While there are many ways to use social media, one of the most effective ways is for veterinary practices to update their social media calendars.

Keeping your editorial calendar updated with marketable veterinary holidays and observances provides an opportunity for you to interact with your clients. Pet parents love celebrating their furry friends, and these holidays raise awareness for many amazing causes. You’ll be able to promote your business to more people while shedding light on important matters. Plus, it’s a great way to increase your engagement with your followers online.

Why should veterinarians invest in consistent and timely communication and posts on relevant holidays? More pet owners are spending on their pets, and you should take advantage of this trend. According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), 85% of pet parents spend more money post-COVID-19. This increase in interest is a stellar opportunity to market your products and services more proactively to your target market.

Your business should post different types of content, but pet holidays are versatile and timely. You can use special holidays to create compelling social content such as images, infographics, blog posts, and other types of content. These relevant posts can help you cultivate relationships with pet owners and other veterinary professionals.

While you can come up with a weekly or monthly calendar, there are more fun ways to market your business by following holidays.

How do you create a veterinary social media calendar?

How can you create a social media calendar and take your veterinary social media efforts to the next level? Here are five easy steps to get started:

1. Audit your current social media platforms. You need a clear picture of your social media accounts before crafting a winning calendar. You need to understand what has worked in the past and what you can improve on in the future.
2. Choose your social media channels and content mix. Not all of your posts should be cross-posted, and you need to come up with a game plan for each channel accordingly.
3. Decide what your social media calendar should include. You need to develop a template you can fill in in the future. It’ll be easier to map things out if everything is laid out.
4. Download relevant software. If you haven’t yet, download the relevant software you need for your content, such as Adobe Photoshop, Canva, and Adobe Premiere Pro. For cross-posting, you should download apps like HootSuite and Monday.com.
5. Invite your team to review and edit accordingly. Your team might have stellar ideas to improve your content calendar. Show them your initial plan and give them the opportunity to provide suggestions for improvement.

Improving Your Veterinary Social Media Calendar With Pet-Related Holidays

Being consistent and coming up with regular social media posts on popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now X) helps you boost your online presence. Here are some valuable tips for you to take advantage of important social media holidays:

Tip #1: Add Important Dates That You Want to Highlight to Your Calendar

You can decide whatever holidays are most relevant to your veterinary practice, such as National Puppy Day. From there, you can come up with ideas to stand out from your local competition and what they post online. You can bring out your fun side and create exciting posts you can use for your various social media pages.

Aside from providing relevant content to your veterinary social media calendar, you can even create special promos or events to observe these special events. For example, February is Pet Dental Health Month. It would be best to take advantage of this by running a special on teeth cleanings for pets for that month. 

Not only is this vital information for pet owners, but it’s also a great opportunity to create valuable educational content such as infographics, videos, before and after images, etc. The more visual, the better!

Tip #2: Decide How Frequently Your Veterinary Practice Will Post

It’s essential to maintain consistency across your social media platforms. This helps maximize your visibility to potential and current clients. Yes, running veterinary hospitals is a ton of work, but you must stay on top of content distribution. This is so your veterinary practice is always at the top of clients’ minds.

You don’t necessarily have to post every day of the week. You can post thrice or four times so you don’t run out of posts to use. For example, once you post on Tuesday, you can skip Wednesday and publish something on Thursday. Then, you can come up with fun weekend posts on Friday and Saturday.

You should note that just because a post is published doesn’t mean you should forget about it afterward. Your audience will post comments or send you messages about your post. Someone on your veterinary team can monitor them and continue the conversation. This helps to build a strong relationship with your online community. 

Social media shouldn’t be a monologue. It’s a form of conversation with your audience. It’s essential to make time to interact with your followers so they know that you acknowledge their likes, comments, and messages. This is also an excellent opportunity to raise interest in a particular service. You can do this on a per-week basis, so you don’t have to check your page every single day.

Tip #3: Schedule Your Social Media Post

You should schedule the dates once you’ve created content for a certain holiday. This is so you don’t miss possible opportunities to post and can stay ahead of the game.

On the flip side, Facebook allows businesses to schedule posts up to six months in advance. This means you can plan accordingly for each pet or vet-related holiday and won’t have to figure out what to share on your page every week.

Taking advantage of scheduling tools will save your clinic a lot of time. This means you can focus more on your practice and other digital marketing efforts. However, you shouldn’t schedule posts too far in advance. This is so you have an opportunity to tweak your editorial calendar if need be.

We want you to succeed and create a solid online presence, so we’ve curated the top pet-related holidays for you! In addition, there are specific dates targeted at dog owners and cat day ideas for feline lovers.

Tip #4: Get Inspired By What Your Competitors Are Doing

While you should focus on creating a fun yet educational veterinary social media calendar that lets your brand shine, keeping yourself aware of what your competitors are doing can help. Keeping tabs on what other veterinarians are doing helps you set the bar for your team’s goals on social media.

What type is their most engaging content? Does their audience respond better to photos or videos? Which pet holidays do they capitalize on to reach more pet owners? You can get inspiration from your direct competitor’s best practices.

Analyzing your competitors’ performance also provides insight into opportunities you can maximize. Perhaps they focus on heartwarming content. Maybe your team can light things up by posting funny memes or more relatable photos.

It’s easier to position your brand as unique on social media when you’re aware of what other competitors are doing. You can learn from other businesses’ wins and mistakes. What’s crucial is that you apply your learnings, giving your veterinary business a better chance of attracting more potential clients in the future.

