How to Maintain (and Grow) Social Engagement During the Holidays

It’s 8 p.m. on December 22. Your followers are scrolling between last-minute Amazon carts and family selfies; your latest post has one job: to stop the endless scroll. The holidays aren’t a break for marketers; they’re a masterclass in timing, tone, and tapping into holiday cheer without the chaos.

The holidays present a paradox for social teams: audiences are extremely online while also being distracted, routines are disrupted, and feeds become noisier by the hour. The brands that win aren’t the loudest—they’re the ones that make it effortless to interact in between errands, flights, and family time.

Below are proven, low-lift engagement strategies you can ship quickly.

Why the holidays are worth the push

Holiday shopping and social use go hand-in-hand. In recent surveys, 80% of consumers plan to use social media to find gifts (Sprout Social 2025). That intent doesn’t just lift conversions, it raises the baseline for interactions with brand content throughout November and December.

Add to that the sheer scale of the platforms you’ll post on: Instagram alone reported ~3B monthly active users (CNBC), with Meta’s “family daily actives” (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) at 3.48B daily (Meta Q2 2025 Results)—massive reach even before seasonal spikes.

1) Run quick polls in Instagram Stories

Why it works: Polls are the lowest-friction engagement a scroller can make—one tap. Studies have found that Stories with polls see higher completion and engagement than average Stories; one industry analysis noted ~20% higher completion rates when a poll is present (Social Media Today).

What to post

• “Which gift guide do you want first? Tech Brother /  Beauty Guru Sister”
• “Work status check: OOO / ‘Monitoring emails’”
• “Last-minute shopper? Yes / No, I’m wrapped”

Pro tips

Don’t forget an additional call-to-action (CTA) in your Story. Add a link sticker that connects to a landing page, gift guide, or latest product release. Even better if you add these to a follow-up story with the results; people like to see their votes “count.”

2) Drop stress-free podcast (or short-form audio) episodes

Podcasts are perfect for road trips, flights, and gift-wrapping marathons—moments when screen time dips but listening time goes up. U.S. podcast listening hit record highs in 2025 (55% monthly, 40% weekly listeners) (The Podcast Consumer). Podcast listening habits shift in December: while new episode releases may decrease, listener downloads and engagement tend to increase significantly (Podcast Marketing Society). During the holiday season, listeners actively seek out and desire engaging podcast content. Podcasters can easily meet this demand by offering enjoyable, even potentially shorter, episodes.

Episode formats that work in December

• “No-stress year-end wrap”: 15–20 minutes of practical wins (no heavy theory).
• “12 hot takes of [your niche]”: snackable predictions.
• “Listener stories” episode sourced from DMs/voice notes (see idea #4 below).

Pro tips

Record two mini episodes, half or a quarter of your typical podcast episodes, in one session and schedule them across the last two weeks of December. Additionally, use your phone's vertical mode to film while recording and cut 20–30s reels to seed on IG/TikTok with a “Listen while you wrap” CTA. 

3) Collect comments

Contests still outperform their weight in terms of engagement. An extensive study of Instagram contests found posts earned ~64× more comments and ~3.5× more likes than average posts; brands running contests also grew followers ~70% faster over a three-month window (Tailwind Instagram Contests Study). Even if your goal isn’t follower growth, comments are a strong algorithmic signal for reach during crowded weeks.

Holiday-native prompts

• “Comment your one underrated gift idea (we’ll pick 3 to win $X gift cards).”
• “Tell us the best re-gift you’ve ever received—funniest one wins.”
• “Drop a 🎄 or 🕯️ if you want our ‘last-minute deals’ DM list.”

Pro tips

Import comments with ShortStack’s Import Tool, then randomly select winners with a couple of clicks. Build a simple landing page for official rules and optional email capture so your IG comments don’t have to carry the whole compliance load. For quick rules guidelines, spell out eligibility, dates, prize, and how winners are chosen in the caption.

4) Ask for short holiday stories (UGC FTW!)

User-generated content (UGC) is the antidote to stock-photo fatigue. Compilations of short, real stories (pet tree catastrophes, kitchen fails, airport miracle upgrades) get watched and shared. UGC is 9.8x more impactful than influencer content when making a purchasing decision for consumers. (Nosto 2025 UGC Report).

How to source it quickly

• Post a Reel: “Voice-over a photo or clip of your funniest holiday mishap. Use #OurBrandHoliday and we’ll feature the best.”
• Stories sticker: “Got a 10-sec story? Send us a video reply.”
• Offer a small weekly prize or just the dopamine hit of being featured.

Pro tips

The content creates itself with followers submitting their holiday stories. Stitch 5–8 clips into a 45–60s Reel; add light captions for sound-off viewers. Share Reels to your Stories for quick engagement from endless scrolling.

5) More fast, high-yield ideas to fill the calendar

When you’ve already covered polls, contests, and UGC, it’s smart to have a few extra tricks ready for those in-between posting days. These ideas are quick to execute, light on production, and ideal for keeping the algorithm happy when your team is juggling schedules or prepping year-end campaigns. Each one gives your audience an easy, low-commitment way to engage while maintaining your brand’s holiday energy.

• “This or That” holiday edition (Stories): Run a themed bracket (cozy socks vs. slippers, carry-on vs. checked) over a week; crown a winner on NYE. Poll stickers keep taps coming.
• Creator collabs: Co-post with a relevant micro-creator to borrow audience and comments during the rush—contests co-run with partners have shown ~79% higher engagement (Influencer Marketing Hub).
• Live “office hours” (IG Live/TikTok Live): 20 minutes, two times per week between Dec 10–22, framed as a Q&A (“Need gift ideas? Ask us live.”).
• Gift-guide carousels with a twist: Make each frame a poll or emoji slider (“Rate the cozy factor”).
• Count-up, not countdown: “12 Days of Tiny Wins”—daily, low-effort tips invite replies (“Which one did you try?”).

Planning your posting cadence (and expectations)

Social usage is heavy in Q4, but day-by-day patterns wobble around major holidays. Historical glimpses show holiday days can become record engagement moments (e.g., Thanksgiving once set Instagram traffic records in 2012), but they also compress attention into shorter windows. Focus on formats designed for microinteractions (polls, sliders, quick comments) and frictionless viewing (UGC reels, podcast clips).

Info overload? Check out the infographic!

This article is a lot to digest so we’ve summarized it for you in this infographic:

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