120 Social Media Marketing Holidays to Inspire Your Next Successful Campaign

There are a lot of holidays out there that you probably don’t know about. While you might think of International Legging Day and World Tuna Day as insignificant, international holidays — and yes, these are real holidays — there are ways to incorporate them into your marketing strategy. Whether they are actually celebrated or not, some of these holidays are a fun and interesting way to create social media marketing campaigns that can appeal to all customer personas. Not convinced? You aren’t required to use all of the ideas listed here, but if you find one, or two, or twenty that could help get your campaign wheels turning, why not give it a shot? Read on to find some hidden treasures for your next social media marketing campaign.

Before You Continue...

Don’t forget to take your social media calendar template with you. This is a great tool for making sure you have all of your future campaigns in order. Download this template now, and you can add some of the mentioned holidays to your rough draft calendar as you go.

What’s a Social Media Holiday?

A social media holiday can be defined by holidays or other special days that may be relevant for brands to run marketing promotions on or around. They can be priceless for promoting your business, product, or services because they have the ability to make connections to all backgrounds, passions, and identities. If you center your social media marketing campaigns around a variety of holidays, you’re sure to attract countless people. Let’s go through just a fraction of the international and national holidays you can add to your promotional calendar.

January Social Media Marketing Holidays

• January 2nd – World Introvert Day
• January 4th – National Trivia Day
• January 5th – National Screenwriters Day
• January 8th – National Winter Skin Relief Day
• January 9th – National Static Electricity Day
• January 10th – National Cut Your Energy Costs Day
• January 13th – National Sticker Day
• January 18th – National Thesaurus Day
• January 24th – International Day of Education
• January 28th – Global Community Engagement Day

February Social Media Marketing Holidays

• February 1st – National Get Up Day
• February 4th – World Cancer Day
• February 5th – World Read Aloud Day
• February 7th – National Send a Card to a Friend Day
• February 11th – International Day of Women and Girls Science
• February 14th – National Organ Donor Day
• February 17th – National Random Acts of Kindness Day
• February 20th – National Love Your Pet Day
• February 27th – National Retro Day
• February 29th – National Time Refund Day

March Social Media Marketing Holidays

• March 3rd – World Wildlife Day
• March 7th – National Be Heard Day
• March 8th – International Women’s Day
• March 14th – International Day of Mathematics
• March 19th – National Certified Nurses Day
• March 20th – International Day of Happiness
• March 22nd – World Water Day
• March 27th – World Theatre Day
• March 30th – National Doctors Day
• March 31st – National Crayon Day

April Social Media Marketing Holidays

• April 1st – April Fool’s Day
• April 2nd – International Children’s Book Day
• April 6th – World Health Day
• April 10th – National Siblings Day
• April 14th – International Moment of Laughter Day
• April 15th – World Art Day
• April 22nd – National Earth Day
• April 23rd – Spanish Language Day
• April 28th – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
• April 29th – International Dance Day

May Social Media Marketing Holidays

• May 1st – Global Love Day
• May 4th – National Star Wars Day
• May 11th – National Eat What You Want Day
• May 12th – International Nurses Day
• May 16th – International Day of Light
• May 18th – International Museum Day
• May 20th – National Rescue Dog Day
• May 21st – World Day for Cultural Diversity
• May 25th – Geek Pride Day
• May 30th – National Creativity Day

June Social Media Marketing Holidays

• June 1st – World Reef Awareness Day
• June 5th – World Environment Day
• June 7th – World Food Safety Day
• June 8th – World Oceans Day
• June 14th – World Blood Donor Day
• June 15th – Nature Photography Day
• June 17th – Micro-, Small, and Medium Enterprises Day
• June 19th – Juneteenth
• June 23rd – International Women in Engineering Day
• June 28th – National Logistics Day

July Social Media Marketing Holidays

• July 1st – International Joke Day
• July 7th – Global Forgiveness Day
• July 11th – Cheer Up the Lonely Day
• July 15th – World Youth Skills Day
• July 18th – Nelson Mandela International Day
• July 20th – International Chess Day
• July 24th – National Drive-Thru Day
• July 26th – National All or Nothing Day
• July 28th – National Waterpark Day
• July 30th – International Day of Friendship

August Social Media Marketing Holidays

• August 4th – National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
• August 5th – National Work Like a Dog Day
• August 8th – National Dollar Day
• August 13th – International Lefthanders Day
• August 17th – National Thrift Shop Day
• August 19th – World Photography Day
• August 21st – National Senior Citizens Day
• August 24th – National Waffle Day
• August 26th – National Women’s Equality Day
• August 30th – National Beach Day

