Year-End Thank-You Posts That Mean Something

The week of identical posts

In the last days of December, business pages fill with the same post: a red or green graphic, a snowflake or two, and the words Season's Greetings from all of us.

Each one is kindly meant. Each one could have come from any business in any town, and readers scroll past at the speed that deserves.

Meanwhile the business has had a whole year of things worth thanking people for, and the post mentions none of them.

Why the generic version disappears

A feed is a stream of posts competing for a second's attention. A post earns that second by being about something, and a greeting with nothing in it gives the eye no reason to stop.

Facebook has shown pages' posts to fewer of their followers since its News Feed change in January last year, which favours posts people react to and talk about. A greeting nobody answers reaches fewer people again.

Words set inside a designed graphic have a further problem. Screen readers cannot read them unless somebody adds a description, and most people never do.

What a thank-you can name

• A project you finished and are proud of, with a photograph.
• Customers, by name, but only those who have said yes.
• Staff, with what each person actually did this year.
• Suppliers and neighbours who helped, tagged so they see it.
• A number you actually counted, such as jobs finished or trees planted.
• What is coming, stated plainly, with a date if there is one.

The second needs the most care. A customer named in public without being asked may be pleased, or may be quietly unhappy about it, and you will rarely find out which.

Asking first

Naming a customer publicly uses their personal information, and Canadian privacy law starts from consent. Ask by message or email, show the exact wording and the photograph, and keep the reply.

Some businesses should not name clients at all. Clinics, lawyers, accountants and counsellors are better thanking clients as a group and naming their own staff and partners instead.

Children in photographs need a parent's agreement. Tagging a person links your post to their own profile, which deserves its own yes.

Staff, by name and by deed

A list of first names is better than all of us.

A line about what each person did is better again: the apprentice who qualified, the person who ran the second location all summer, the bookkeeper starting a twentieth year.

Ask each person first. Some are happy to be tagged and photographed; others would rather not appear online at all, and their wish settles it.

A worked example

An independent cheese shop on a neighbourhood high street posted the same red Season's Greetings graphic every December for years.

This year the owner wrote four short lines instead. The first thanked the two Vancouver Island dairies the shop began stocking in spring, named and tagged with their agreement.

The second thanked the assistant who took over the Saturday tastings in the summer, by name and with her permission.

The third thanked everyone who ordered a holiday platter and queued out the door last weekend, with no names at all.

The last said the shop closes for three days after Christmas, and that the beginners' tasting evenings return in February.

One photograph went with it: the staff behind the counter on the busiest morning of the year. Both dairies shared the post with their own followers.

What is coming

The last line of a good thank-you looks forward, and it should be specific.

New hours, a new service, a second location, a price change on January 1, the date spring bookings open: each is useful to the people reading, and each gives them a reason to come back.

Only state what is settled. A vague promise of big things next year reads as filler, and a specific one becomes a commitment.

Write it as a person

The thank-you posts that get read sound like the owner talking, not like a card: plain sentences, first names, and a real name signed at the end.

Keep it to a few lines and one photograph. The photograph carries the warmth; the words carry the specifics.

A number belongs only if you counted it from your own records, such as jobs finished or orders delivered. A round figure that is really a guess reads like one.

If you use a designed graphic, put its words in the post text as well, and describe the image. Instagram lets you add a description under its advanced settings when posting.

Leave the sales pitch out. A thank-you that ends with a discount code turns into an advertisement, and readers notice the moment it does.

Where and when to post

Facebook and Instagram suit most businesses that sell to the public. A business that sells to other businesses will usually reach more of the right people on LinkedIn.

The week after Christmas is slow for most businesses and crowded in the feed.

The first working week of January is a good alternative, when the snowflakes have gone and a thank-you stands out more.

Where the platform allows, pin it above your other posts, and put a date in the calendar to unpin it. A Christmas thank-you still pinned in March says something else entirely.

Reply to the comments that follow, by name, for the next few days. A thank-you that ignores its own replies undoes itself.

The counter-case

Some businesses, and some years, do not suit a public thank-you.

A business whose clients expect discretion can still thank people as a group and name its own staff. A quiet year can be described honestly, through the small things that did happen.

And a simple greeting does no harm. It just does very little, at the point in the year when people are most open to a warmer message.

Name what happened, ask before naming anyone, and say what comes next.

Before you post

1. List three things that happened this year.
2. Choose one photograph of real people or work.
3. Ask customers before naming them.
4. Ask staff before tagging them.
5. Tag suppliers who agreed to it.
6. Say what is coming, with a date.
7. Unpin it in January.

Step one is where most thank-you posts are decided. A business that cannot name three things that happened this year ends up writing about snowflakes instead.

Where this post fits among the rest of the season's plans is covered in a social media calendar for the last quarter.

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.