Updated 6/10/2022

We’re just days away from the Summer Solstice, which means it’s official: we’re hitting peak summer. If you haven’t already made the seasonal switch to a summer-themed social media publishing strategy, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Here are our top eight social media summertime best practices.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #1:
Take the Time to Understand Your Audiences’ Summer Cadence

Summertime means different things for different people. For some, it means freedom from scholastic schedules. For others, it could mean rearranging their weekly routine to take care of school-aged children. Everyone’s summer schedule is different.

Which means that it’s up to you and your team to take the time to analyze and understand your own social media audience’s summer proclivities. Once you understand how their social media usage habit is changing, shift your summer posting schedule accordingly.

As an example, if your audience is composed of middle and elementary school-aged children, you might benefit with posting later in the day or even in the evening during the summertime to account for this shift in schedule.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #2:
Summer-ize Your Content

If you can’t remember the last time you’ve zhuzhed up your social media content, then wait no longer. Summer is the perfect time to revisit the look-and-feel of your social media presence.

Not sure where to start?

A) Update Your Cover Photo

New season, new you!

Start your summer out right by updating your cover photo to something, well, summer-y.

Your cover photo is the largest piece of static real estate you have on your social media profiles. As such, it can have a huge impact on your profile’s summertime visual tone.

B) Take It Outside

It’s a safe bet to say that your brand’s audiences are spending more time outdoors now than they do during the winter. The sun is shining, the weather is warmer, and the outdoors is calling your customers to ditch their binge-fests and enjoy some quality time outside.

Leverage this trend!

During the summer months, images that feature outdoor settings tend to earn higher levels of engagement. Your image strategy doesn’t have to be all awe-inspiring mountainscapes and beautiful beaches, even good ol’ fashioned backyards shots can help scratch your audiences’ outdoor itch.

C) Gotta Be Mobile

Spending more time outdoors also impacts how your audiences are going to engage with your social media profile. Spoiler, it’s going to be through their mobile phones.

As such, make sure every piece of content you publish is optimized for a mobile device. This doesn’t just mean posts that are published directly to a social platform. It also means any content that you are linking to ON your social media profile.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #3:
Get Your Customers In On The Action

We’re talking user-generated content (UGC). Recently, we published a (dare we say) great post on how to execute a summer-themed user-generated content campaign. We’ve pulled out some highlights from that post below, but be sure to check out the post to get the full skinny.

Understand the power of user-generated content (UGC social posts see a 28% higher engagement rate when compared to a standard brand post).

1) Define your UGC campaign goals.

2) Craft the perfect summer-themed UGC request. Some ideas are:

a) Vacation highlights (or horror stories)
b) Summer selfies
c) Pool time

3) Double-check that the theme of the UGC effort is aligned with your brand.

4) Award and incentivize participation. Make it worth it.

A well-executed UGC campaign can have your brand rolling in content all summer long.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #4:
Think Local

Summertime is party time! Pick up any local events calendar from any city across the states and you’re sure to find a smorgasbord of local events. Whether it’s movies in the park, farmer’s markets, city-wide celebrations, or standard holidays, chances are that there are dozens of local events that you can spotlight on your social media profile.

At a base level, your brand should plan on attending at least a couple of events over the summer. Note, this doesn’t mean that you have to sponsor the event (though you certainly can if you want too). While you’re enjoying the event, snap a picture for your social media profile and tag the appropriate accounts.

Pro Tip: Leverage your fan advocacy program to drive awareness AND attendance of the event. Award your biggest fans tickets (or VIP treatment) to the event when they share content around the event. If you need some help thinking through your advocacy marketing efforts, we can help. Let’s have a conversation and get started today.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #5:
Hold an Event

What’s better than attending an event? Holding your own event!

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to feel the pressure to put on your own three-day music festival (though we won’t stop you!). You can hold afternoon socials, happy hours, or even interest meetups. Whether 5 people attend or 5,000, these events can make for excellent social media fodder.

And while, yes, summer is a time for outdoor revelry, virtual events are also a fine opportunity to engage with your audience, build camaraderie, and produce fun creative.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #6:
Have Fun With a Contest or Giveaway

Seriously, have fun. Summer is meant to be enjoyed and your social media profile should echo that sentiment. Post upbeat content. Publish uplifting stories. Share some fun memes. In short, have fun with your audiences.

One easy way to have some fun with your audience is to play some games. Encourage your audiences to leave their responses as comments in the post thread and foster some enjoyable conversations.

Some of our favorite social media contests include:

• Captioning an image or video
• Posting a fun word puzzle (scramble or anagram)
• Asking your customers to fill-in-the-blank
• Have your audience guess the context around an image

Remember, not every game needs a prize. Sometimes the act of playing can be reward enough for your audiences.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #7:

Engage With Your Users

One of the best ways to keep your audience engaged is to interact with your fans on social media. Just because they’re on vacation doesn’t mean you can slack off. Like and comment on their posts, and share their UGC on your own page.

Summer is also an excellent opportunity to engage with influencers and collaborators to cross-promote each other’s channels. Reach out to channels and brands that align (without competing) with your target audience.

For example, let’s say you are a health & wellness supplement company. You may consider partnering with a yoga influencer or fitness apparel brand to cross-promote each other’s products, as you share a similar target customer profile.

Summertime Social Media Best Practice #8:

Leverage All The Tools At Your Disposal

There’s a seasonality to hashtags. Same with Reels, TikToks, and Stories. Summer means new songs, conversations to nurture, and opportunities to increase your social media visibility.

For hashtags, you want to choose ones that relate to your audience. You also want to ensure that the content you’re sharing aligns with the expectations of your audience. Use research and discovery tools to find trending hashtags, then build your content around those specific tags.

For Reels (and Stories), choose fun, upbeat summer music that is also trending. Once a song starts trending, posts that use that audio as background are more likely to get a boost in visibility. Use this tactic to unlock new audiences and grow your followers.

Summer is Coming – Soon!

If you haven’t started already, now’s the time to ensure your social media profile is summer-ready. Don’t think you have to abandon your evergreen social media efforts; instead, look for opportunities to augment your publishing strategy with some seasonally-appropriate content.