Tip #5: Create Video Content

Did you know that video content reached 92% of internet users worldwide? Now more than ever, it can be challenging to get people’s attention. Creating compelling video content can help increase your practice’s online visibility and, in turn, reach more potential patients.

Ideally, you should let a production house or agency develop your videos so your output would look more professional. However, technology has made it more accessible for everyone to create stellar video content without breaking the bank.

When creating videos for pet holidays, the general rule is ‘less is more.’ You have a better chance of getting people’s attention if you create 15 to 30-second clips instead of minutes-long videos. Why? It might take longer for the video to load on their devices if it’s too long. If the video doesn’t load fast, they might quickly move on to the next content.

Tip #6: Analyze Your Post Performance and Improve Accordingly

Here’s the thing: not all your posts on veterinary social media will always be a hit among your target audience. Some pet parents might prefer certain posts over others, but your team worked hard for them all.

Every month, you should analyze the performance of your social media efforts, including your holiday-themed posts. Upon analyzing the statistics, you’ll have a better perspective of what works and what doesn’t. These insights can help your team craft better social media calendars in the future.

There is no magic formula for formulating a winning veterinary social media campaign. There will be a lot of trial and error in the process. What’s important is that you learn from your mistakes and apply these learnings in the future.

Tip #7: Work With Social Media Experts

Let’s face it: keeping up with all the relevant pet-related holidays is challenging given everything on your schedule. On the bright side, you can work with experts like our team at iMatrix to develop your winning social media content.

From pet-related holidays to client testimonials, we can help you take your social media strategy to the next level. With our help, you don’t have to worry about shooting entertaining videos for special holidays.

Important Holidays for Your Veterinary Social Media Calendar

January

• Walk Your Pet Month
• National Train Your Dog Month
• National Trivia Day (January 4th)
• National Dress Up Your Pet Day (January 14th)
• National Hugging Day (January 21st)
• Pet’s Life Day (January 24th)
• National Bird Day (January 25th)

February

• Pet Dental Health Month
• Dog Training Education Month
• National Cat Health Month
• Responsible Pet Owners Month
• Spay/Neuter Awareness Month
• National Golden Retriever Day (February 3rd)
• Pet Theft Awareness Day (February 14th)
• Love Your Pet Day (February 20th)
• National Cat Day (February 22nd)

March

• Poison Prevention Awareness Month
• National Puppy Day (March 23rd)

April

• National Heartworm Awareness Month
• National Pet First Aid Awareness Month
• Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month
• World Stray Animals Day (April 4th)
• National Hug Your Dog Day (April 10th)
• National Pet Day (April 11th)
• National Cat Lady Day (April 19th)
• World Veterinary Day (last Saturday in April)
• Shelter Pet Day (April 30th)

May

• National Pet Month
• Lyme Disease Prevention Month
• Pet Cancer Awareness Month
• National Pet Week (the first whole week of May)
• Mother’s Day (second Sunday of May)
• National Receptionist Day (May 8th)
• National Rescue Dog Day (May 20th)

June

• National Pet Preparedness Month
• National Microchipping Month
• Pet Appreciation Week (first week in June)
• Veterinary Appreciation Day (June 18)
• Cat World Domination Day (June 24)

July

• National Lost Pet Prevention Month
• National Pet Fire Safety Day (July 15th)

August

• National Immunization Awareness Month
• International Cat Day (August 8th)

September

• Happy Cat Month
• National Service Dog Month
• Ginger Cat Appreciation Day (September 1st)
• National Wildlife Day (September 4th)
• National Pet Memorial Day (second Sunday of September)
• Puppy Mill Awareness Day (third Saturday of September)
• International Rabbit Day (September 28th)

October

• Adopt-A-Dog Month
• National Pet Wellness Month
• National Animal Safety and Protection Month
• World Animal Day (October 4th)
• National Veterinary Technician Week (October 17–23)

November

• Adopt a Senior Pet Month
• Pet Cancer Awareness Month
• Pet Diabetes Month
• National Cook for Your Pets Day (November 1st)

December

• National Cat Lovers’ Month
• World Wildlife Conservation Day (December 4th)
• International Animal Rights Day (December 10th)

Social Media Post Ideas for Vets

So, how can you seamlessly include these topics in your content calendar? Well, there are different ways to post about pet-related holidays. You can make your post funny, educational, or even heartfelt. Here are some caption ideas you can explore in the future:

• “Did you know that rabbits are masters of hearing? Celebrate your hearing champions this International Rabbit Day!”
• “We all know that cats deserve all the love, but this month’s an extra special month to show your fur babies some extra loving. Happy National Cat Lovers’ Month, everyone!”
• “If you’re looking for a sign to stop overfeeding your pet, this is it. Happy Pet Diabetes Month!”
• “Sending you pugs and kisses this holiday season. Happy Holidays to one and all!”
• “Love is a four-legged word. Don’t forget to give your pets some loving this Love Month!”

iMatrix Can Help You Get Social

While it’s essential to keep your calendar updated by the week with events and relevant animal health information, it’s equally necessary that you make sure your social media calendar blends well with your other digital marketing efforts.

If you already have social media accounts, great! We can help you to improve your social channels and optimize your calendar to the max. However, if you aren’t active on social media, we can help you get started now! Call 800.792.8384 or click here to get started.