If you are looking to increase traffic to your ecommerce site this holiday season, social media is a great place to start! Below are the top 7 strategies that we firmly believe will help your business receive engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube!

1. Use A Festive, Functional Cover Photo: Changing your cover photo to correlate with your holiday promotion will not only increase awareness among your followers, but also provide them with direct access to your website [be sure to include a URL link in the description.]

2. Deck Your Pinboards: Harness the power of Pinterest by creating gift idea boards that include trending gifts from around the web as well as a few from your own website! Don’t forget to include links. And be sure to add a “Pin It” button to the product pages on your website so that viewers can easily link photos to their Pinterest boards. These pictures should be well-photographed, clear images that will appeal to holiday shoppers.

3. Create a Funny YouTube Video: Take advantage of this social media outlet by creating your very own promo video, letting viewers know that there is a hidden discount code featured somewhere within the film. This will promote active viewership and sharing! Also, be sure to include a link to a landing page in the description for easy access to your site!

4. #Hashtag on Twitter, Instagram: Research trending holiday hashtags and include them on both your Twitter and Instagram pages. For example, #Christmas2014 or #HoHoHo are both great ones to engage in this year! Using a trending hashtag will automatically group your posts with numerous other posts from around the web, that are being featured this holiday season. Other popular holiday hashtags include: #holidayshopping, #christmasgifts, #stockingstuffer, and #wishlist. #Hastag Away!

5. Holiday Blogging: Blogging is a fantastic way to improve your SEO, especially when plugging in key words that are trending this holiday season! It is important, however, to find a way to creatively tie in your products and services with relevant holiday topics. Viewers are interested in reading about content that pertains to them, but as a business owner, the sole purpose of creating a blog is to generate publicity and awareness for your goods. So a happy medium needs to be established to properly achieve both goals.

6. Engage Followers: Ask your followers to share their helpful Christmas hints. People love to share their stories and ideas. Ask thought-provoking questions like: “What are some fun stocking stuffer ideas?” “What’s your favorite holiday cocktail?” or “What’s your favorite Christmas song?” And be sure to keep track of conversations by using relevant hashtags like: #stockingstuffers #holidaycocktail #ChristmasMusic

7. Launch a Holiday-themed Contest: What better way to kick off the Christmas holiday than by launching a photo contest? According to SociallyStacked, 63.4% of Facebook users say they are likely to share a link to a holiday contest. This is a great way to increase engagement and would even provide you with a clear picture [quite literally] of your followers on social media.