Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie

Give Your Social Media Content a Holiday Twist

• Shannon McKinstrie • Episode 86

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Ready or not, the holiday season is here! Let’s dive into holiday content ideas that will spark your creativity, no matter what your niche may be. From trending buzzwords to repurposing your best-performing posts with a seasonal twist, I’ll walk you through tons of actionable hooks, scenarios, and brand-specific concepts to help your content stand out this time of year. Whether you’re in real estate, food, home interiors, writing, or even a lawyer or pediatrician, I’ve got strategies that you can use too. This season can feel chaotic and stressful, but I want it to be fun! 

In this episode we’ll be covering:

  • How to train your Instagram algorithm for holiday sales and trending topics discovery.
  • Three strategies for viral holiday reels: scenarios, buzzwords, and relatable identifiers.
  • Ideas and examples for home decor, food, real estate, and authors to maximize holiday engagement.
  • Tips for updating previous posts with a seasonal twist for winter, Christmas, Hanukkah and beyond..
  • Local marketing suggestions: spotlighting holiday events, markets, and must-visit spots in your city.

Featured content in this episode:

Recommended episodes:

  • Episode 057: Repurpose Your Content for More Impact with Less Effort
  • Episode 067: The Importance of Belonging on Social Media

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Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. Happy November. How is it November? Someone please tell me because I can't figure it out. So I asked on Instagram Stories the other day, I was like, what do you guys want for the podcast next week? And it was a holiday content won by a landslide. So let's get into it because I literally just finished watching the Today show.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:41]:
I'm recording this on November 3rd and almost the entire episode is about Christmas and the holidays. They just talked about how the big stores like Target, et cetera, are already doing holiday sales pre Black Friday. So if you have not started thinking about holiday content, sales you want to have, things like that, lock in. I'm going to give you so many ideas for you to take and run with. No matter what you sell, whatever you do, whatever your brand is, I'm going to cover ideas for realtors, entertaining, hosting space, home interiors, our authors, our writers, and more. I got you. Okay, so let's get into it. Because if you wait another week, you're so severely behind.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:19]:
And I hate to say it, but. And I am too. I haven't started either. Don't worry, I'm gonna take my own advice today as well. So let's get into it. I went in and trained my algorithm really quickly and if you don't know, you can do that. I always joke if I like if I'm visiting. Like recently I was visiting Austin, right? I searched Austin Eats and just started going through the hashtags and looking at places immediately.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:39]:
Like half of my Explore page was about Austin, Houston, et cetera. So it's interest based primarily, right? And Instagram is not hidden that they they're going more interest based. Cause that's what TikTok is and that's why people can't put TikTok down. So Instagram knows again, what are people interested in right now? Holiday, you know, where to get sales, what to buy, what are the gift guides? What are the girlies loving right now? Right? What are people buying for their husbands? What are we decorating with off Amazon? What festivals are we going to in our area? Okay, that is literally everywhere. And like I said, the Today show did a whole thing today. They did a segment on what, you know, gifts to get and then they did a whole segment on what sales are already happening. Already happening. November third.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:18]:
Okay, all right, let's just get into it because I want to hook you up big time. I don't want you to stress because this is a stressful season. I want you to enjoy the holiday season. Okay? So you guys know I say a lot about, like, situations, scenarios, etc, meaning when you add that to your hook or you add that to your content, where it's not just like, here's a wine to drink, it's like if you're hosting a blank, you should have this wine, right? So even jewelry, right? It's like, okay, you can't just, you know, you don't want to just say, oh, here's some cute gold hoops, right? You want to say the earrings every gold hoop girly needs for Christmas. What situations do people have coming up in the world? They're going to have Christmas, they're going to have company parties they need to go to. So if you sell jewelry, if you sell clothes, talk about that. Don't just say Christmas party outfit, what type of Christmas party. Or you could even do several.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:05]:
