After having gone to the trouble of creating a PR campaign for a particular holiday, it is a good idea to use social media to reach and engage more people. That way your work on the campaign can benefit you before, during and even after the holiday.

A great way to create awareness is with videos. With the world becoming more visual, videos are quickly becoming more popular as a promotional tool. They can create a stronger emotional response in the viewers and therefore make them more likely to share your content. If they really hit the spot, videos can go viral and receive hundreds of thousands of views, comments and shares across many social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. In Thailand Mommy Bear, a Thai company that produces milk products for children, created a viral video for Mother’s Day this year and managed to get close to four million views, over 98,000 likes and more than 12,000 shares on Facebook alone. Such exposure creates great opportunities for any company and will leave people with a lasting good impression.

To keep people engaged, it is a good idea to include them in campaigns on social media networks. Nestle did very well with this in the Mother’s Day campaign this year. They reminded people that their mother is their first hero and should receive special loving attention every day of the year, not just on a holiday. People were invited to share images of them spending time with their mom, doing something special for her or simply sending here a kind message on Facebook. With several hundred contributions and over two million views of the campaign video, Nestle was able to position itself as a family-friendly company by emotionally engaging its Facebook followers.

Since gossip and updates about celebrities are as popular as ever, featuring stars and how they celebrated a holiday will always create interest. To satisfy the public’s interest in how celebrities’ celebrated Mother’s Day this year, kapook.com, a Thai tabloid website, featured local celebrities and their Mother’s Day traditions and greetings. This gave the public the scoop they wanted on celebrities and kapook.com got great exposure and high numbers of page views for the time around Mother’s Day. Publishing this kind of very current and highly demanded content also strengthens kapook.com’s image as a one of Thailand’s leading and most up-to-date tabloids.

The examples mentioned, show that social media and websites can be used to generate a lot of buzz around a company or brand on a special occasion. Especially when the product’s users are asked to participate by posting their pictures, tagging the brand name in the image or sharing it all with friends, this effect is enhanced and can turn any public holiday and celebration into a fantastic source of PR.