September: A time for warmer temperatures and the promise that Spring brings, and new social media post topics! To help you get started on filling out your social media calendar, we’ve pulled together some holidays for you to use and also to help get your content trending.

Now, some of these holidays might be simply too silly for your brand to engage with (and we certainly don't suggest sharing content on social media and then tacking on a completely irrelevant hashtag for the sake of traffic - that's just plain annoying). But others might not be. You could be missing valuable opportunities to take advantage of trending topics with fun and relevant "holiday" content on social media.

From food to politics to animals and everything in between, there is a plethora of observance days worldwide during which marketers can share content relevant to their industries, get involved in a movement, or simply generate more awareness.

To help you plan for trending holidays, we created a list that you can bookmark. The list isn't exhaustive (there are a lot of food-specific holidays out there), but this is a great starting point for social media marketers who want to learn more about what's trending and how they can plan their content in a way that will be fun and engaging on Twitter and other social platforms. Remember if your brand operates in other countries outside of New Zealand to research key holiday dates to engage with your customers in each market.

So why promote holiday or seasonal content? A Sprout Social customer survey discovered when brands share irrelevant information, 41% of people tend to unfollow the company on social. This insight is important to any organisation's  bottom line,  especially since 57% of consumers are more likely to purchase something from a brand they follow and 75% have made a purchase because of social. So let's dive into the ideas.

Seasonal Days:

• 1:   World Beard Day #WorldBeardDay
• 1:   Fathers Day #FathersDay
• 1:   Random Acts Of Kindness Day #KindnessDay #rakday
• 2:   Labor Day (US) #LaborDay
• 5:   International Day of Charity #InternationalDayOfCharity #CharityDay
• 6:   Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay
• 8:   International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay
• 8:   National Grandparents Day (US) #NationalGrandparentsDay
• 8:   Star Trek Day
• 10: Suicide Prevention Day
• 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day
• 12: National Day of Encouragement #DayOfEncouragement
• 12: National Video Games Day #NationalVideoGamesDay
• 12: Day of the Programmer #DayoftheProgrammer
• 13: Positive Thinking Day #PositiveThinkingDay
• 14: Stand Up To Cancer Day #KissCancerGoodbye
• 15: Guacamole Day #GuacamoleDay
• 18: National Respect Day #RESPECT #NationalRespectDay
• 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay
• 21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay
• 21: World Gratitude Day #GratitudeDay
• 21:^: World Alzheimer's Day #WorldAlzheimersDay
• 22: Business Women’s Day #BusinessWomensDay #BusinessWoman
• 22: Car-Free Day #CarFreeDay
• 22: Hobbit Day #HobbitDay
• 22: First Day of Spring #SpringSolstice
• 26: Family Day #FamilyDay
• 26: Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay
• 27: World Tourism Day #WTD2019
• 27: Loud Shirt Day #LoudShirtDay #GetLoud
• 28: World Rabies Day #WorldRabiesDay
• 29: World Heart Day #WorldHeartDay 
• 29: Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings #Spring #SpringForward
• 30: International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay

September Is The Month Of: 

• New Zealand Book Month #NZBookMonth
• Chicken Month #ChickenMonth
• Honey Month #SaveOurBees
• Self Improvement Month #SelfImprovement

September Weeks of Importance:

• 9 - 15 Maori Language Week #MaoriLanguageWeek
• 14 - 22 Conservation Week #NatureNeedsUs
• 17–24 National Clean Up Week #KeepNZBeautiful

Content Ideas For The Month:

1. #MotivationalMonday - A popular hashtag every week, people share motivational quotes or a memorable moment of motivation.
2. Share the change of season with your favourite aspects of the new season
3. #TipTuesday: A great opportunity to answer a frequently asked question or offer tips on using your products and services
4. Did you know that September 22nd is known as Business Women’s Day? Take this opportunity to give a shout out to the women in business
5. How about a quote about September? For example, “By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with summer’s best of weather and autumn’s best of cheer.” –Helen Hunt Jackson
6. A new season means new seasonal meal ideas! Start up a weekly#WhipItUpWednesday post and share some of your best spring meal recipes
7. Throwback Thursday #ThrowbackThursday #TBT - A popular weekly hashtag, users share memories or images from days past. A perfect way to showcase the younger days of your business, or be personal and share images of your own
8. September is also Update Your Resume Month. Share some useful tips that your followers can use to help them make the most of their resumes and while you’re at it, why not spend 15 minutes updating your LinkedIn profile
9. Find out which community events are going on in your area this month, and post about them on social media. Since your followers are located in your area as well, they will appreciate this local information
10. Remember that some of your industry facts and terms that seem first-nature to yourself and your team members can be confusing to your followers. Start up a weekly Fact Friday post and share some statistics, facts, or definitions that can benefit your audience

We hope these September tips help you build your content calendar for the month. Happy September!

No time to manage your Social Media? That's what we are here for, contact the team today and let us drive your social media marketing while you get back to the business of business.