It’s not always easy to generate a steady stream of content, which is so important to stay top of mind while standing out with our clients, potential clients, referral sources, alumni and other interested audiences to effectively building your brand, business and network.
If you work at small or mid-size organization, you know that it is not easy to keep your editorial calendar full or to craft posts each week.
And whether you are creating original content of your own or sharing others’ content, the key is to post content that is value-added, helpful and demonstrative of your uniqueness on a consistent basis.
The reason for this is threefold:
1) you will help to build your brand and become seen as a subject matter expert;
2) you will be top of mind when someone in your network has a professional need that fits your background and expertise; and
3) in the current social distancing environment, it’s never been more important to use social media for branding, networking and business development purposes – it’s the most effective and efficient channel we have right now.
All that being said, there are days where you just don’t have a whole lot to say, but it’s imperative to stay on a consistent content posting schedule, following your editorial calendar to ensure that you have the right content mix.
So what do you do?
The many holidays that pop up throughout the year are great opportunities to fill in your content calendar on those days when you don’t have a lot of news as well to showcase the softer side of your organization.
Featuring major holidays is a no brainer, such as Halloween for example (create a compilation of your employees in their Halloween costumes), but lesser known (and quirky) social media holidays can also make for great social media posts (such as National Donut Day or National Dog Day), helping you highlight your culture and people. This kind of content will enable you to stand out and be memorable.
They are called hashtag holidays or social media holidays.
Every holiday is an opportunity to tell a story.
Hashtag holidays will help you never run out of content ideas and inspiration for your social media channels. There is a day for almost anything and everything.
In this article, I’ll explore how to utilize them in your content strategy.
This is a clever way to outshine your peers. You can demonstrate that you are a good corporate citizen and show that your firm and your lawyers have personality. It can get monotonous and dry to constantly post about your victories, events and firm news.
If you ignore these holidays, you could be missing valuable opportunities to take advantage of trending topics with fun and relevant “holiday” content on social media.
From food to politics to animals and everything in between, there is an abundance of worldwide holidays that give brands a great opportunity to create and share content relevant to their industries, get involved in a movement or simply generate more awareness.
For example, at a prior firm, we created a social media campaign for Women’s History Month where we highlighted the women at the firm (lawyers and staff) and their backgrounds (using visuals we repurposed and reused – their headshots).
We featured interviews with each of the women on their tips for success and their career paths.
We also encouraged each of the women to share the interviews to social media in order to tap into their powerful personal professional networks (tip: always remember to encourage your lawyers to share posts to their own networks on LinkedIn or else you will be missing out on reaching important people in their valuable personal networks!).
Another firm at which I worked had a large population of veterans and saluted them (using pictures of them in uniform) on Veterans Day.
You could do the same for just about any holiday – Lunar New Year, Fourth of July, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, National Receptionists Day, National Paralegal Day, Administrative Professionals Day, the Super Bowl, MLK Day, National Donut Day – you name it.
Plus celebrate your people all month long with holidays such as Asian History Month, Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Bring alumni into the fold when creating your content campaigns for all of these and most importantly, get creative!
Depending on your company, you could have some fun with National Selfie Day on social media by encouraging your employees at the firm to share their selfies.
You can build internal and external events around these holidays as well – virtual for now of course. And you’ll have the photos from the events and campaigns from the prior year so you can then create a #TBT (throwback Thursday) or a #FBF (flashback Friday) campaign to reuse the photos next year.
You can easily create and post a custom image for a holiday for each of your social media channels by using my favorite online tool for non- or newbie designers, Canva.com.
Canva, which has a desktop and mobile version (albeit with less functionality) enables you to create perfectly sized graphics for social media (as well as a lot of other graphic design needs) with your logo and color palette.
Canva makes design accessible for non-graphic designers through its various templates. It’s a great tool for companies and individuals with a limited budget or marketing professionals without a lot of time.
(A little trick – I create two images in Canva for each social media post – one at the Twitter size and another in the Instagram size. You can use the Twitter sized one for not only Twitter but Facebook and LinkedIn and this greatly cuts down the work you need to do on image resizing).
Here’s a list of hashtags holidays you can build into your content calendar as you are planning your social media strategy.
