UK key dates to mark on a social media calendar

Key takeaways

The UK key dates for a social media calendar are the ones that change what your buyers do, not every day with a name. For most small businesses that means bank holidays, school holidays, the main seasonal moments, a few sector deadlines and the clocks changing. Mark those once a year, check the moving dates each year, and ignore the rest.

• 8 bank holidays in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland, 10 in Northern Ireland.
• Easter, Mothering Sunday and Black Friday move every year.
• School holidays differ by council and are earlier in Scotland.
• Mark a date only if it changes what your buyers do.

Which UK dates matter to most small businesses?

The dates that matter to most UK small businesses are the bank holidays, the school holidays, Easter, Christmas and New Year, plus whichever seasonal moments their buyers act on, such as Mothering Sunday for florists or Black Friday for online shops. GOV.UK lists 8 bank holidays a year in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland.

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Which dates move every year?

Easter moves between late March and late April, and Mothering Sunday is three weeks before Easter Sunday, so both can land in March or April. Black Friday is the Friday after the fourth Thursday of November. Religious festivals such as Ramadan, Eid, Diwali and Lunar New Year move too. Check all of these when you build the annual view each year.

• Easter and the Good Friday and Easter Monday bank holidays.
• Mothering Sunday (UK), three weeks before Easter.
• Father's Day, the third Sunday in June.
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday, late November.
• Ramadan, Eid, Diwali and Lunar New Year.

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Which UK business and admin dates are worth marking?

Mark the admin dates your buyers worry about, because posts that help with them are timely and useful. The self assessment tax return deadline is 31 January, the tax year ends on 5 April, the National Living Wage usually rises on 1 April, and the clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October.

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Which nation-specific dates should you remember?

Remember the dates that differ across the UK if you sell in more than one nation. Scotland has bank holidays on 2 January and St Andrew's Day (30 November), and its August bank holiday is at the start of the month. Northern Ireland has St Patrick's Day (17 March) and 12 July. St David's Day is 1 March and St George's Day 23 April, though neither is a bank holiday.

How do you decide which dates to use?

Ask one question of each date: does it change what my buyers need, buy or do? Christmas changes what almost everyone does. A national day for a food you do not sell changes nothing. Keep a shortlist of 10 to 20 dates a year that pass the test, and treat the rest as noise.

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What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a calendar crowded with national days and almost no posts about the bank holiday opening hours or the school holidays that actually change customer behaviour. Swapping the novelty dates for the practical ones usually produces fewer, more useful posts.

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Key dates checklist

• Mark every bank holiday for the nations you serve.
• Mark your local school holidays.
• Check the moving dates each year.
• Add the admin deadlines your buyers worry about.
• Keep 10 to 20 dates that change buyer behaviour.

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Next step

Open the GOV.UK bank holidays page and your council's school term dates, and put both on next year's calendar today. Then add the three or four seasonal moments your buyers act on.