Business Advice
Social Media for Business
Benefits of Using Social Media
Social media is a great way to connect your business with new customers and build relationships with your existing customers. When used consistently and correctly it can be a great cost effective marketing and customer engagement tool.
Using visual and engaging content on social media will help drive traffic to your other digital marketing platforms, including your website, and help improve your ranking in search engines.
Using social media helps reinforce your brand and gives your business a voice. It helps you showcase your business and helps influence potential customers.
Follow Us
| This is durham (Consumer Information) | Visit County Durham (Corporate Information) | Discover Durham (Groups and Travel Trade) | Culture County | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /thisisdurham | /VCDBusiness | @CultureCounty | ||
| X | @thisisdurham | @VCDBusiness | @Discover_Durham | @CultureCounty |
| /visit-county-durham | ||||
| @thisisdurham | @CultureCounty | |||
| YouTube | /thisisdurham | |||
Key hashtags
A great way to reach people on social media who don’t follow your pages is to use #hashtags. Simply put, a hashtag (#) is a label for posts shared on social media. It helps users who have a specific interest to quickly find content on the same topic by searching for a hashtag, or to join in by using the hashtag in their own posts. By using a trending hashtag, all users searching for it can see your post, regardless of whether they are following your page, helping you reach new audiences. Hashtags can be used across all platforms not just twitter.
Below are a few examples of some of the hashtags we use when posting on social media –
Visit County Durham hashtags - #Lovedurham #Tastedurham #NorthernSaints #DurhamDarkSkies #DurhamOnScreen
Culture County hashtags - #DurhamCultureCounty
Durham event hashtags - #LumiereDurham #DurhamBrass #Kynren #NPennDarkSkies (North Pennines Stargazing Festival) #NorthPenninesAONB
#HODs (Heritage Open Days) #Bishfoodfest #Seahamfoodfest
Other useful hashtags - #NorthEastHour (Monday 8-9pm and Tuesday 2-3pm) #Latebookinghour (Monday 7-8pm) #mondaymotivation #traveltuesday #weddinghour (Wednesday 9-10pm) #wednesdaywisdom #tbt #throwbackthursday #ukholidayhour (Thursday 8.30-9.30pm) #nefollowers (Thursday 2-3pm) #flashbackfriday #followfriday #ff #fridayfeeling #connectfriday #weekendhour (Saturday and Sunday 11am-12pm) #selfiesunday #sundayfunday #englandhour (Sunday 9-10pm) #VisitEngland #VisitNorthEastEngland #LoveGreatBritain
Awareness days
Throughout the year link your social media activity with things that are trending. By utilising trends such as national days, major events and awareness days you can amplify your message and reach/engage with new followers.
New awareness days and celebrations are created all the time, our best advice would be to start to create your own calendar with trends, national days, holidays and events which work best for your business.
Below are examples of some of the main days and events we link our social media activity to. No matter what time of year, you’re guaranteed to find something that happening that day, month or week which will help you create engaging content.
January
- Veganuary – All Month #vegnauary
- Walk your Dog Month – All Month
- Heritage Treasures Day #heritagetreasures - 11
- National Bird Day 5
- Museum Selfie Day #museumselfieday – 15
- Blue Monday 20
- National Storytelling Week 25 Jan – 1 Feb
- Lunar New Year Celebrations Year of the Snake 29 Jan – 12 Feb
February
- National Wedding Month – All Month
- World Wetlands Day - 2
- Global Movie Day – 8
- Valentines Day - 14
- Love Your Pet Day – 20
March
- Women’s History Month – All Month
- World Book Day - 7
- World Wildlife Day – 3
- Disabled Access Day - 16
- Global Day of Unplugging - 2
- International’s Women’s Day - 8
- British Science Week – 7 to 16
- English Tourism Week #EnglishTourismWeek25 – 15 - 24
- Mother’s Day - 30
- International Day of Happiness - 20
- Spring Equinox - 20
- National Proposal Day - 20
- International Day of Forests - 21
- World Poetry Day - 21
- World Theatre Day – 27
April
- Move more month (Active for April) all month
- National Pet Month – All Month
- National Garden Month - All Month
- National Walking Day - 3
- Good Friday - 18
- Easter Monday - 21
- National Pet Day - 11
- International Dark Skies Week – 2 - 8
- UNESCO International Day For Monuments and Sites - World heritage day 18
- Earth Day #EarthDay2025 – 22
- National Picnic Day - 22
- World Art Day - 15
- National Coach Week 8 - 12 April
- National Gardening Week 29 April to 5 May
May
- National Walking Month #walkthismay – All Month
- National Photography Month – All Month
- Harry Potter Day - 2
- Space Day - 2
- International Dawn Chorus Day – 5
- Love your local market #LYLM2025 16 - 31
- World Cocktail Day - 13
- National Train Day - 10
- Global Accessibility Awareness Day - 16
- International Museum Day – 18
June
- National Great Outdoors Month – All Month
- Pride Month – All Month
- World Wellbeing Week 24 to 30
- Volunteer's Week - 1 - 7 June
- National Fish and Chips Day - 6
- National cheese day – 4
- World Environment Day - 5
- UK National Bike Week– 10 to 16
- World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay - 8
- National Get Outdoors Day - 8
- World Gin Day - 14
- National Beer Day #CheerstoBeers - 15
- Nature Photography Day - 15
- International Waterfall Day - 16
- National Go Fishing Day - 18
- Father's Day - 16
- National Picnic Week – 17 to 26
- Summer Solstice - 21
- World Music Day - 21
- Social Media Day #SMDay – 30
- Fathers Day 15
July
- National Picnic Month – All Month
- National Ice Cream Month – All Month
- National Meadows Day - 5
- World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay - 7
- National Ice Cream Day - 20
- World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay - 17
- Love Parks Week – 26 Jul – 4 Aug
August
- National Fishing Month – All Month
- International Beer Day – 2
- National Mustard Day - 2
- Afternoon Tea Week- 12 - 18
- World Photography Day #WorldPhotoDay - 19
- Thoughtful Traveller Day - 16
- National Beach Day – 30
September
- Back to Hogwarts Day – 1
- National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay – 4
- National Hotel Employee Day – 1
- Autumn Solstice - 22
- World Rivers Day - 28
- World Tourism Day - 27
- World Maritime Day – 25
October
- Vegetarian Month - All month
- International Coffee Day - 1
- World Architecture Day - 7
- World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay - 4
- World Space Week - 4 - 10
- National Poetry Day - 2
- Halloween - 31
- United Nations World Cities Day – 31
- National Curry Week 7 – 13
- World Golf Lovers Day 4
- International Artist Day – 25
- Chocolate Week 14 – 20
November
- World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay - 1
- National Take a Hike Day 17
- National Spa Week – 3 - 10
- Purple Tuesday – 4
- Small Business Saturday #SmallBizSatUK - 29
December
- International Day of People with Disabilities – 3
- Panto Day - 13
- Winter Solstice – 21
- Christmas Eve - 24
- Christmas Day – 25
- New Year’s Eve - 31