The list isn’t exhaustive and these dates and hashtags may be subject to change, and many of these have passed since it’s the end of 2020, but they will come up again soon for 2021, so it’s good to prepare ahead now. This is a great starting point for social media marketers who want to learn more about what’s trending and how they can plan fun and engaging content.
2020 Hashtag/Social Media Holidays
January 2020
1. Wednesday, New Year’s Day #NewYearsDay
2. Thursday, Science Fiction Day #ScienceFictionDay
4. Saturday, National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay
11. Saturday, Human Trafficking Awareness Day #HumanTraffickingDay
13. Monday, Clean Off Your Desk Day #CleanOffYourDeskDay
15. Wednesday, National Hat Day #NationalHatDay
16. Thursday, Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
20. Monday, Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay
20. Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Third Monday of January) #MLKDay
23. Thursday, National Pie Day #PieDay
24. Friday, National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay
25. Saturday, Opposite Day #OppositeDay
25. Saturday, Chinese New Year #ChineseNewYear
28. Tuesday, Data Privacy Day #PrivacyAware
February 2020
2. Sunday, Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay
2. Sunday, Super Bowl LIV (Varies each year based on football season) #SBLLIV #SuperBowlSunday #SuperBowl
4. Tuesday, World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay
5. World Nutella Day #WorldNutellaDay
7. Friday, National Send a Card to a Friend Day #SendACardToAFriendDay
8. Saturday, National Boy Scouts Day #BoyScoutsDay
9. Sunday, National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay
11. Tuesday, Safer Internet Day #SID2020
11. Tuesday, Inventors Day #InventorsDay
13. Thursday, World Radio Day #WorldRadioDay
14. Friday, Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay
17. Monday, Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
17. Monday, Presidents Day (Third Monday of February) #PresidentsDay
20. Thursday, World Day of Social Justice #SocialJusticeDay
20. Wednesday, Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay
25. Tuesday, Mardi Gras #MardiGras
March 2020
1. Sunday, Peanut Butter Lovers Day #PeanutButterLoversDay
2. Monday, National Read Across America Day #ReadAcrossAmerica & #DrSeuss
3. Tuesday, World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay
4. Wednesday, National Grammar Day #NationalGrammarDay
5. Thursday, National Pancake Day #NationalPancakeDay
6. Friday, National Dentist’s Day #DentistsDay
6. Friday, National Employee Appreciation Day (First Friday of March) #EmployeeAppreciationDay
6. Friday, National Day of Unplugging (First Friday of March) #NationalDayOfUnplugging
7. Saturday, National Be Heard Day #NationalBeHeardDay
7. Saturday, National Cereal Day #NationalCerealDay
8. Sunday, International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange
8. Sunday, National Proofreading Day #NationalProofreadingDay
8. Sunday, Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings
10. Tuesday, National Pack Your Lunch Day #NationalPackYourLunchDay
10. Tuesday, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day #NWGHAAD
11. Wednesday, National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay
12: Thursday, National Girl Scout Day #GirlScoutDay
14. Saturday, Popcorn Lover’s Day #PopcornLoversDay
14. Saturday, Potato Chip Day #NationalPotatoChipDay
14. Saturday, Pi Day #PiDay (To go the extra mile, post this at 1:59, as Pi equals 3.14159…)
15. Sunday, World Consumer Rights Day #WCRD2020
15. Sunday, World Sleep Day #WorldSleepDay
16. Monday, National Freedom of Information Day #FreedomOfInformationDay
17. Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay
18. Wednesday, Awkward Moments Day #NationalAwkwardMomentsDay
19. Thursday, National Let’s Laugh Day #NationalLetsLaughDay
20. Friday, International Day of Happiness #InternationalDayofHappiness
20. Friday, World Storytelling Day #WorldStorytellingDay
20. Friday, First Day of Spring #FirstDayofSpring
21. Saturday, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination #RacialDiscriminationDay
21. Saturday, World Poetry Day #WorldPoetryDay
22: Sunday, World Water Day #WorldWaterDay
23. Monday, National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay
26. Thursday, National Spinach Day #NationalSpinachDay
26. Thursday, American Diabetes Association Alert Day #AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay
