Happy Valentine’s Day! (is an Asinine Cliche)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there. How many times will you read a line like that today? If you hang out on the internet for long enough (and don’t we all) the chances are you’ll see it so often you’ll puke up some of those little candy hearts (I guess they weren’t “4 EVA” after all). Still, it IS Valentine’s day, and to not address it to your social audience would seem a little disingenuous. As a business, you have to post something, but Marketing Using Facebook is always a delicate dance between standing out and fitting in…so how do you make your followers Choo Choo Choose you?

You have to give then something they aren’t expecting. I don’t mean a picture of Cupid photoshopped into the Hunger Games (though if that’s not a thing yet we totally call it), I just mean something besides a jpeg of a stylized heart with the words “HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY” emblazoned on it in lipstick red.

If you want to run an entire ad campaign based around Valentine’s day, great, more power to you. For some industries (flowers, chocolates, greeting cards, condoms) it’s a no-brainer. For most of us though, we’re just trying to use the day to make a single marketing message pop. Most days on social media, people don’t want to see anything hokey from a business they follow, but holidays are the exception to that rule. You have to take advantage of the opportunity and really post something that will make the rounds.

So what is the perfect thing to post? That falls on you and your audience. Start by looking at what your competitors are posting and then throw all that right out the window. You want something unique, preferably something either hilarious or heartwarming. You don’t have to sit and create original content (though that’s best if you’re able!), just look around and don’t stop looking until you find something that resonates with you. If it’s heartwarming, you should have a tear in your eye. If it’s funny, you should laugh out loud. Notice I wrote out “laugh out loud” instead of lol. That’s because “lol” is usually more of a “lqtm” (laughing quietly to myself) and we’re looking for a true belly laugh, that’s the metric for being post-worthy on a holiday.

So go, enjoy the romance! Knock out of work early, pick up a date, eat an entire box of truffles, call your mother (she misses you), buy cheesy cards, fall in love, fall out of love, hit the bar, fall in love again, and post something that your audience won’t forget in five minutes.

Find this post on Wikimotive.net under the title “Happy Valentine’s Day!”