I don’t get #nationaldays. Well, I’ll be honest, I get them. To a certain degree they are even my bread and butter (hangs head in shame). As PR people and social media managers we’re constantly trying to get our clients in the news, populate their social media channels, and our own, and it’s hard to get noticed.

But surely I can’t be the only one thinking that #nationaldays are useless, pointless and increasingly annoying?

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see a #nationalday trending on Twitter. Monday last week was #internationaldayofhappiness. I am not sure I know what that even means. Was that the day we were officially allowed to be internationally happy? What about the other 364 days of the year?

In February, it was #nationalstrawberryday. I know strawberries are coming into stores increasingly early but in February strawberries are barely in season!  Sadly, many local producers participated in #nationalstrawberryday, not realising that they are completely undermining themselves. You can’t shout about #eatlocal and #eatseasonal and then go on and promote #nationalstrawberryday at the end of February.

We have #internationalwhiskyday (not to be confused with #internationalscotchwhiskyday) and #worldwhiskyday coming up at the end of March and in May. Am I the only one wondering why we need three different days to celebrate the water of life? Surely we should have a good dram every day!

I’ll be the first to admit that I have jumped onto a – and will most likely jump again –#nationalday bandwagon; I have reminded junior members of the team not to forget about #nationalpieweek or include #NationalCurryWeek in the social media calendar. I have annoyed colleagues by pointing out that it was #nationalcakeday and that we absolutely must tweet about it.

These “national anything and everything” days can spice up a content strategy but maybe we should just use them a bit more sparingly/wisely. Can we agree to:

·         Not use them just for the sake of it?

·         Only use them if they fit the overall brand message/strategy?

·         Pick the most important ones and ignore the other ones?

Otherwise, I might have to go off and drown my sorrows somewhere between #NationalMartiniDay, #NationalWineDay (not to be confused with #NationalWineDrinkingDay) and #WorldGinDay.

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