Some people start buying (and nibbling) Halloween candy early. But we start scouting early for the sweetest Halloween social media ideas. In this roundup, you’ll find Halloween campaigns that are making their mark, as well as some spookily spectacular social hits from years past. You can use these ideas to scare up your own social media successes this Halloween, or let them inspire your holiday season social media campaigns. Let’s learn some tricks of the trade — it’s our treat.
HarlowandSage + Albertsons & Safeway: #HairyNScary
Albertsons and Safeway have teamed up with the three dog pals behind the astonishingly cute Instagram account @HarlowandSage for a Halloween social media campaign. (Seriously, you are not prepared for how cute these dogs are — brace yourself.) Post a picture of your pet in his or her costume, hashtag it #HairyNScary and you’re entered into a sweepstakes to win a donation of cash and pet products to the animal shelter of your choice.
The supermarkets are doing a couple of really smart things with #HairyNScary. First, they’re partnering with an established influencer: @HarlowandSage has almost 1 million followers.
Second, they’re doing something good with this campaign — and that’s good business. Research shows that customers prefer companies that are concerned with more than profits.
Trulia Shows Real Haunted Houses
“Real estate” and “Halloween” don’t seem all that connected at first glance, but that didn’t stop Trulia from absolutely killing it on social media during Halloween 2014 with lots of humor and creativity. Our favorite? The infographic based on an actual poll Trulia did about what would scare prospective buyers away from purchasing a home (that’s part of the graphic pictured above).
But the “haunted open house” videos are also amazing and totally shareable.
REI Prepares For Zombies
We won’t be surprised to see Trulia’s videos and infographics resurface on social media this Halloween season, and the same is true for REI’s lauded zombie survival skills infographic. (That’s a snippet of it above.) How many campaigns are on brand, on trend, and totally useful in case of zombie apocalypse? Not enough!
Costumes Costumes Costumes
So far, we’ve talked about Halloween social media campaigns that succeed based on wit, engagement and audience participation. But there’s something to be said for straightforward specificity in helping target audience find your offerings. Take a look at what retailers that are all about Halloween — whether full time or just for the season — are doing on Pinterest. (By the way, here’s some good Pinterest news for the Halloween season: Images with warm hues — like Halloween orange — get rePinned more.)
Wholesale Halloween Costumes on Pinterest
In checking out businesses like Wholesale Halloween Costumes and Party City, our main takeaway was that it pays to get specific. Look at how many costume boards Wholesale Halloween Costumes has on Pinterest. We’re talking everything from Disney to burlesque.
Similarly, Party City devotes boards to specific decoration and party ideas, like “modern” or “friendly.”
Halloween (or Thanksgiving, or Christmas …) social media offerings will look different for your brand than they will for others. How can you highlight the specific ways you’re the best at meeting your customers’ desires? Maybe that means creating a board for “modest Halloween costumes” if that fits your brand or creating separate boards for your modern, country, and beachy Christmas décor items to help your customers find exactly what they want.
Send us your holiday boards and let us know where you find inspiration below.