28. Saturday, Earth Hour Day #EarthHour
30. Monday, Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay
30. Monday, National Take a Walk in the Park Day #NationalWalkInTheParkDay
31. Tuesday, Transgender Day of Visibility #TDOV
31. Tuesday, Equal Pay Day #EqualPayDay
April 2020
1. Wednesday, April Fools Day #AprilFools
2. Thursday, World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD
3. Friday, Find a Rainbow Day #FindARainbowDay
3. Friday, National Walking Day #NationalWalkingDay
7. Tuesday, World Health Day #LetsTalk
10. Friday, National Siblings Day #NationalSiblingsDay
10. Friday, Encourage a Young Writer Day #EncourageAYoungWriterDay
11. Saturday, National Pet Day #NationalPetDay
15. Wednesday, National Tax Day #TaxDay
16. Thursday, National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay
16. Thursday, National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay
17. Friday, Haiku Poetry Day #HaikuPoetryDay
18. Saturday, Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
18. Saturday, National High-Five Day #NH5D
20. Monday, National Look-Alike Day #NationalLookAlikeDay
22. Wednesday, Earth Day #EarthDay2018
23. Thursday, National Picnic Day #NationalPicnicDay
23. Thursday, World Book Day #WorldBookDay
24. Friday, National Administrative Professionals Day #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
24. Friday, Denim Day #DenimDay
25. Saturday, National Telephone Day #NationalTelephoneDay
25. Saturday, National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day #COUNTONME
26. Sunday, Arbor Day #ArborDay
29. Wednesday, International Dance Day #InternationalDanceDay
30. Thursday, National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay
30. Thursday, International Jazz Day #JazzDay
May 2020
1. Friday, May Day #MayDay
1. Friday, International Workers Day #IntWorkersDay
2. Saturday, World Password Day #WorldPasswordDay
3. Sunday, Space Day #SpaceDay
4. Monday, Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
4. Monday, International Firefighters Day #InternationalFirefightersDay
5. Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo
6. Wednesday, National Nurses Day #NursesDay
7. Thursday, World Asthma Day #WorldAsthmaDay
7. Thursday, Thank a Teacher Day #ThankATeacher
8. Friday, National Receptionist Day #NationalReceptionistDay
9. Saturday, Europe Day #EuropeDay
10. Sunday, Mother’s Day #MothersDay
12. Tuesday, National Limerick Day #NationalLimerickDay
15. Friday, International Day of Families #FamilyDay
15. Friday, National Bike to Work Day #BTWD
16. Saturday, Love a Tree Day #LoveATreeDay
17. Sunday, International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia #IDAHOT2020
17. Sunday, Endangered Species Day #EndangeredSpeciesDay
21. Thursday, National Memo Day #NationalMemoDay
21. Thursday, Red Nose Day #RedNoseDay
24. Sunday, National Scavenger Hunt Day #NationalScavengerHuntDay
25. Monday, Memorial Day (Fourth Monday of May) #MemorialDay #MDW
28. Thursday, Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay
29. Friday, Paperclip Day #PaperclipDay
June 2020
1. Monday, Global Day of Parents #GlobalDayOfParents
1. Monday, International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay
3. Wednesday, Leave The Office Early Day #LeaveTheOfficeEarlyDay
4. Thursday, National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay
5. Friday, World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay
6. Saturday, National Cancer Survivor’s Day #NCSD2020
6. Saturday, Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay
7. Sunday, World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay
7. Sunday, Best Friends Day #BestFriendsDay
14. Sunday, World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood
14. Sunday, National Flag Day #FlagDay
19. Monday, Juneteenth #Juneteenth
20. Saturday, World Refugee Day #WithRefugees
20. Saturday, First Day of Summer
21. Sunday, National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay
21. Sunday, World Music Day #WorldMusicDay
21. Sunday, Father’s Day #FathersDay
21. Sunday, International Yoga Day #InternationalYogaDay
26. Friday, Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
27. Saturday, National Sunglasses Day #NationalSunglassesDay
27. Saturday, National Handshake Day #HandshakeDay
30. Tuesday, Social Media Day #SMDay
July 2020
1. Wednesday, National Postal Worker Day #NationalPostalWorkerDay
4. Saturday, Independence Day (U.S.)
5. Sunday, National Fried Chicken Day #NationalFriedChickenDay
