Christmas brings with it plenty of opportunity to have a bit of fun on your social channels, with the obligatory Christmas jumper day post and votes for your favourite festive treat, but our colleagues at SoCrowd have noticed a much more interesting trend emerge over the past couple of years.
From charitable donations to raising awareness of the most vulnerable, our customers are communicating with their communities about how we can bring a bit more festive cheer to the vulnerable and those in need this Christmas.
We’ve collated a list of our favourite social media campaigns that will be enhancing people’s lives and corporate reputations over the Christmas period:
1) Donating to charity
For most of us, Christmas is all about spending time with family and friends but for many less fortunate it is a difficult time. So we were pleased to see Caledonian Sleeper donating the December proceeds from their signature restaurant dish to Rail Aid 2021 – a charity helping children that find themselves living on the streets.
The healthy drinks giant Innocent is renowned for placing CSR at the heart of their business with “helping our fellow humans” a key part of that ethos. Their Big Knit campaign, running since 2003, has raised over £2.5 million for Age UK by donating 25p for every bottle topped with a knitted hat sold. And this year the drinks manufacturer is going to be granting Christmas wishes for its followers. We can’t wait to see what wishes they will be granting.
Meanwhile, the University of Greenwich is calling for donations to its Christmas Food and Essentials Parcels campaign which will see their events team distribute parcels to families and individuals in need within their local community. And the University of the West of Scotland, Richmond upon Thames College, and Lothian Buses are all getting involved in the #12DaysOfKindness campaign with different acts of kindness being posted to social during the first 12 days of December.
2) Wellbeing
Over two in five Brits have felt stressed during the festive season (YouGov) so advocating wellbeing at Christmas on your social channels is another great idea.
Virgin Active have gone all out with their #VirginActiveHappyHolidays campaign which is a social advent calendar with wellbeing prizes to be won and festive workout ideas to help boost those endorphins in the run up to Christmas.
Our customer Redrow is also getting into the spirit of Christmas with a festive bake-off and Christmas craft workshop at their Gloucester Glevum Green housing development – what better way to bring the community together and engage in some mindful activities.
3) Raising Awareness of Scams during the Festive Period
Scams affect the lives of millions of people across the UK on a daily basis and cost UK consumers between £5 and £10 billion a year, and unfortunately they don’t stop for Christmas.
Notts Police is raising awareness of the types of frauds to watch out for over the Christmas period by joining Action Fraud’s #12Frauds of Christmas campaign along with Shropshire Council, the Financial Conduct Authority, Dorset Police, and Northamptonshire Police.
Cadent Gas has also joined forces with utility companies across the UK as part of the Utilities Against Scams campaign to raise awareness around scams and highlight the signs to look for, as well as how to report them.
4) Helping the vulnerable
In the run up to Christmas, councils, emergency services, healthcare, and housing associations across the UK are joining the #WinterReady campaign to communicate with their communities about the risks that the winter weather brings and what they are doing to keep us all safe.
Greatwell Homes is promoting the Household Support Fund a national scheme providing financial support to households who may struggle with the cost of living as higher utilities bills and Christmas shopping hits our pockets. And Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council are asking their community to report rough sleepers so that they can get help.
We hope you have a great Christmas and if you are looking for inspiration for social media campaigns in 2022 then look no further than SoCrowd‘s 2022 Hashtag Calendar.
