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We’ve all seen the cute dog videos that flood our Instagram feed on National Dog Day and the artfully shot latte photos for National Coffee Day. These holidays might not be celebrated the world over, but they can be fun way to engage online.
In this post, we’ve outlined a calendar of all of the official (and slightly less official) holidays in 2022 to serve as a blueprint for your content, plus fun social media post ideas to jumpstart your brainstorm.
Let’s dive in ✨
Official Holidays
These are the holidays you might already know about, they often show up on your calendar automatically. A social media post for these holidays could be as simple as wishing your followers a happy [fill in the blank], alerting them to your holiday hours, providing a glimpse into how you’re celebrating with your team, or showing how your product fits into timeless holiday traditions.
For observances, a great way to honor the group of people being recognized is to do your research and highlight relevant individuals or businesses. For example, we had a variety of posts for Black History Month, including a spotlight on Black-owned businesses and a call for followers to share their favorite Black social media marketers.
January
January 1: New Year’s Day
January 17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
February
Black History Month (U.S.)
February 1: Chinese New Year
February 2: Groundhog Day
February 14: Valentine’s Day
February 21: President’s Day
March
Women’s History Month (U.S.)
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
March 18: Holi
March 27: Mothering Sunday (U.K.)
April
April 17: Easter
May
National Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (U.S.)
May 5: Cinco de Mayo
May 8: Mother’s Day (U.S)
May 30: Memorial Day (U.S)
June
Pride Month
June 19: Juneteenth (U.S)
June 19: Father’s Day (U.S. and U.K.)
July
July 4: Independence Day (U.S)
August
September
September 5: Labor Day (U.S)
September 15 – October 14: Hispanic Heritage Month (U.S)
October
October 10: Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day (U.S)
October 31: Halloween
November
American Indian Heritage Month (U.S)
November 11: Veteran’s Day (U.S)
November 24: Thanksgiving (U.S)
December
December 18-26: Hanukkah
December 25: Christmas Day
December 31: New Year’s Eve
Unofficial Holidays
There are a lot of unofficial holidays out there, this list covers some of the big ones that are most applicable to small businesses, but there are plenty more. It’s definitely worth taking a scroll through ALL of the unofficial holidays
January
National Mentoring Month (U.S)
A great way to start out 2022 is to share your experience with mentoring. You could also ask employees to share ways they’ve been mentored and create a slideshow in Canva with their quotes. Or, tag your own mentors to thank them for the impact they’ve had on you and your business.
January 10: National Clean Your Desk Day
Looking at someone’s desk can be pretty fascinating. For National Clean Your Desk Day you could ask a few members of your team to take photos of their desks and share the desk accessories that they can’t live without.
February
February 13: Super Bowl Sunday
This day means pretty different things for different people, so think about what your audience might love most from you, whether that’s sharing some team spirit, delicious snack recipes, or ideas on what to do when you don’t want to be watching the big game.
March
March Madness
While March Madness is a basketball tournament, there are endless ways you could turn this into a fun social media game. Create your own bracket and use the Instagram Stories vote function to have your followers vote on their favorite. Tie it back to your business by pitting products against each other (a great way to get user feedback!).
March 1: World Compliment Day
Do as the day says, and pay a frequent customer or neighboring business a compliment. Or, start a challenge for your followers to compliment a friend, co-worker, or stranger and post it.
March 4: National Employee Appreciation Day
This holiday is the perfect way to showcase your employees: Queue up a slideshow or multiple Instagram Stories sharing why they’re amazing. Not only will your employees appreciate it, but you’ll start (or continue) to build a culture of recognition.
March 8: International Women’s Day
March 20: International Day of Happiness
Spread some happiness today by sharing a funny meme that always brightens your day or creating a hashtag (like #whatmakesmehappy) and featuring things that make you and your team happy. Ask your followers to join in and use the hashtag for some great user-generated content, too.
March 29: National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day
Although the term “mom and pop shop” is less used these days, it’s still a great opportunity to celebrate your small business and others you love. In fact, use the holiday to share the companies you buy from. Create a slideshow and tag your favorites so your followers can buy from them, too.
April
National Volunteer Month (U.S)
Are there any causes that are near and dear to you? If you volunteer, whether as a business or on your own, shine a spotlight on the cause this month. In a video or long-form caption, share why the cause is close to your heart and a bit about your volunteer experience.
