The holidays are a prime time to engage an audience that is eager to find useful information and interact.

Here are eight ideas your media company could do this holiday season:

1. CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA DAY

Find a speciality day like Gingerbread Day, which is Dec. 12 and build content every few hours around the day. Offer tips on how to make a great one, have someone come in and do a presentation on how to make one and take it live through Facebook. Find an advertiser who wants to sponsor the day. Ugly Sweater Day is Dec. 15 and Bake Cookies Day is Dec. 18, for inspiration.

2. CREATE A HOLIDAY QUIZ

Via Second Street, the Atlanta Journal Constitution developed a series of holiday quizzes and sold a local grocery store as a sponsor for the quizzes. They got more than 13,000 submissions. The quizzes were fun, everything from “Which Christmas Family is Most Like Yours?” to “Which Holiday Treat Are You?”

3. USE THE PAPER TO MAKE STUFF

Create videos that show your audience how to make holiday-themed things with a newspaper. These are fun:

• How to make a lantern out of a newspaper:

• How to make a newspaper wreath:

4. DO A SWEEPSTAKES CONTEST

Create a prize a day — think 12 days of Christmas — and have an advertiser sponsor the contest. This is a great way to gain potentially new email addresses, drive some additional revenue and allow your audience to win stuff.

5. DO A NEWSROOM GREETING

Speaking of videos, get the newsroom together and get everyone to wish your audience a prosperous 2018 and a safe holiday via a video.

6. CREATE A NEW YEAR’S GUIDE

Readers are already looking for tips on planning their New Year’s Eve. Build a planner for them that includes fun restaurant experiences, parties and more.
• Here’s a nice example from the Las Vegas Sun:

7. DO A NEWS COUNTDOWN THROUGH A QUIZ

Most news organizations count down the biggest stories of the year. Add on to the fun this year a quiz that asks readers to answer questions about the biggest stories of the year. This is a good sponsorship opportunity.

8. SING CAROLS

Have a local organization come to your building and perform a few Christmas carols. Take your audience live on Facebook Live and if your lobby is big enough invite readers to come and listen.