7. Tuesday, World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay
11. Saturday, Cheer Up the Lonely Day #CheerUpTheLonelyDay
12. Sunday, Malala Day #MalalaDay
15. Wednesday, Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay
17. Friday, World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay
18. Saturday, Nelson Mandela International Day #MandelaDay
18. Saturday, Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
30. Thursday, Talk in an Elevator Day #TalkInAnElevatorDay
30. Thursday, International Day of Friendship #DayOfFriendship
August 2020
8. Saturday, International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay
9. Sunday, National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay
10. Monday, National Lazy Day #LazyDay
11. Tuesday, National Sons and Daughters Day #SonsAndDaughtersDay
12. Wednesday, International Youth Day #YouthDay
13. Thursday, International Lefthanders Day #LefthandersDay
15. Saturday, National Relaxation Day #NationalRelaxationDay
16. Sunday, National Tell a Joke Day #NationalTellAJokeDay
17. Monday, National Nonprofit Day #NationalNonprofitDay
19. Wednesday, World Photo Day #WorldPhotoDay
19. Friday, World Humanitarian Day #WorldHumanitarianDay
21. Sunday, Senior Citizens Day #SeniorCitizensDay
26. Friday, National Dog Day #NationalDogDay
26. Friday, National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay
September 2020
Date Varies, Stand Up To Cancer Day #KissCancerGoodbye
4. Friday, National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay
5. Saturday, International Day of Charity #CharityDay
6. Sunday, Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay
7. Monday, Labor Day #LaborDay
8. Tuesday, National Grandparents Day (First Monday of September) #NationalGrandparentsDay
8. Tuesday, International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay
11. Friday, National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day
12. Saturday, National Day of Encouragement #DayOfEncouragement
12. Saturday, National Video Games Day #NationalVideoGamesDay
19. Saturday, Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay
21. Monday, International Day of Peace #PeaceDay
21. Monday, Miniature Golf Day #MiniGolfDay
22. Tuesday, Car-Free Day #CarFreeDay
22. Tuesday, First Day of Fall
23. Wednesday, National Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay
26. Saturday, European Day of Languages #EDL2020
27. Sunday, World Tourism Day #WTD2020
27. Sunday, National Scarf Day #NationalScarfDay
28. Monday, National Good Neighbor Day #GoodNeighborDay
30. Wednesday, International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay
October 2020
1. Thursday, International Day of Older Persons #UNDOP
1. Thursday, International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay
1. Thursday, World Vegetarian Day #WorldVegetarianDay
2. Friday, International Day of Nonviolence #InternationalDayOfNonviolence
2. Friday, World Smile Day #WorldSmileDay
3. Saturday, National Techies Day #TechiesDay
4. Sunday, World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay
4. Sunday, National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay
5. Monday, World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay
5. Monday, Do Something Nice Day #DoSomethingNiceDay
7. Wednesday, World Habitat Day #WorldHabitatDay
10. Saturday, World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay
10. Saturday, World Sight Day #WorldSightDay
11. Sunday, International Day of the Girl #DayOfTheGirl
14. Wednesday, National Dessert Day #DessertDay
15. Thursday, Global Handwashing Day #GlobalHandwashingDay
16. Friday, World Food Day #FoodDay
16. Friday, Bosses Day #BossesDay
17. Saturday, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty #EndPoverty
23. Friday, National Paralegal Day, #NationalParalegalDay
24. Saturday, United Nations Day #UNDay
30. Friday, Checklist Day #ChecklistDay
31. Saturday, Halloween #Halloween
* National Pro Bono Week is October 25-31, 2020 so you could plan out posts thanking your pro bono partners throughout that week
November 2020
1. Sunday, World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay
1. Sunday, National Authors Day #NationalAuthorsDay
1. Sunday, National Cook For Your Pets Day #CookForYourPetsDay
3. Tuesday, National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay
3. Tuesday, Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings
4. Wednesday, National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay
6. Friday, Love Your Lawyer Day #LoveYourLawyerDay
