Top 5 Tips for Valentine's Day Social Marketing

Brands are already penning their Valentines as we enter February. Check out these social media tips for brands looking to reach lovebirds.
Brands are competing to win the hearts of consumers this Valentine’s, and for good reason. According to the National Retail Federation, total Valentine’s Day spending exceeded $18.9 billion for Americans in 2015.
Beyond the typical flowers, chocolate, and jewelry, other brands are looking to make some admirers. We looked at the most engaging campaigns of last year to find the trends social media marketers can use this February.
(Ed: To see what’s going viral for Valentine’s Day 2018, check out our report)

Love Is Love

For the past few years, there have been more brands using ads that reflect LGBT couples. This is only going to continue, especially for the first Valentine’s Day after the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage last year.
Last year, Hallmark included a lesbian couple in their “Put Your Heart On Paper” campaign for Valentine’s Day, and Tiffany’s and Co featured their first gay couple.
This year, Necco is already leading the charge by including a gay Dallas couple who have been together for 55 years. This is part of their Share Your Sweet Story campaign for the Sweethearts candy brand. Promotions prompt engagement on social media, along with the chance for people to have their voices heard and be featured. By showing the Necco brand is inclusive, this encourages more people to participate.
Beyond the holiday, many other brands are becoming inclusive. Campbell’s and Star Wars did an ad featuring two dads ahead of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” release and Nikon paired with an Instagram-famous LGBT family.
 

Woo Lots Of Platforms

With new apps and social platforms continually gaining virality, there are endless paths to engagement. Last year, Starbucks partnered up with Match.com. Match.com’s mobile app included a section named “Meet at Starbucks”, allowing users to contact one another and plan that first coffee date at a nearby Starbucks.

This all tied into Starbucks’ campaign of having the biggest coffee date in the world. They used their other platforms to bolster this.The hashtag #StarbucksDate was rolled out on Twitter, and on Tumblr, they had a feature that allowed users to create custom invitations. The hashtag on Twitter was used over 6,000 times in the month before Valentine’s Day.
[bctt tweet=”Combine social platforms for a powerful brand campaign this #ValentinesDay”]
There are plenty of platforms to share an amorous message. With video being so huge this year, great campaigns can be expected to come out of the likes of Periscope and Snapchat. Think real-time streaming declarations of love, or a curated Snap story of creative valentines.

Be Tongue-In-Cheek

Of course, with plenty of saccharine campaigns out there, it can be hard to find something that isn’t red, pink, and covered in hearts. Some brands decide to herald themselves as an anti-Valentine’s Day.

Bae: Sup? Me: OMG NMU HI LET’S HANG!! Bae: Sry, wrong number. …What’s your #SPKSAD story? #SinglesAwarenessDay pic.twitter.com/o82OraSG7w

— Sour Patch Kids (@SourPatchKids) February 2, 2015
 

The provocative candy brand Sour Patch Kids, used ‘Single Awareness Day’ to engage users by having them share their romantic fails. They also paired with Wattpad, an online community for writers, to encourage users to write stories of Valentines gone wrong. The winning story was made into an Instagram video series.

Lights…candy…ACTIONNNNN! ? The winning #SPKSADcontest story, “Irresistible,” is now a movie and it will definitely be the best thing you ever watch. EVER. Tune in at 2pm ET to see what happens next! A video posted by Sour Patch Kids (@sourpatchkids) on Mar 20, 2015 at 8:12am PDT

If your brand has a more humorous voice, this may be something to consider. This year, the Deadpool movie, a raunchy superhero comedy, is marketing itself as a Valentine’s Day movie, when it’s anything but. Humor can create a more memorable campaign, one that users will remember positively.

Make It Personal

Social media gives people the unique chance to interact with brands on a personal and global scale. Users can contribute to their brand’s campaigns, creating content that can be used to inspire other fans.
We already saw how Starbucks, Necco Sweethearts, and Sour Patch Kids ran campaigns that encouraged people to participate and take an action. Revlon’s #LoveIsOn interactive campaign let people create Valentine’s Day gifs for their loved ones.

Surrounded by lots of love & my man! Share your own using @Revlon’s love gifs. #LOVEISON https://t.co/kCW6lWVzoI pic.twitter.com/ZvXpyEfKAZ

— Kristin Cavallari (@KristinCav) February 12, 2015
 

The gifs were made shareable to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and email, so that people could show off their Valentine’s to whichever social following they wanted. People were also prompted to upload photos with their Valentines to the Revlon site. The entries had a chance to be featured in a curation that was shown in Times Square.

Promotions Capture Hearts

What would Valentine’s Day be without receiving an actual Valentine? We’ve seen big engagement for brands that use giveaways, sweepstakes, and other promotions. Tying these into a holiday only bolsters that engagement.

Have something sweet to say to your Valentine? Tweet it with #DDHearts #Sweeps https://t.co/HYo3T62Uu6 pic.twitter.com/AEKTDmEJJE
— Dunkin’ Donuts (@DunkinDonuts) February 12, 2015

For Valentine’s Day last year, Dunkin’ Donuts invited Twitter users to tweet a message to their love for a chance to win JetBlue tickets or a personalized Valentine from the donut brand.
Promotions can employ a call-to-action, which encourages users to keep engaging with the content. In addition to being able to win something, promotions create another chance for personalization—letting people feel that they’re part of a community and contribute something creative and meaningful.

Even More Possibilities

Social media evolves continuously. We predicted video this year to be huge for everyone—publishers, communications professionals, and brands, along with messaging apps, and turning your brand into a storyteller. Holidays like Valentine’s Day present endless opportunities for new stories.

I’ll never love anyone as much as I love pizza. #WhyImSingle

— Domino’s Pizza (@dominos) February 11, 2015
 

How to tell those stories? Hashtags, like the Domino’s tweet above, let a brand jump in on a viral trend. More platforms are supporting emojis. Brands can use emojis in clever ways, including bridging multiple languages. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and emojis mean Valentine’s doesn’t have to just be restricted to hearts.

Keep in mind your brand voice, but don’t be afraid to try something fresh. Despite being a staunch and sophisticated brand, Tiffany & Co’s social media platforms combine elegance and wit, like with their caption, “New Yorkers kiss and tell” to the above Facebook post.
Be authentic, be catchy, be you. With these tactics, you’ll be sure to capture some hearts this Valentine’s Day.

What’s next:

1) Take a free trial of Spike to see the stories already showing the love
2) See what’s going viral for Valentine’s Day 2018 in our report