5 Easy Social Media Marketing "Tricks" for Halloween

Halloween may not be the most popular holiday around, but it does cross a lot of religious, cultural and even age demographics. From school-age kids to seniors, many celebrate this holiday in some capacity. As a social media marketer, using Halloween-specific themes is a great way to tap into that trick-or-treat spirit.Implementing Halloween tips when using Facebook for business is a wise move, but don't neglect other social networks like Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram. Below are five holiday-specific tips and tricks you can use to increase the engagement of your campaign.

5 Quick and Effective Halloween Social Media Marketing Tips

1. A Cute Costume Contest

This is a tip that can be used on an array of platforms. You can create a costume contest on Facebook, where you accept pictures of Halloween outfits and subsequently set up a system to judge the entrants for the winner. Though you can market this using Twitter, Instagram, and other networks as well. People love to dress up for the occasion, and offering a prize for the best costume will entice more people to join.

2. Terrifying Tweets

Attract more people to your brand, either in general or to a specific piece of content, by using Halloween-themed tweets. Perhaps you could use Twitter to hold a hashtag contest. You can play into the holiday niche by sharing people's content while also supplying fresh content and driving more traffic to your intended destination.

3. Spooky Statuses

Status updates on Facebook can be used during the Halloween season to really draw a higher level of attention when your message hits someone's News Feed. A succinct, interesting message that alerts people of a contest or event, uses a popular hashtag, etc, will entice users to engage with it via comments, Likes and shares. Subsequently, the more engaging your material is, the further its reach extends.

4. Be a Halloween Host

Creating specific ads (for events, deals, etc.) for the season is a great way to reach a very large number of people, especially considering that you have full control over the content and can custom-tailor your audience. Remember that an “ad” can contain practically anything you want it to, such as a high-quality, custom image and/or message alerting people of an event you're hosting. Whether live or social, you can set up an event and use proven ad-targeting methods to ensure the word gets out on platforms like Facebook (and thus your brand gets more exposure).

5. Crowdsource

If Jim and John are friends, a recommendation to John from Jim is more likely to draw John's attention than a recommendation from you. This is why it's important to crowdsource in order to draw attention to your contests, events, or to your brand in general this Halloween. Ask the crowd for help; tell them to share the content with their friends. Make it a game of sorts, like the equivalent of a Halloween chain letter (without the spam) and tell people to share it with five friends unless they want a visit from the Wolfman! Crowdsourcing can help your campaign go viral in a hurry. The best part: You can use every site at your disposal, from Pinterest to YouTube, to spread the word around and to get the crowd involved.Although the specifics of these tips are geared toward Halloween, the principles remain true for advertising in general. Marketing with Facebook and with social media in general is all about the engagement. Don't neglect to be just as engaging throughout the rest of the year and other holidays!This is a guest blog article written by: Craig Robinson, an online writer for Qwaya - a Facebook ad campaign tool. He loves to write different topics about social media tips and strategies. Besides writing, he also enjoys engaging with different communities and social forums.