider feedback and changing cultural dynamics when updating your policy.
9) Monitor Feedback and Impact:
Continuously monitor feedback from your audience and the impact of your holiday posts.
Be willing to make adjustments based on the response.
10) Promote Inclusivity Year-Round:
Don't limit inclusivity to holidays; promote it year-round through diversity initiatives and engagement.
Implementing a well-considered holidays and observances policy can help your brand's reputation by fostering goodwill with your audience and is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to respecting diverse cultures and beliefs. Having a firm policy will also make it much easier for your sales and marketing teams to stay consistent and plan social media content well ahead of time, even if there is employee turnover.