A Christmas Eve Post That Is Not an Ad

The feed this morning

Scroll any feed this morning and the business posts come in two kinds: last-minute offers, and graphics of snowflakes saying happy holidays from all of us.

The first asks for something on a day few people want to be asked. The second could have come from any business in the country.

There is a third kind, and it is rarer: a photograph of the actual people, a few sentences of thanks that sound like them, and the hours for the week ahead.

It takes ten minutes, and it could only have come from your business.

What the post needs

• A real photograph of the people, taken this month if possible.
• Thanks for something specific about the year.
• The holiday hours, by date, through the first week of January.
• Names, where staff are happy to be named.
• Nothing to buy, click or share.

The third is the useful part, and it lets a post with no offer still do a job. Customers wondering whether you are open on the 27th find the answer where they already look.

Why no offer

A sale posted on Christmas Eve reaches people at the end of their shopping, when most are finished, tired, or busy with family.

Since January's News Feed change, Facebook gives business posts less room in general, and posts that start conversations between people fare better than posts that sell.

A photograph of the team with a few warm lines is the kind of post people answer: a regular saying thank you back, a former employee waving from another town.

Mostly, though, it is simply the decent thing on the day before Christmas. The offer can wait until it is welcome.

Warm without assuming

Not every customer celebrates Christmas, and not every member of staff does either. A post written for everybody reads well to everybody.

Thanks for the year, good wishes for the break and the hours work for anyone. Season's greetings, happy holidays or a plain thank you carry the warmth without assuming what anyone celebrates.

A business page speaks for everyone who works there, so keep it to wishes they would all sign.

For some customers this is a difficult week, which is one more reason to keep the tone warm and quiet rather than loud.

The photograph

Use a photograph of the people who do the work, taken where they do it: the crew by the van, the kitchen after the last service, the counter staff in front of the shelves.

A phone is fine. Good light, everybody in focus and nobody squinting matter more than the camera; step outside or stand by a window.

Ask everyone before posting, and let anybody who would rather not be in it step out without fuss. Hands at work, or the shop with its lights on, makes a fine alternative.

Instagram's advanced settings now take a written description of the photograph for people using screen readers. Elsewhere, a sentence in the post saying who is in it does the same job.

The words

Three to five sentences: thanks for something real, a line about the people, the hours, and a good wish.

Specific thanks beat general ones. Thank you for a year of muddy boots on the shop floor says more than thank you to all our valued customers.

Write it in the voice the business uses at the counter, signed by the owner or the team. A sentence from the person who answers the phone sounds like the business; a paragraph from a template does not.

A worked example

A skating school runs learn-to-skate classes for children and adults at two community rinks, with five coaches and an owner who still teaches the Saturday beginners.

For years its Christmas Eve post was a graphic of a skate in the snow, announcing gift certificates for the spring session.

Last year the final class before the break ended with the coaches lined up on the ice for a photograph, still in their jackets, taken by a parent in the stands.

The post thanked the families who drove to six o'clock lessons all autumn, gave the date classes resumed and the rinks' public skating times over the holidays, and named each coach from left to right.

There was no link and nothing about registration. Parents answered in the comments with their children's names and the skills they had learned.

This year's photograph was taken on Saturday. Registration for the spring session will be announced in January, in a post of its own.

Hours, in full

The hours are the practical heart of the post, so give them in full, by date, from today to the first normal day.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the days between and New Year's Day each need a line: open, closed, or open with different hours.

Then check they match the website and your Google listing. A post saying open on the 27th beside a listing saying closed sends people to whichever they saw first.

Pin the post to the top of the Facebook page until you reopen, and set a reminder to unpin it.

Then leave it alone

Post it once, today, and resist following it with a sale tomorrow. A thank-you followed by a Boxing Day offer twelve hours later reads like a warm-up act.

Read the replies once or twice over the break and answer them briefly. Nobody expects an instant reply on Christmas Day, and a short thank you back is enough.

If somebody asks about an order or an appointment, answer in a private message, which keeps the post what it was meant to be.

The counter-case

A business that posts rarely can skip it without losing anything. A Christmas Eve post is a habit, not an obligation.

A shop with a long tradition of a Boxing Day sale can announce it, but in its own post, on its own day.

And a business with no photographs of its people, because the work happens alone or in customers' homes, can post the thanks and the hours with a photograph of the workshop instead.

For everyone else: one post, real people, specific thanks, the hours, and nothing to buy.

This morning

1. Choose one real photograph of the people.
2. Ask everyone in it before posting.
3. Write thanks for one specific thing this year.
4. List the hours by date until January.
5. Describe the photograph for screen readers.
6. Pin the post on the Facebook page.
7. Answer replies briefly over the break.

Step four is the part customers will actually use this week. Thanks are welcome on the day; the hours are what people come back to look up.

Writing that description well is covered in Instagram now lets you describe your photos.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.