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 |
| @thisisdurham | /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
Blue Monday - 15
Museum Selfie Day #museumselfieday - 17
National Storytelling Week 27 Jan – 4 Feb
February
National Wedding Month – All Month
World Wetlands Day - 2
Global Movie Day – 10 Feb
Lunar New Year - Year of the Dragon 10 Feb
Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day - 13
Valentines Day - 14
Love Your Pet Day - 20
March
Women’s History Month – All Month
World Book Day - 7
World Wildlife Day – 3
RNLI 2OOth anniversary – 4
Global Day of Unplugging - 1
British Pie Week – 4-10 march
International’s Women’s Day - 8
British Science Week - 10 – 19 March
National Lottery Open Week 9 - 17
English Tourism Week #EnglishTourismWeek24 – 15 - 24
Mother’s Day - 10
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
National Pet Month – All Month
National Garden Month - All Month
National Walking Day - 3
Good Friday - 7
Easter Monday - 10
National Pet Day - 11
International Dark Skies Week – 2 - 8
UNESCO International Day For Monuments and Sites - World heritage day 18
Earth Day #EarthDay2024 – 22
National Picnic Day - 23
World Art Day - 15
May
National Walking Month #walkthismay – All Month
National Photography Month – All Month
Harry Potter Day - 2
Space Day - 3
International Dawn Chorus Day – 5
Love your local market #LYLM2024 17 may – 2 June
World Migratory Bird Day - 11
World Cocktail Day - 13
National Train Day - 11
Global Accessibility Awareness Day - 16
International Museum Day – 18
June
National Great Outdoors Month – All Month
Pride Month – All Month
Volunteer's Week - 1 - 7 June
National Fish and Chips Day - 6
World Bicycle Day 2023 - 3
National cheese day – 4
World Environment Day - 5
UK National Bike Week 2023 #BikeWeekUK #7daysofcycling - 8-15 June
World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay - 8
National Get Outdoors Day - 8
World Gin Day - 8
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 – 15- 25
Summer Solstice - 20
National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay - 21
World Music Day - 21
Social Media Day #SMDay - 30
July
National Picnic Month – All Month
National Ice Cream Month – All Month
National Meadows Day - 6
World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay - 7
Festival of Archaeology 13 -28
National Ice Cream Day - 21
World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay - 17
Love Parks Week – 26 Jul – 2 Aug
August
National Fishing Month – All Month
International Beer Day - 2
Afternoon Tea Week- 12 - 18
National Relaxation Day - 15
World Photography Day #WorldPhotoDay - 19
International Dog Day 26
National Beach Day – 30
September
Back to Hogwarts Day – 1
National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay - 4
Autumn Solstice - 22
World Rivers Day - 22
World Tourism Day - 27
World Maritime Day - 26
October
National Dessert Month - All month
World Architecture Day - 7
World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay - 4
World Space Week - 4 - 10
National Poetry Day - 3
National Dessert Day - 14
Halloween - 31
United Nations World Cities Day - 31
November
World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay - 1
National Authors Day #NationalAuthorsDay - 1
National Spa Week – 2 - 6
Purple Tuesday - 12
December
Small Business Saturday #SmallBizSatUK - 7
International Day of People with Disabilities - 3
Winter Solstice - 21