9 Best Chinese New Year Social Media Ideas for Small Businesses in 2025
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Bonus Tip 💡: Schedule Your New Year Posts in Advance
As 2025 approaches, small businesses are preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year (CNY), also known as Lunar New Year, with engaging social media content. This festive season, typically occurring between January 21 and February 20, provides a unique opportunity to connect with customers through cultural themes, creative promotions, and storytelling.
Chinese New Year offers a unique opportunity to connect with your customers
Chinese New Year in 2025 falls on Wednesday, January 29, marking the beginning of a 15-day celebration filled with traditions, festivities, and cultural significance. In 2025, the zodiac animal is the Wooden Snake. Small businesses can use this time to engage their audience, boost brand visibility, and celebrate the occasion with creative social media content.
In this blog post, we’ll explore Chinese New Year content ideas that are adaptable across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads to help you make the most out of this season’s festivities.
1. Share Your Chinese New Year Preparations
Video by prophousedesign on TikTok
Customers love to see how brands celebrate cultural occasions, and Prop House Design provides a fantastic example with their behind-the-scenes preparations for Chinese New Year, as seen above.
Kick off the season by sharing behind-the-scenes content showcasing your business's preparations for Chinese New Year. Whether you’re decorating your store with red lanterns and lucky symbols or crafting special CNY-themed products, this type of content humanizes your brand and creates an emotional connection with your audience.
2. Host a Chinese New Year Giveaway
Video by hazeldiary_ on TikTok
Giveaways are a fantastic way to boost engagement, grow your followers, and create excitement around your brand. They’re a fun way to celebrate the season and get people talking about your business. Just like Hazel Diary, an entrepreneur from Singapore, partnered with a local Marriott hotel to run a successful giveaway campaign, as seen above.
Giveaways are a fantastic way to boost engagement and create excitement around your brand
Consider running a giveaway with Chinese New Year-themed prizes, such as traditional snacks, decorations, or exclusive products. Encourage followers to join by tagging friends, sharing the post, and following your account.
3. Offer Limited-Edition Chinese New Year Products
Video by unisluster on Instagram
Unis Luster above, an entrepreneur creating handmade jewelry, is an excellent example of a unique limited-edition product for CNY. Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency, encouraging followers to act quickly. These exclusive products also leverage the cultural significance of Chinese New Year.
Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency, encouraging followers to act quickly
If your business sells products, consider offering limited-edition Chinese New Year items. Think red envelopes (hongbao), specialty teas, or custom merchandise featuring zodiac animals, auspicious symbols, or red and gold color schemes.
4. Share Chinese New Year Facts and Traditions
Video by victoriazmei on TikTok
The example above by Victoria Mei, a content creator and comedian from New York, showcases how sharing "5 Facts About CNY" can engage audiences. Educational content adds value to your audience’s experience and helps position your business as thoughtful and culturally aware.
Educate your audience about the cultural significance of Chinese New Year through infographics or carousel posts. Share facts about the zodiac animal of the year, common traditions, festive foods, and other intriguing details.
5. Create a Chinese New Year-Themed Challenge
Video by clarakitchen21 on TikTok
Encourage your followers to participate in a Chinese New Year-themed challenge. Above is a great example by Clara Kitchen, a bakery, sharing an excellent example by showcasing their snake-themed cakes.
Another engaging idea could be a "CNY Outfit Challenge," where followers show off their festive attire, or a "CNY Decor Challenge," where they share photos of their home decorations. Offer exciting prizes for the best submissions to boost participation and engagement.
6. Collaborate with Local Influencers
Video by bingbingxd on TikTok
Bing Bing, a local micro-influencer from London, has reviewed Pot & Rice restaurant, as shown above. Collaborating with influencers can help you reach a wider audience and build trust with followers who value their recommendations.
Partner with influencers who are culturally attuned to Chinese New Year
Partner with influencers who are culturally attuned to Chinese New Year. They can create engaging content that highlights your products or services while promoting your brand to their audience.
7. Create Festive Videos or Reels
Video by gelartine_cakes on TikTok
Video content is highly engaging and shareable, making it an excellent way to reach a broader audience. It also humanizes your brand and provides a dynamic way to showcase products or services, as demonstrated by Gelartine Cakes in the example above.
Video content is highly engaging and shareable
Create short, captivating videos to highlight your Chinese New Year offerings. Showcase festive decorations, special recipes, or quick DIYs related to the season. Share these on Instagram Reels, TikTok, or Facebook to grab your audience’s attention and boost engagement.
8. Post About the Zodiac Animal of the Year
Tapping into the Chinese zodiac is culturally relevant and adds a layer of personalization to your content, sparking curiosity and engagement. Shiok Kitchen Catering provides a great example by publishing a blog post about the zodiac and featuring it on their social media, as seen above.
Create content that celebrates the year’s significance and connects it to your business. Since the zodiac animal is the Snake in 2025, you could highlight how the traits of the snake-wisdom, resilience, and adaptability - align with your brand’s values.
9. Share Chinese New Year Recipes or DIYs
Video by ruyiasianrecipes on Threads
A fantastic example is Ruyi’s post above, where they share a recipe for Pineapple Tarts. Sharing recipes or DIY tutorials adds value to your audience’s experience, fostering deeper engagement with your brand beyond a purely transactional context.
Another great idea could be demonstrating how to make traditional dumplings or offering DIY tutorials for creating your own lucky decorations.
Schedule Your New Year Posts in Advance
Chinese New Year presents a unique opportunity for small businesses to connect with customers, celebrate a rich cultural tradition, and enhance their online presence. To ease your workload and ensure consistent engagement, consider scheduling your festive posts in advance using a reliable social media management tool like Hookle.
To ease your workload, consider scheduling your festive posts in advance
Hookle is an AI-powered social media scheduling app designed for small businesses. It simplifies your social media strategy by offering features like automated post scheduling, content suggestions, and smart analytics - all in one easy-to-use platform.
Want to streamline your social media strategy during celebrations like Chinese New Year? Try out Hookle free today and automate your social media posts effortlessly!
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