September Social Media Marketing Holidays

• September 4th – Global Talent Acquisition Day
• September 5th – International Day of Charity
• September 8th – International Literacy Day
• September 12th – National Video Games Day
• September 14th – National Live Creative Day
• September 15th – National Online Learning Day
• September 21st – International Day of Peace
• September 24th – National Punctuation Day
• September 25th – World Dream Day
• September 30th – World Podcast Day

October Social Media Marketing Holidays

• October 4th – World Animal Day
• October 5th – World Teacher’s Day
• October 9th – World Post Day
• October 10th – World Mental Health Day
• October 12th – National Savings Day
• October 15th – Global Handwashing Day
• October 22nd – National Color Day
• October 25th – International Artists Day
• October 29th – World Internet Day
• October 31st – World Cities Day

November Social Media Marketing Holidays

• November 1st – National Authors’ Day
• November 4th – National Candy Day
• November 8th – National Cappuccino Day
• November 13th – World Kindness Day
• November 19th – International Men’s Day
• November 20th – Absurdity Day
• November 21st – World Television Day
• November 25th – Shopping Reminder Day
• November 29th – Electronic Greetings Day
• November 30th – Computer Security Day

December Social Media Marketing Holidays

• December 4th – World Wildlife Conservation Day
• December 9th – National Pastry Day
• December 10th – Nobel Prize Day
• December 15th – International Tea Day
• December 18th – National Twin Day
• December 23rd – National Roots Day
• December 25th – A’Phabet Day or No “L” Day
• December 28th – National Short Film Day
• December 29th – National Hero Day
• December 31st – Make Up Your Mind Day

Find More Days With the National Day Calendar

Keep up with even more “national days” by following the National Day Calendar. By doing so, you can discover more registered holidays, apply to register your own national holiday, research national day recipes, and follow along with The Daily National Show. Don’t miss out on the countless holiday campaign promotion possibilities!

Connecting Holidays to Your Brand

When it comes to choosing which special day you want to tie to your business, product, or services for your next social media campaign, there are a couple steps you’ll need to take. First, it’s important that you do your research. Doing your research means understanding the history of the holiday, why it’s celebrated, and who primarily celebrates it. You don’t want to go into this campaign not knowing everything you possibly can about something that will be carrying your promotion. Secondly, it’s probably a good idea to find ways that these holidays are relevant to your products or services. At the very least, you should make sure your brand can authentically support them. Some questions you might ask yourself about the holiday could be:

• What does this holiday celebrate?
• What inspired this holiday?
• Who celebrates this day, and why?
• How do my products or services directly or indirectly relate to this holiday?
• Is there enough correlation here to deem this as appropriate for a campaign promotion?
• What does this day mean to me?

Finally, try finding hashtags that relate to the holidays of your choosing. This will help promote your campaign across all social media platforms and expand it as far as possible. Try using RiteTag to help find the best hashtags to include in your campaign. RiteTag offers the best hashtag suggestions based on your submitted images or text, and the suggestions pop up instantly! It will quickly analyze your images or short pieces of text to find a set of hashtags that work perfectly for promoting your next campaign on social media.

Planning Social Media Campaigns

Social media campaigns don’t have to be a lot of work. The secret is a solid plan. If you’re planning to add more than one holiday or special day to your to-do list for the year, try mapping out these days on your social media calendar. This doesn’t necessarily mean just plopping a chosen holiday on your calendar, this means laying out ideas for the whole campaign. I know, I know, that sounds like a lot, but you’ll thank yourself later on when that campaign date starts closing in. You won’t be overwhelmed by having to brainstorm concepts with a deadline hanging over your head. Once you’ve planned and created campaign concepts for each holiday, it’s time to plop them onto your social media calendar. If you’re new to creating campaigns like this, test the waters first and pick up on more holiday campaigns as you go. Here are some great tips for planning your campaign:

• Start with choosing your channels.
• Understand the purpose of your campaign.
• Determine your audience.
• Figure out your posting frequency and schedule.
• Measure your social campaign performance with CoSchedule.

You can measure each campaign’s success one by one, and you can apply what you learn about each holiday campaign in your next one. This includes understanding what worked, what needs improvement, or what could just be omitted completely next time.

It’s Time to Get Started

Spread your wings and try something different with your social media calendar. Calendars aren’t only filled with holidays like Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Don’t be afraid to branch out and add some uniqueness to your social media campaign strategies, but don’t forget to do your research, find the best connections, and plan, plan, and plan some more.