Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday May 14th. First off, get your Mom something nice. Second, if you haven't got your Mother's Day marketing strategy locked in, Twitter's provided a few ideas to get you thinking and help boost response to your campaign.
Here are Twitter's key Mother's Day ideas.
1. 'Partner with influencers'
Influencer marketing is on the rise, helping brands facilitate the spread of their marketing messages through social networks by using the voices people already know and trust.
The growth of influencer marketing makes sense - social networks connect us to more people than ever before, whereas once you were limited by proximity and immediate access, social networks broaden your capacity to stay in touch with more people, which better enables you to seek alternate opinions on products and services. If a person you care about happens to post something positive about a brand, that's more likely to resonate - and now that there's more chance that more people will see such messaging, the impact of this influence is amplified significantly.
Twitter says that working with influencers is an "impactful way to reach new audiences" and create original, resonant content.
Highlighting this, Twitter shows how Michael Kors recently worked with fashion blogger @RosieLondoner to help spread the message of their #WhatSheWants campaign.
Join me on https://t.co/ZTYQ25QSgN for a toast to mothers everywhere with @MichaelKors #WhatSheWants #sponsored pic.twitter.com/pQsNg3Mygc
- Rosie (@RosieLondoner) March 18, 2017
2. 'Encourage users to share stories about their Mom'
People come to social platforms - and Twitter in particular - to share their thoughts, to participate in the wider conversation. As such, it makes sense to work with this and provide opportunities for your audience to contribute, as opposed to purely broadcasting your own message.
This is even more important in the age of social algorithms - as you've not doubt noticed, the algorithms on all platforms work to highlight the content that's generating the most interest and attention, an aspect which is largely measured by engagement on each post. If you can generate more comments on your Facebook posts, your reach increases with each one - on Twitter, if you can inspire more replies, it's more likely to show up in people's 'In case you missed it...' listing when they open the app.
Twitter says brands should consider calling on their audience to share their personal stories for Mother's Day, while running a contest is another way to inspire interaction.
Share what makes your mom 1 of a kind with #ComeAsYouAre & #Contest. Winning entries get #MothersDay surprise.
- Crocs Shoes (@Crocs) April 24, 2017
T&C: https://t.co/5UMmYxCMrD pic.twitter.com/fwppvz0h0O
3. 'Share gift guides'
For most people, coming up with a good, relatively original gift idea for your Mom is tough. You can get her a box of chocolates or her favorite flowers, and they'll be probably be well received, but it feels like a bit of a cop out, doesn't it? Taking the easy way out.
Why not help guide your audience with unique or interesting gift ideas via gift guides?
Our Mother's Day Gift Guide featuring @JoyMangano @adidaseyewear @LeclisseBeauty @everymomcounts https://t.co/0CDmrlMcbI pic.twitter.com/6jPEXCjHKm
- Monica Marino (@MarinoBambinos) April 19, 2017
As explained by Twitter:
"People are on the hunt for the perfect gift for mom. Help ease the shopping stress by providing different gift ideas. If you're featuring other brands on your list be sure to tag them so they can help spread the word."
This type of co-operative marketing is particularly popular on Instagram and can significantly boost brand awareness. The key point is to focus on brands that appeal to the core markets you're trying to reach to maximize your efforts - if you can find related brands that are willing to participate, this is another way to expand the scope of your messaging.
4. 'Share your sense of humor'
This is pretty much a universal consideration - if you can find a humorous angle, you could be on a winner. The trick is that it has to be humorous to the key people you want to reach (not just yourself), and 'on brand', or at least, in line with your wider brand communications strategy.
Twitter also highlighted in their Valentine's Day tips, with a great example that seems even more relevant right now.
You don't need a lot of words to express how you're feeling this #ValentinesDay: https://t.co/D7LdUI2bps pic.twitter.com/rtrVDiVa3O
- Disney D23 (@DisneyD23) February 9, 2017
The same rules apply for Mother's Day - if you can find a relevant angle, humor will always be effective.
mother's day dinner at daishō, the perfect setting to tell mom she is right about everything https://t.co/128ldJNonm pic.twitter.com/G4sIbxPHWN
- momofuku (@momofuku) April 30, 2016
5. 'Put your product in the spotlight with GIFs'
According to data from Twitter, tweets with images generate 3X more engagement than basic text updates, while tweets with GIFs generate 6X more engagement than basic text alone (also, tweets with video generate 9X more engagement than text, but we'll stick with GIFs for now).
As such, it's worth considering whether you might be able to use GIFs in your tweets to help your messages stand out.
It's less than a month until #MothersDay, but Mom's needed a new bag for quite a while. Take a look at our picks: https://t.co/4OVDqlKONW pic.twitter.com/RjumVrOfvy
- Shinola (@Shinola) April 24, 2017
We've experimented with GIFs at Social Media Today and can attest that they often do generate more engagement. Creating GIFs is also relatively easy, with a range of tools and options available to help.
You don't need to use GIFs with every tweet, and re-using the most popular, trending GIFs comes with the same considerations as 'newsjacking' (you need to understand the wider context and you need to be careful not to force it and seem like you're trying too hard to tap into the tweet stream), but the data doesn't lie. GIFs, and video, can be powerful compliments to your tweet marketing. Worth considering in your process.
There are some good suggestions and tips here. Likely, you already have a plan in place for your Mother's Day campaign, but if you don't, it's worth taking note of these tips and maybe putting a quick promotional push in place.