8. Sunday, National Cappuccino Day #CappuccinoDay
8. Sunday, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay
11. Wednesday, Veterans Day #VeteransDay
13. Friday, World Kindness Day #WKD
14. Saturday, World Diabetes Day #WDD
15. Sunday, Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day #CleanOutYourRefrigeratorDay
15. Sunday, America Recycles Day #BeRecycled
17. Tuesday, International Students Day #InternationalStudentsDay
19. Thursday, National Entrepreneurs Day #EntrepreneursDay
20. Friday, Universal Children’s Day #UNChildrensDay
21. Saturday, World Hello Day #WorldHelloDay
25. Wednesday, Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving
26. Thursday, National Cake Day #NationalCakeDay
27. Friday, Black Friday #BlackFriday
28. Saturday, Small Business Saturday (The last Saturday of November) #ShopSmall
29. Sunday, National Day of Listening #DayOfListening
29. Sunday, Electronic Greeting Card Day #ElectronicGreetingCardDay
30. Monday, Computer Security Day #ComputerSecurityDay
30. Monday, Cyber Monday #CyberMonday
December 2020
1. Tuesday, World AIDS Day #WAD2020
1. Tuesday, Giving Tuesday #GivingTuesday
3. Thursday, International Day of Persons with Disabilities #IDPWD
4. Friday, National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay
4. Friday, National Sock Day #NationalSockDay
5. Saturday, World Soil Day #WorldSoilDay
6. Sunday, Microwave Oven Day #MicrowaveOvenDay
8. Tuesday, Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day #PretendToBeATimeTravelerDay
10. Thursday, Human Rights Day #HumanRightsDay
10. Thursday, Nobel Prize Day #NobelPrize
11. Friday, International Mountain Day #InternationalMountainDay
11. Friday, National Salesperson Day #SalespersonDay
21. Monday, Crossword Puzzle Day #CrosswordPuzzleDay
21. Monday, First Day of Winter #WinterSolstice
30. Wednesday, No Interruptions Day – Last Work Day of the Year #NoInterruptionsDay
31. Thursday, New Year’s Eve #NYE
Here are some other things to consider when using hashtag/social media holidays as part of your social media strategy:
- Research the holiday! Don’t just fill your content calendar, make sure the holiday aligns with your brand, values and, most importantly, the values of your audience.
- Make sure your posts are respectful of underrepresented, marginalized and/or oppressed groups. Don’t appropriate culture.
- Ensure that your brand’s actions back up your Tweets. 70% of people believe it’s important for brands to take a public stand on social and political issues. For example, a social campaign celebrating #EarthDay could be a great fit for a brand that’s made a concerted effort to be more sustainable—but it might not be the best fit for a brand that doesn’t take steps to limit their environmental impact.
- Use trending hashtags: Popular and relevant hashtags can extend the reach of your firm and its lawyers on key social media networks. By using them, you can attract more followers during and after the holiday. How do you find them? Good old fashioned research. Look at your competitors. Use the main search bar and see how many followers a particular term has by typing it in with the # sign. Look for hashtags that don’t have too many or too little followers. Don’t just type in hashtags based on the subject matter – that’s not being strategic.
- Get involved with the community: Don’t forget that many holidays are also about community. Find ways to get involved as a firm or even in a smaller group with colleagues or clients on a holiday, community event or for a charitable cause.
- Calendar it. Everyone should have a content calendar – and everyone should be repurposing their content. That means reposting a piece of content multiple times over a certain period of time but perhaps changing up the graphic or the intro text. (Certain high-profile individuals at your company also likely need their own content calendar to manage their posts.) When you create your content calendar for the quarter, think about how you can incorporate holidays into your posting schedule. If you don’t have a lot going on in a particular month, find a holiday that will engage with your target audiences. In a sea of 200 top law firms and another 200 mid-size firms – anything you can do to stand out will help to differentiate your firm. Remember to schedule your social posts in advance using tools such as Hootsuite or SproutSocial so that you can enjoy the holiday yourself. These kinds of tools enable you to pick the time and date of when you want to post your content.