You could do for a company party, for a festive party, for a cocktail party, right? So you want to build in those scenarios and situations. And I saved a bunch of reels that do just that, number one. And the second thing that they do really well with these viral reels is things that are trending right now. Little women, Christmas, Ralph Lauren Christmas, things like that, right? So with that said, those identifiers that I've been talking about a lot, something in that hook has to resonate with them. Either a situation they find themselves in or a scenario, an event they have coming up, something that they have coming up that's on their mind, a location that they frequent. I get a lot of content about Raleigh, right? So if we want to create content that is going to end up in people's feeds because they're interested in it, we need to make sure it speaks to them. So. And I'm going to go through, like, different niches so that you can see how easy it is.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:50]:
Let's start with our home decor, our lifestyle brands. Okay, this just popped up on my algorithm. It says a Nancy Myers meets Ralph Lauren kind of Christmas. So if you do anything in that, in the home space, in the entertaining space, the hosting space, the event space, lifestyle branding, these are buzzwords to have in your hooks for all your holiday content. Nancy Myers, Ralph Lauren, right? These are trending right now. And I'm going to give you a bunch of examples. This creator says a Nancy Myers meets Ralph Lauren Kind of Christmas. And then she's literally using just Pinterest photos.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:21]:
And she did a little slideshow. Here's another one I heard. And that's one of my favorite hooks. I heard, I heard you're going for a Ralph Lauren Christmas. I bet you haven't seen these. And again, this is from an interior designer. So if you're in the interior space, the hosting space, like I said, and I'm gonna go through more niches, so stick with me. Another for my home interior people, it looks designer in quotes and then it says how to decorate your stale railing like a pro.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:45]:
So first, before we get more into it, I want to stress this. You have probably created so much content over the years. Whatever you sell or do with some sort of educational thing, right? All you have to do is look at what those successful posts have been and put a holiday twist on it. Or if you don't want to do holiday winter. And I'll get there in a second. But there's a couple ideas for you. Another one. How do you hang your window wreath? So it poses as a question.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:07]:
That's a great way to do a reel is you pose it like a question with quotation marks. So it's psychology, right? It's like you right away know that people have asked her that question, but you're also asking that question and then she goes on to show that. So if you're in the home, entertaining, et cetera, there's some ideas for you centered around questions people ask you and then do a how to or just give the feeling of that Ralph Lauren talk about how to execute it is another great way to do it. And lastly, for the home designers, or again, this is great for lifestyle brands, bloggers, above the sink, garland hack. So again, what kind of hacks can you share or that you've shared with your audience that they love? How do you put a Christmas winter spin on it? And I love this carousel for my home interior. Or again bloggers, a Ralph Lauren inspired Christmas on Amazon. So not only does that make people who want to take part in this trend of like nostalgic Christmas, classic Christmas, it mentions a brand of a place that they shop at, so it feels doable. So like I say, those identifiers are so crucial for your hooks, adding in words that they attach themselves to see themselves in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:06]:
And then of course, brands that they shop at. Next niche we're going to cover is my food niche. This one says, and this is such a brilliant way to do it. This is what I mean. This reel is A perfect example of taking something you've probably already shared but putting a holiday twist on it. It says, how do you get your dried citrus looking so perfect? Now, she might make dried citrus throughout the year. This is not necessarily a Christmas thing for her. But what she did was she added some Christmas lights on the counter and some greenery.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:33]:
So it automatically signals to our brain that we need to do this right. So think about that. If you sell clothes, if you sell food, if you sell candles, whatever it is, what piece of content has done well for you? And how can we put a Christmas twist on it, even if it's just adding a few visuals that make it look Christmassy? And that's what she did. And then for my food people, we also have to talk beverages, right? So we've got this one that says Holiday Lemon drop, and it just shows how to make it viral. Why does it go viral? Because people send it to their friends, they save it. They're like, we should make these this Christmas. Another example Christmas Shirley Temple. Now, even if you're not a food blogger, you own a restaurant, you own a coffee shop, something like that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:10]:
This is a great way to do it. Showcase your winter drinks, Showcase your holiday drinks and show how you do it. And lastly, for my food peeps, I love this one. It says Christmas breakfast ideas. Not only that, but above it, it says, send this to someone you want to do Xmas breakfast with. So immediately they're encouraging shares and then they just show. So again, maybe you have pictures from all the food you made last Christmas. Use those and make a reel out of it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:34]:
