As the seasons change, it’s common to notice shifts in your online and social media engagement. Understanding how different months affect online engagement will help avoid a decrease in your monthly social media reports. As you’ll learn in this industry, perfecting your social media strategy takes a bit of trial and error to determine which days and times achieve the highest online engagement for your audience. However, even once you’ve pinpointed the optimal time of day for posting, you may have to adjust as the year goes on.
How Different Months Affect Online Engagement
Certain months are busier than others; therefore, adapting your content and schedule to fit your audience’s activity is important. Seasonal content is a great way to spark creativity, but some seasons offer more than others. Learn which months tend to have higher online engagement and how to boost engagement during the slower months.
Spring Online Engagement
The spring season brings an energy of resurgence after the new year lull. Life is finally starting to settle back down after the winter holidays, and these next few months are a time to create your own excitement before the summer madness hits. Luckily, the spring is an easier time of year to predict when your audience is online. The kids are still in school, and most people are following their usual routines. Your followers will likely have a higher screen time compared to busier months, so be sure to catch their attention.
Regarding seasonal content, springtime is on the lower end of holidays or universal celebrations. Therefore, you have an opportunity to create your own buzz while still incorporating common spring themes. Think pastel colors, rainy days, Spring Break essentials, March Madness, flowers, or fresh fruit. Now is also an opportunity to center your content around getting ahead and gearing up for summer.
Summer Online Engagement
Although the summer months are busy, the nature of summer vacation causes people to detach from media and technology. It’s common to steer away from our usual routines; therefore, previous data of when your followers are most active online may not hold true this time of year. Summer is one of the more difficult seasons to capture your audience’s attention. You’ll need to be intentional about your content in order to avoid the summer slump.
Some tactics to keep your audience engaged over the summer include posting interactive content, summer promotions or sales, or sharing summer ideas or events that would appeal to your target audience. People spend less time on their phones or laptops over the summer, so it’s essential to grab their attention when they are online. Avoid evergreen content as much as possible during the summer.
Fall Online Engagement
Like springtime, the fall months are more routine-oriented than summer and winter. You can more accurately rely on past data and analytics of your audience’s activity levels. When determining if different months affect online engagement, you’ll find fall months tend to boost social media analytics.
In addition, there is plenty of seasonal content to pull from this time of year. These few months are an optimal time to take advantage of all that fall has to offer. Whether it’s back-to-school, football season, fall leaves, pumpkin spice, or the beginning of spooky season, you’re bound to find a way to connect to your followers. The combination of reliable analytics and no shortage of seasonal content is the perfect recipe for high online engagement.
Winter Online Engagement
Online engagement throughout the winter can look very different depending on the month. Creating seasonal content for December and January is easy with the holiday celebrations and New Year’s resolutions. However, February can bring a decline in engagement if you don’t prepare correctly.
As you build your content strategy, put yourself in the minds of your audience. Share tools or guidance in helping your followers continue to carry out their resolutions. Or, you can offer promotions to assist in easing any financial struggles from the holiday season. It’s also best to limit the amount of evergreen content during the winter, especially in February and early March. Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if they can relate to it.
Work with Our T(ea)M
Despite which months affect online engagement the most, the key to adjusting to each season is to be proactive and anticipate your followers’ needs. What will your audience be doing, and how can your business be an asset to their life? Social media is a fast-moving industry, and staying ahead is essential. If you’re looking to take your social media to the next level and avoid a drop in online engagement, speak with our team today.
