Holidays provide an excellent opportunity to prepare some evergreen content to use annually. It’s content that will stand the test of time. Content that readers can revisit or discover anew each year. One definite advantage of having evergreen content is that over time, there may be more and more links to it across the web. On one of my sites, people continually posted links on Pinterest to a post I had written. My referrals increased from Pinterest as time progressed.
Here’s an example of a post possibility. In the next section, there’s a link for American Holidays. It includes a list of “food holidays.” The listing for the 4th of July is National Barbecue Day. So, the 4th of July, barbecue: it definitely fits. If it’s related to your business or site somehow, you could post a favorite BBQ recipe for the 4th of July. Or, perhaps you could write a tips post about barbecue. That type of post isn’t likely to change over the years.
Taking this idea one step further, let’s assume you post a barbecue recipe post. In the introductory paragraph, you could say something such as “Whether it’s the 4th of July, Memorial Weekend, Labor Day, or any celebratory gathering, here’s a barbecue recipe that’s sure to please.” With such wording, you can share the post again for any of those holidays and for anything else you’d like. Once your post is written, you can refer to it over and over. You have to be careful not to overdo it, but your post will be there. (By the way, if you have a recipe post, definitely put it in Pinterest! Pictures on Instagram would be good as well.)
It’s good practice to always keep reuse in mind when you develop content. One way is to think about how to reuse the content across multiple platforms. (Example: posting links to the recipe post in Pinterest and Instagram, along with other sites.) Evergreen posts such as the barbecue recipe example provide another way: how to reuse the post in multiple instances. By mentioning other holidays in the text, it’s an opening to reuse the content on those other days. It’s also good for SEO to mention those other items.
Evergreen holiday posts: they’re an excellent addition to your site. Fit them in to your content strategy!
Holiday Lists
Of course, there are holidays all through the year. There are even some every day! If you’d like to find something to celebrate, look over some of these lists.
American Holidays: in addition to the federal listings, look at the “food holiday” listings for fun. You might find something of interest to you! How about National Hoagie Day (May 4th) or National S’mores Day (August 10th)? Those are just two examples from that list.
There’s also an extensive list on this site, as well as listings for other countries:
Here is additional information for holidays around the globe:
Major Holidays and Celebrations of Spanish-Speaking Countries
Events
In addition to formal holidays, there may be some days that are like holidays for specific interests. For instance, look at sports events. If your business focuses on cycling, you might consider the Tour de France to be like a holiday. You could write special posts about that topic. These types of events roll around every year. Writing posts to coincide with the events is an opportunity for increased exposure.
I’ve included a few ideas below. Take a look and then think about what “holidays” apply to your industry or topic of interest. For those working in social media, don’t forget Social Media Day on June 30th!
Sports
- Tour de France
- Boston Marathon
- Ironman Triathlon (Hawaii)
- March Madness
- Indianapolis 500
- Super Bowl
Financial
- U.S. tax return due date (usually March 15th)
Education
- Back to school
- Graduation
- College move-in
Year-End
This is when you’ll see many posts related to the various holidays at year-end. Here are some examples of what I’ve seen over the years.
- Helpful tips for varied subjects related to the holiday (such as time management and gatherings)
- Traditions
- Recipes
- How-to procedures for making decorations
- Year-end recaps
- New year predictions
Email Campaigns
The email marketing companies have templates for the main holidays. That’s something to consider. After writing your post, you can send it out on a special holiday email using a snazzy holiday design. In following years, you can send it again.
Twitter Planning
Twitter provides its own focus on various events. Here’s one example from their blog. It shows how they addressed March Madness in 2017. Writing posts for events such as this enable you to join in on these major initiatives which will get much more exposure. For March Madness, companies that aren’t sports-related also created initiatives and used the #MarchMadness hashtag.
#MarchMadness is happening on Twitter (2017)
Twitter has also been providing planning guides for some time. This includes a generic planning guide in their expanded business resource area. Review the materials and then start planning! Prepare material for the holidays and the events that you can perceive as holidays. Once you get your evergreen holiday posts written, you can take advantage of what Twitter has set up. Everything ties together.
The Twitter Holidays Hub (2020)
A Month of Tweet Ideas for Brands on Twitter (2020): great resource!
Whatever you find there, you can likely apply to other platforms. Research keywords and create a content calendar to determine what, when, and where to post.
Start Writing!
Evergreen holiday posts: they’re an excellent addition to your site. Fit them in to your content strategy!
Happy 4th of July!
Enjoy your barbecue feasts!
More >
For other tips in this series, see the following post. This is day four. There are three others and 27 left to go!
