📹 What Are Seasonal Categories & How Can I Use Them?

Running a limited-time-only promotion? Posting over the holidays? Publicizing an event? These are all instances in which Seasonal Categories might come in handy! 🍂

In This Article

Video Walkthrough

What Are Seasonal Categories?

Seasonal Categories are just like normal Categories, except they're only active between the dates that you set. 

This is useful if, for example, you have an event, a time-sensitive campaign, or you are marketing around public holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc.

The same dates are used every year, so you can fill a Category with Evergreen posts relevant to a specific season, and know that they'll be published during the same season each year.

Some benefits include:

  1. Effortlessly create recurring campaigns which go out at the same time of year. E.g. Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Summer Sales, Black Friday etc!
  2. Cut admin time to zero, no need to pause/unpause Categories, with Seasonal Categories you can set it and forget it! 
  3. Easily create a Seasonal Category (in essence a PR calendar tailored to your social goals).

How Do I Create A Seasonal Category?

  • To create a Seasonal Category, navigate to the Categories page:

  • Click on the Category you want to make seasonal, or click  'Add a New Category' if you want to create a new Seasonal Category

  • Here you can enter the name, change colour, connect Profiles, and choose whether it is Seasonal or always active Category. Selecting 'Seasonal' will allow you to set a date range for this new Category!

Note: Once a Seasonal Category is created, it will automatically start off as paused or un-paused, depending on whether today's date is in the season date range you have set.

💡 Make sure you add Timeslots for all of the days that the date range may cover. For example, if you have a Seasonal Category which runs for the 3 days up to Halloween, and Halloween falls on a Friday, you need to ensure that you have Timeslots on the necessary weekdays (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), otherwise, nothing will be published, even though the season will be active.

  • Any content you add to your Queue in this Seasonal Category will only be posted between the dates you set, and only on the dates that have a Timeslot for that Category.
  • When the Season ends, the dates will automatically be updated too.

*We recommend adding at least one Timeslot for every day of the week, to ensure that your posts will be published if your occasion potentially falls on different days of the week - eg Christmas day.*

How Do I Post On One Specific Day Only, And Not A Date Range?

To create a seasonal post that goes out on one specific day of the year, every year (like a holiday greeting), we would recommend going one of two ways:

If you want to publish multiple posts on the same day, each year, and don't want to go the recurring post route, please create the Seasonal Category mentioned above. And then select the date you want:

If this is going to be every year moving forward. Then click on Posting Plan in the navigation, and add a Timeslot for every day of the week. This is because your one-day Seasonal Category will fall on a different weekday each year. By having a Timeslot on every weekday, you will ensure that whichever weekday your one-day Seasonal Category falls on this year, there will be a Timeslot for that day.

How Can I Hide Seasonal Categories From My Queue When They Are Not Active?

You may end up with lots of Seasonal Categories, which are only active for short periods each year. Having all of these Categories showing up in your Queue and Posting Plan could be distracting, so you can choose to hide these Categories when they are not active 😇

  • Inside your Queue, use the Filter Pane on the left of the page to scroll down and select 'Hide Paused Seasonal Categories'. Below this button, you'll see text indicating whether any/how many Categories are hidden.This filter applies in all of the Queue views (List / Week / Month).

Note: The default is to show all Categories in your Queue, even if they are out of season. For example, if it's currently June, and you have a Seasonal Category which is active during October, the Category will appear in list of Categories available to filter.

  • If you hide any inactive Categories, then this setting will be remembered if you refresh the page, or navigate away and coming back. If you can't see some Categories, this may be why.

💡 Posts in Seasonal Categories will always appear in your Queue. They will only show for dates in Season, so if it's currently June, the posts for your October Category won't show up until further along in your Queue, nearer the time.

How To Hide Paused Seasonal Categories From Your Posting Plan

  • In Posting Plan, click on the button at the top left, to 'Edit Filters'.
  • In the 'Categories' section, you will see a button that shows how many Seasonal Categories are currently paused.
  • Click the button to hide those Categories from your Posting Plan. The Categories will appear greyed out in the list, and you can see the number of Timeslots at the top is updated to show how many Timeslots are visible, out of all of your Timeslots available.
  • Close the popup. The Timeslots for Categories that are out of season will no longer appear.

Can I Still Pause Categories And Profiles Manually?

Yes - we've detailed how to pause individual Categories and/or Profiles in the article about  pausing your Queue.

Do Inactive Or Paused Seasonal Categories Count Towards My Daily Posting Limit? 

Yes, both paused Categories and inactive Seasonal Categories count toward your Daily Posting Limit. You cannot configure more Timeslots in your Posting Plan than your Plan allows, even though you may not actively be publishing more times than your limit.  

If you find that you do need more Categories to cater to numerous paused or inactive Timeslots, then please take advantage of our Custom Plan options! Our pricing is flexible so you only pay for what you use and can upgrade to more posting times/day/profile for just a tad more per month 😊

Please see this article on How To Create A Custom SmarterQueue Subscription for more information.