All of these are in the show notes, so be sure to take a look. Now, for my realtors. Okay? And this isn't just for real estate. This is for anyone who has a local account. Maybe you're a local mom blogger, you have a clothing boutique, you have a restaurant. Highlight things going on in your area, because these are highly shareable. So for your content idea, it would be something to highlight about things going on in your area. So this one says Northern Virginia holiday markets.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:55]:
Almost 8,000 likes, 11,000 shares. Y' all insane. Northern Virginia holiday markets. And it's simple. They made it in Canva. So if maybe you run the social media for. We have a thing in here in Cary called Fenton. It's like an outdoor, like, town center.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:13]:
They could do that. They could give all the sales, they could give all the events that they're hosting and just have a little carousel. If you're a real estate agent, highlight your neighborhood or the area all the places that you want to take your kids. Another fun way that you guys could do this is, say, places to take your out of town guests this Christmas in blank. We love this stuff. Highly shareable and highly savable and really good for visibility. Okay, next up, we've got our authors, our writers, our bookstagram, our booktok. This one says books that make you feel like you're in a Hallmark movie.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:43]:
This is what I mean by brilliant words. Have you noticed that every single one of these hooks I'm sharing with you has some sort of identifier? Hallmark movies is an identifier. So if this some. Is this someone that crawls up on the couch and watches Hallmark movies every Christmas, they're going to stop because they're going to be like, oh, I'd love to do the book version of that. So maybe like, turn the TV off and read a book again. Another way you can do this for books is what's the book that you're cozying up with next to the fire? What is the book you would gift the picky reader in your life? You want to add those little words and you don't just say books to gift your friends this Christmas. What kind of friend? Right? So there you go. There's some ideas for you guys.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:20]:
And I also want to cover just general fun content ideas, especially for the bloggers. This says it's a carousel. That says the ultimate Christmas movie calendar for the holiday season. And this other one says soon life will feel like an early 2000s holiday rom com. And it just shows a bunch of clips of how with that cozy, nostalgic feeling. So how do you take that idea? Let's say you're a boutique. Let's say you're a coffee shop, right? If you're some sort of brick and mortar, this is perfect for you. Soon your Saturday morning coffee dates will feel like you're stepping into a Hallmark movie.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:51]:
There you go. You take those feelings and you show your cute. How you guys have decorated your cute coffee shop, the boutique, put them into the store. So the boutique, you could say this is your sign to grab your girls and shop for the blank in your life at blank. Make the name of your boutique in downtown Dallas, whatever that is, and just show cute little clips. And then leading to boutique for my fashion peeps. This one went completely viral for this creator and it's her just standing in a cute fleece with coffee and it says, pov, you found the perfect Christmas fleece. And then she adds a few little emojis that are Christmas related.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:25]:
That's it. 11,000 likes. I'm sure this was monetized quickly. She obviously is selling the fleece through a link. So again, you don't have to overthink any of this stuff. The fact that she said, pov, you found the perfect Christmas fleece, the fact she added a few emojis and she's standing it, that was it for that was all she needed. Now, another one. This is for my mindset people, my therapist, et cetera.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:47]:
It says how we're surviving darker days and winter blues. So again, if you don't want to do holiday stress, what is it? It's not just how to survive winter, it's how to survive the winter blues. So if people get. Is that seasonal depression, Talk about that. So we covered mindset, we covered food, we covered real estate, we covered brick and mortar and books. A few other. This is what I want to give you in general, because I think any niche could do this and make it really, really fun, which is just do a gift guide. These go crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:15]:
I mean, they literally go bananas. So what would I do a gift guide for? And I will be doing one is I would do a gift guide for content Creator gifts under $20 on Amazon. Something like that. You want to add one or two more things. A brand, a price point, something like that. So here we go. Here's some great examples of how to utilize this trend. This creator says, and she's done a bunch of these niche gifts for the coolest girl you know.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:38]:
