Are you trying to heat up your social media presence? Check out our sizzling summer social media ideas for some seasonal inspiration.
When the new year rolls around, you’re full of ideas—new goals for the year and new directions for your brand. But by the time summer arrives, it’s easy to feel burnt out. You’ve been going full steam ahead for months, the weather’s heating up, and your brain is starting to power down.
Sure, it’s tempting to let your mind drift to beachside cocktails—but summer is also full of fresh opportunities to get inspired. You can absolutely use the season to your advantage, and we’ll show you how. We’ve rounded up eight summer social media ideas that actually work.
Let’s jump right in!
8 Summer Social Media Ideas to Get You Inspired
1. Use Summer Buzzwords
If you want to keep up with the changes in the weather, you have to link your copy to the imagery. Think frosty for winter and crisp for fall. Summer is no different. Fashion giant Nordstrom is taking advantage of the rising temperatures to advertise their summer fare, and they’re using buzzwords to do it.
Here, Nordstrom combines classic summer imagery with associated vocabulary. Sunglasses, a bikini, and sandals are accompanied by breezy and sun-soaked. Build an image of lovely, long, sunny days and enthuse your audience to engage with your content.
2. Throw a Summer Contest
Hosting a competition on your social media is a tried-and-true method used to boost engagement. You can increase clicks, get mailing-list sign-ups, and have followers share your content on their personal social media for entries. This all drives traffic to your profiles and gets eyes on your product.
The contest prizes can be big or small, so this works for every social media budget. You can ask for summer photo submissions and choose a merit-based winner. You might like to have entrants spin a wheel and choose someone totally randomly. It’s entirely up to you.
Boost, the protein shake brand, created their Golden Getaway Sweepstakes to give their audience a chance to win a dream summer vacation.
You can see they posted the contest on their Facebook page with an image showing some summer fun.
3. Take Advantage of Summer Celebrations
Summer has lots of festive treats to offer. Between the 4th of July and Labor Day, there’s plenty of creative content to be made. Entwine your brand with beaches, BBQs, fireworks, and flags to take advantage of the summer fun.
Pasta brand, Barilla, got creative with their 4th of July campaign by recreating the US flag out of pasta pieces. By getting involved in the summer festivities, this brand made itself seem relevant, patriotic, and fun. What’s not to like?
4. Summer Email Campaign
Summer and the preceding months are prime shopping time. A summer email campaign can help you take advantage of the sunshine-inspired good vibes (and loose purse strings). People need new clothes, cars, housewares, and of course, sunglasses.
The ever-stylish Warby Parker created this simple email campaign to get a piece of the summer pie. The imagery is undoubtedly in season, and they throw in some of those buzzwords we talked about earlier, too. The subject line, ‘You should always be on vacation’, is universally appealing. Who could disagree?
We think summer is the perfect time to reach out to your mailing list, a cornerstone of your content marketing strategy. Add a palm tree or two.
5. Get User-Generated Summer Content
If you want to engage with the current climate but don’t have time to take a hike, get your customers to do it for you. Sporting goods brand Decathlon reaps all the benefits of summer social media content without any of the legwork.
They used the hashtag #decathlonsummer and teamed up with several brand ambassadors to showcase their products in action out in the wild. This tactic not only saves you time and resources on content creation, but it also builds credibility by having real people, with trusted personal brands, vouch for your products. Plus, user-generated content gives your followers a refreshing break from polished brand posts and keeps your social media campaigns from feeling stale.
6. Tap Into Traditional Summer Activities
For the lucky ones, summer means rest and relaxation—picnics, beach walks, and finally cracking open that book they’ve been meaning to read. Summer reading lists are a great way to engage the book lovers in your audience. It’s the perfect time for those who couldn’t read all year to finally make a dent in their “to-read” pile.
Barnes & Noble posted a snapshot of their ‘Summer Must-Reads’ on their X account to give people an idea of what’s big in books. This boosts engagement and helps the brand be part of a conversation that’s happening anyway.
You can compile your own summer reading list. Maybe take suggestions from your employees as a way to get them involved. Alternatively, you can make a list of summer beach essentials or airport hacks. You can cover any summer activity that allows your brand to be associated with the season.
7. Take Advantage of the Natural Beauty of Summer
Summer landscapes offer a ready-made, dreamy color palette for your social media posts. No need to overthink themes—the season’s natural beauty gives you effortless, aesthetic content to work with.
McDonald’s employed this tactic with a humorous spin on their TikTok. They reproduced the popular ‘this and…’ social media trend to plug one of their products over the top of a summer sunset. Cue the comments.
8. Sympathize With the Downsides of Summer
While plenty of people love summer, not everyone’s a fan. The humidity, the bugs, the crowds—it can all get a bit sticky and overwhelming. One edgier tactic to boost engagement this season? Cater to the cooler climate crowd.
The ever-humorous Wendy’s encapsulated one of the hazards of summer on their Threads account. Light clothing, although breezy, is no match for Wendy’s delicious dipping sauces. Fans of the fast food chain should be relieved when summer is over, since no one wears white after Labor Day.
📖 Related Read: How to Post on Threads (+ Growth Hacks)
FAQs
Start by mapping out key summer dates and holidays, then align your posts around them. Mix in evergreen content, user-generated material, and promotional campaigns. Tools like Gain make this process much easier by helping you collaborate and schedule in advance.
Yes! B2B brands can highlight team culture (e.g. summer outings, remote work setups), publish seasonal thought leadership posts, or share industry tips with a lighter, more relatable tone during summer.
Show your followers how your product fits into their summer plans. Is it great for road trips? Perfect for pool days? Highlight that! You can also bundle a few items into a “summer essentials” kit or run a limited-time summer sale to catch people in a shopping mood.
To Sum Up
Summer is the perfect opportunity to reinvigorate your social media strategy with fun, timely, and engaging content. Whether you’re tapping into seasonal buzzwords, hosting a contest, or celebrating sunny traditions, these eight ideas prove that summer doesn’t have to be a slump for your brand.
With a little creativity and planning, you can make the most of the season’s energy and connect with your audience in fresh, authentic ways.
To make it all easier, we recommend using a social media management tool like Gain. It’s built for teams juggling multiple brands or clients—and it takes the stress out of scheduling, content approvals, and publishing. So, instead of coasting through the warmer months, dive into these sizzling strategies—and let Gain handle the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Try Gain free today (no credit card required).
