Want to give your business a fresh new feel or tweak your content strategy? You can use summer to give you that extra motivation to update your social media strategy.  Many brands have already given their social presences a fresh new look, since temperatures started to rise. So if you have a new product, campaign or simply want to revamp your image, now is the perfect time. Here’s our five top tips to get you started:

1. Take advantage of cultural events and news: A few days ago Budweiser announced a major rebrand of its flagship product, renaming beer cans and bottles ‘America’ until November.  A great way to coincide with major events such as the US elections and the Olympic Games in Brazil. This was announced via social media channels, using a GIF which is now supported on Twitter. Can your product/service be linked to festivals, competitions or conferences? Be on top of the events happening this summer!
2. Try out new forms of content: We all know that images and videos are the content champions in any social media strategy, but have you tried 360 videos on Facebook? The social network has supported them since September and recently announced an upcoming feature called “360 Photos” that will allow people to upload flat panoramas, like those taken on iPhones and other devices. This could be a really interesting opportunity for SME’s to create virtual reality posts with no additional cost or special equipment.
3.  Launch a hashtag: Hashtags are a great way to group together your content, encourage your customers to share reviews of your products, and to create a movement. Launching a brand new hashtag for the summer could be a great way of getting your customers talking online about your business, and creating some online buzz. ASOS makes use of their own branded hashtag #AsSeenOnMe, to motivate customers to share their fashion choices on Instagram and increase brand awareness. There are over 24,000 posts on Instagram that contain that hashtag now. Did you know that ASOS stands for AsSeenOnScreen, as they launched as a online retailer selling clothes that celebrities wore? We like that they kept this same theme for their hashtag, which is a nod to their avid fans.  You can see above that ASOS have also been honouring the recent good weather in their fun, colourful updates on Instagram. If the sun is out, celebrate your brand outdoors!
4. Refresh your Cover Image:There’s nothing worse than seeing the same old Facebook Cover image being used throughout the year. It’s such a valuable piece of retail space in the platform, as you can promote your events, campaigns, happy customers and products.Bulmers have launched a new flavour for this summer as part of their #LiveColourful campaign. The theme is present in posts and they have also updated the Cover Image on their Facebook Page to fit with the new flavour. 5.  Give your followers a tidy-up: It’s good to have a sort out of your followers from time to time, and the lead up to summer is a perfect excuse. Clean your Twitter feed from inactive followers by using tools such as Tweepi or Untweeps to keep your account in order.  We’ve just started trialling Cleaner for Instagram, which is a free app allowing you to mass unfollow users by simply clicking on their faces. Unfollow those that are no longer relevant to the brand, or who don’t update their social media channels anymore.

Those are our five top tips to give your strategy a new colour this summer. All that’s left to do now is get outdoors and get creative! If you have any other tips to share, please let us know on Twitter @AvocadoSocial, or join our Private Facebook Hub for plenty of tips and advice.