April 1: April Fool’s Day and International Fun at Work Day
April Fool’s Day pranks can be fun or fraught, so a safer approach might be celebrating how you have fun at work. Host a company lunch or mini-golf tournament and show your followers what’s happening behind the scenes. Or, ask employees what they’ve found the most fun about working at your company and share snippets—it might even help you hire new people!
April 22: Earth Day
Does your company value suppliers, partners, or products that focus on sustainability? Today’s the day to spread the word.
April 28: Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
Cute kids at work deserve their time in the limelight. You could stage photos of kids working at desks, kids taking or fulfilling orders, or greeting customers. Or, do an Instagram Stories segment asking the kids who come in what they want to be when they grow up.
May
May 21: Cultural Diversity Day
This United Nations holiday is the perfect time to share the cultural background and traditions that are important to you and your business.
June
June 30: Social Media Day
This is a big one in our sphere! For Social Media Day you can showcase some of your favorite things you’ve posted in the last year or a big win that came from social media, or talk about the best posts you saw from your followers.
June 30: Work From Home Day
A lot more folks have experience working from home now, this is a good opportunity to share lesser-known or off-the-wall tips for being productive at home.
July
July 17: World Emoji Day
Fun fact, this date was chosen because the calendar emoji 📅 has a date of July 17th on it. There’s an existing community around World Emoji Day so this is a great day to get involved. You can share the top emoji for your brand/business or ask your community to vote on which emoji best represents you. 🛍
August
August 19: World Photo Day
This is a great day to share your favorite photo or start an Add Yours sticker on Instagram Stories.
August 21: World Entrepreneurs Day
For small business owners, this is a great day to highlight your journey so far and share anything you haven’t had the time to share yet. A few prompts: How did your journey start? What has been the biggest challenge so far? What’s next for you and your business?
September
September 26: Love Note Day
While this could be interpreted in a variety of ways, an easy way to jump on this holiday is to send a note to your customers or community. You can design a quick graphic in Canva, and write a heartfelt thank you to your customers for their support.
October
October 7: World Smile Day
Sometimes, these unofficial holidays just call for a simple photo. You can post a meme of an animal smiling, or showcase team members smiling big!
October 16: Boss’s Day
If you have managers who work at your business this is a great day to recognize them, or to ask a few teammates what they’ve learned from their boss. You could also share some of the best advice you’ve ever received from a previous boss.
November
National Entrepreneurship Month
This month is a great time to really dive into all things business. You could start a weekly “Ask Me Anything” series on all things entrepreneurship and answer any questions that your followers have about how and why you started your company.
November 19: Women’s Entrepreneurship Day
This day is all about recognizing women business owners. You could share wisdom from famous women entrepreneurs in your industry or highlight some of your favorite women-owned brands.
November 25: Black Friday
The biggest shopping day of the year always feels like a big deal, especially if your small business sells a product. If you’re offering a Black Friday promotion, let your followers know about it—you could even do a social media-only discount.
November 26: Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday is solely dedicated to shopping small. If you are a small business you could share top products or host a special giveaway. The main takeaway of today is to show off your small business and the customers that keep you going.
November 28: Cyber Monday
To round out the shopping weekend, you can talk about any e-commerce promotions you’re running, or offer a gift guide that curates a few of your favorite sale items.
November 29: Giving Tuesday
This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight charitable efforts or organizations that you support. We give back at Buffer every year, and love highlighting businesses like Frères Brachiaux, who donate 10 percent of their sales to homeless shelters.
December
December 14: Free Shipping Day
If you sell a product, this is a great day to offer free shipping today. You can post about the flash sale on all of your social media channels and frame it as an early holiday present or a way to get your loved ones their present in time for the holidays.
What Will You Celebrate?
The best way to go about deciding which holiday trends to jump in on is to consider your business and brand. What are your values? What do you sell? What matters most to your customers? Look for holidays and events that align with those aspects of your company and allow you to authentically showcase your business.
Most importantly, don’t feel like you have to post for every one of them. The goal isn’t to get overwhelmed by the options, but inspired by all the creative possibilities.
Ready to plan out your 2022 content calendar? See how Buffer’s scheduling tools can help.
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