With this week being home to Blue Monday, it seemed like a good excuse to have a chat about the potential issues that come from using awareness days for your social media, as part if your content plan… and that’s what this podcast is all about.

Should you use awareness days for your social media and marketing?

Let’s dive into what an awareness day is, shall we? Awareness days are specific dates that are dedicated to raising awareness about a specific issue. This could be something health related, connected to the enviroment, or even around food, such as Chocolate Day! Some ‘days’ last a lot longer with weeks and even months being dedicated to causes and awareness raising. Some of these awareness campaigns are UK only, some are international, and some might even be local (there’s a Yorkshire Day that fits this brief!). There are a LOT of days, and this can help you and your business to promote something you are truly passionate about, but it can also look false or irrelevant if not handled well.

Of course, the right awareness days can add a lot to your messaging, your brand, and your customers, but when brands latch on to any day they think they can ‘make’ work for them, it rarely ends well.

Ask yourself…

• Is this awareness day relevant to me?
• Is this awareness day relevant to my business?
• Is this awareness day relevant to my customers?
• Am I really aligned with this day, or am I a) struggling for content b) want to get extra reach from being involved c) am I doing it just because I think I should but don’t really have anything to add?

The answers to these questions will lead you in the right direction!

Hopefully this episode will provide some food for thought, and a bit more background about Blue Monday that might encourage a little more research before other days are adopted into your plan.

And pssst- Blue Monday was created by Cliff Arnall, a psychologist based in the UK due to a variety of factors that he thought made the third Monday in January the saddest day of the year. It turns out that this is a subject for debate amongst scientists, so don’t get too attached to having to be miserable that day!