Holiday shoppers, ecommerce store managers, social media marketing professionals, and retail employees: the biggest commercial weekend of the year is only a week away.

While football and turkeys will dominate next Thursday, companies all over the United States (and Canada!) will be preparing for the Black Friday madness to begin next week. While Black Friday has traditionally been the time for brick and mortar stores to push specials, the online environment has seen a surge of discounts, promotions, and exclusive sales over the past couple of years. The addition of Cyber Monday to the holiday weekend sales bonanza has only made the madness more appealing for holiday shoppers, with online-only promotions getting their own special day.

Of course, preparing for the madness that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be very stressful for business owners. Not only are there a lot of aspects to consider on the logistics side (e.g. preparing to ship 12312321 orders – hyperbole intended), but there is also quite a bit to prepare for on the marketing side for both traditional and digital campaigns. Whether you’re scurrying to finalize social media marketing plans or need an outside perspective, our resident digital strategist (yes, I just referred to myself in the third person) has prepared an infographic with some handy tips on how to monetize seven different social media platforms. These platforms include the following:

• Facebook: Still the king of the social media world, Facebook should be the focal point of your social media marketing plan this upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Not only does it have the largest reach of all social media platforms, but it has the most robust advertising suite and targeting options. Use this to your advantage and create a myriad of campaigns, while at the same time remarketing to both your site’s traffic and email lists.
• Twitter: While many in the tech sector are down on Twitter lately, it can still prove to be an effective platform for both brand development and lead generation. Convert users talking about your products into customers and capture more traffic with Twitter ads. Promoted Tweets may be a little more expensive than Facebook ads, but it can be extremely profitable if you want to remarket to existing users and custom audiences.
• Instagram: Give your Facebook advertising campaigns a boost by selecting Instagram as a placement for your campaigns. Also be sure to use appropriate hashtags and post frequently to increase the reach of your content. Just please don’t use filters…this is not the time to sacrifice  conversions for creativity (although, there’s never a good time for that).
• Pinterest: A powerful platform in the ecommerce world, Pinterest has truly become a unique platform for both social media & organic search. Optimize your pins for search within Pinterest and externally (Google & Bing). Give your campaigns an extra boost with Pinterest ads and promote specific products you want to push during the sales weekend.
• Snapchat: Use the upcoming promotional period to build your following on Snapchat by letting fans know they’ll have exclusive access to coupons and promotions within the app. Branded geofilters can also help you maintain top of mind awareness and potentially convert foot traffic. Now this is a case where filters are applicable (sorry, Instagram).
• LinkedIn: Wait, what?? LinkedIn, really? Yes- it may seem unorthodox to consider LinkedIn as a vehicle for marketing during this period of time, but it makes perfect sense in the B2B realm, especially for SAAS providers. Offer discounts and advertise exclusive promotions to targeted prospects via InMail campaigns. It’s time to put that LinkedIn Premium membership to use.
• Foursquare: While Foursquare isn’t for the masses, pseudo-food critics and hungry people alike use the app to find places to dine. If you’re a restaurant, use this to your advantage and push your listing to the top via sponsored ads. People are going to get hungry after hours of shopping, so here’s your chance to convert foot traffic into happy customers.

Now sit back, take a moment to relax, and get ready for the retail insanity to start next weekend.