Holidays on Instagram: The Biggest Days to Post

[Originially published on the Dash Hudson blog.]

From International Siblings Day to Halloween and all the weird ones in between (we’re looking at you, Kiss A Ginger Day), we know the Internet seems to be a never-ending well of content inspiration. But which holiday content actually performs well?

We know there’s a fine line between celebrating the holidays on social and posting irrelevant content for the sake of driving #trending traffic. So to help you plan for the holidays — whether real or Instagram imagined — we created a list and provided you with key metrics so that you can see how they actually perform before you commit.

Keep in mind, our list isn’t exhaustive. There would be too many hashtags for our brains to handle if we included every #nationalappreciationday out there. These are just the ones that frequent our feed (and our explore page) most often. In order to shine a light on performance, we looked at the increase in engagement seen on holiday static content averaged across multiple brand accounts, compared to their average engagement rate on standard static content.

Let’s get into it.

Note: These numbers represent the average increase in engagement rate seen by brands when posting content specific to these holidays.

JANUARY

New Years Day +21%
Martin Luther King Day +76%
Golden Globes +100%

FEBRUARY

Super Bowl Sunday +100%
Valentine’s Day +57%
The Academy Awards +100%

MARCH

St. Patrick’s Day +39%
International Women’s Day +100%

APRIL

Earth Day +44%

MAY

Mother’s Day +85%
Cinco de Mayo +76%

JUNE

National Donut Day +100%
Fathers Day +100%

JULY

Canada Day +100%
Independence Day +66%

AUGUST

International Cat Day — This is an untapped opportunity! Very few brands posted about it.

Women’s Equality Day — This is also an untapped opportunity! Very few brands posted about it.

SEPTEMBER

First Day of Fall — This is an untapped opportunity! Very few brands posted about it.

Back to School +60%

OCTOBER

World Mental Health Day — This is an untapped opportunity! Very few brands posted about it.

National Coming Out Day +100%
Halloween +100%

NOVEMBER

Black Friday — This is an untapped opportunity! Very few brands posted about it.
*We know this one seems a little hard to believe — brands post more Stories content for holidays like Black Friday, rather than static content.

American Thanksgiving +44%

DECEMBER

Christmas Day +27%
Christmas Eve +13%
NYE +69%

Some of these stats may not come as a surprise, but having the data to back up your gut is always the mark of a true savvy marketer. The key is to remember quality over quantity. With new national days seemingly popping up all over the place, you can pick and choose which to celebrate on social wisely.👌

Want to learn more about how to master your content strategy? We got you.

Header image: @krispykreme

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