She's also done niche gifts for your husbands. You know, you could say, you could do whatever. So let's say you're a sommelier. Niche wines from Trader Joe's for the cheap wine connoisseur in your life. Something like that. Have fun with this, y'. All. Another great gift guide.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:53]:
I'm absolutely obsessed with this. And she has made this a series. Hers says it's Picky Girl Christmas. She's giving gift ideas for the girls in people's lives that are picky. Absolutely brilliant. And here's. Lastly, here's another one. Gifts people actually want that are less than $25.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:09]:
I mean, how brilliant is that? So, again, how can you utilize this? Let's say you're. You are an interior Designer. Gifts under 25 from Pottery Barn. So again, for me, for people in marketing, you could do. You could also do. Which would be fun, what to buy the shy content creator in your life for Christmas. And I could go through some Amazon finds or something that, you know, help shyer creators create and lastly, for my makers, my artists, I love this one. It says your next girl's night craft.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:38]:
Now again, great example of this creator has probably done this before and it had nothing to do with Christmas, but I'll but she added in a Christmas tree and you know, stuff like that to give that visual effect that it is current and relatable and relevant right now because it's that time of year. That's your homework this week. Grab a piece of content that's done well in the past and put a Christmas winter holiday twist on it. Or use one of these ideas and put your own spin on it. Remember, we do not copy content, we do not steal content. But you can take whichever one of these that you really, really liked and say, literally, guys, throw the exact hook into ChatGPT. Say, I really like this idea, but it's not in my niche. So if you're listening, you're like, Shannon, you didn't cover my niche.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:18]:
I got you. You take one that you like and say, how can I do this as a plumber? How can I recreate this in my own niche as a lawyer? And that's what you do. And then lastly, I want to end on this for those buzzwords. Ready? I want you to just grab one of these buzzwords and make sure it's in your hook. Okay? Winter blues. So if you're doing something around mindset, add in the terms winter blues or seasonal depression, because that's what's going to grab us. So choose one, one of those where it's like Ralph Lauren Christmas, Little Women Christmas. And there's so many ways.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:49]:
Even if you don't do home interiors, you can say how to have a Little women Christmas in D.C. and talk about maybe some cozy, cute little events in D.C. right? You just, you just find fun ways to take these words and trends and flip them into your niche. Holiday rom com, Hallmark movies, any of those types of buzzwords. Right? Nostalgic Christmas. That's a big one this year. Nostalgic Christmas. The other word that's buzzing all over social media is whimsical.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:14:14]:
So whimsical and nostalgic Christmas. That could be a fun way to do it. So choose. So with your hook, we're going to choose one of these three, right? You're going to go with that of one of the trend buzzy type things. If that doesn't work, you're going to go with a scenario. Christmas morning breakfast, hosting guests, hosting out of town guests. So something like that. A situation they're going to find themselves in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:14:33]:
And then lastly the third one, if one of those doesn't work, or you can do all of these, you want to add at least a brand or location that they can attach to the city that you're discussing. Dallas, Boise, Denver, Albuquerque, whatever it is. That's gonna be a keyword that's gonna help push it out to more people in that area. Or you can use a brand like Target, Amazon, Pottery Barn, Barnes and Noble. I know I've talked about the Rep Hook formula. So this is more of a. It's kind of like that, but it's. You wanna have at least one of those things, one of those identifiers, a buzzword that's popular and trendy right now, a situation scenario they find themselves in, or a word they can attach to, and you'll be good to go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:14]:
So use those ideas. Do not be afraid to go a little bit outside of the bubble of doing a gift guide, even if you are a lawyer or a doctor, a pediatrician. Again, if you're a pediatrician, talk about what you would put in a kid's stocking that won't rot their teeth. Or if you're a pediatric dentist, things like that. I hope this got the creativity going because you are creative. This is a fun process and I want it to be fun. In the words of the great Mariah Carey, it's time. I love you guys.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:37]:
I. I know this was a lot. Take one of these ideas. Just one. Don't overwhelm yourself. Look at your old content. Take one of these ideas, throw it into chat GPT, come up with a fun idea. And then the second homework assignment, like I said, is to go look at a piece of content that did well and just put a Christmas, winter Hanukkah twist on it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:54]:
Love you, friend. Talk to you next week.

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Shannon McKinstrie

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