If you are looking for some new hooks for your business PR, have a meander through these upcoming awareness days.
March
7th World Book Day
7th University Mental Health Day
7th - 10th Crufts
8th Healthcare Science Week
8th International Women's Day
11th - 17th Nutrition and Hydration Week
11th National Butchers Week
13th National No Smoking Day
15th Red Nose/Comic Relief
16th National Quilting Day
16th Disabled Access Day
17th St Patrick's Day
18th National Conversation Week
20th First Day of Spring
21st World Poetry Week
22nd National Skipping Week
22nd The Great British Spring Clean Week
23rd National Complimentary Therapy Day
25th March - 5th April The Big Pedal
25th National Workout and Well-being Day
30th Purple Day (Epilepsy Society)
29th Wear a Hat Day
30th English Tourism Week
31st Mother's Day
31st British Summer Time begins
What is an Awareness or National Day?
An Awareness or National day is invariably set up by an organisation to commemorate an occasion which is important for a particular cause. Some are very solid, well known days which garner great support and help spread the message of a worthy cause. Others are lighter and and can be used just for fun or novelty value.
Using an awareness day can boost your business and support a good cause at the same time. Social media is the key platform here, fun and serious awareness days can be used by businesses to create conversations around their support of solid awareness days and supply light relief for the fun ones! They give a great little hook for some office fun too - think back to Christmas Jumper Day or Movember. The use of hashtags will help maximise the spread of your posts, so make sure you investigate all the possibilities before you start.
On a more serious note you can use the days wisely to encourage your team to participate in fundraising activities for the day, particularly if you have a chosen office charity. Using sponsoring pages, regular updates on your website and on social media can encourage your audiences to vote for or donate to your charity of choice.
For those in retail or the food and drink industry, you have so many choices! From Halloween, to Easter or National Butchers Week this month, it is easy to find something each month you can use to help promote your business or show your appreciation to your staff.
A couple of words of caution...
Raising money for a great cause or having a little light-hearted fun in your business is lovely, but do keep on top of what is going on in the world! Posting novelty content in the light of tragic events can leave a horrible taste in your customer's mouth and reflect your company in a negative way. The automatic scheduling tools are marvellous things but do keep your feeds actively and timely as well.
Research your chosen days - all have reasons why they were set up. The awareness day may sound perfect until you realise it has been set up by a competitor or an organisation you do not want to align your business with.