This study focuses on the evaluation and promotion strategy of red cultural social influence based on big data of the Internet of Things. With the rapid development of the Internet of Things and big data technology, its application in the field of cultural communication has increasingly become the focus of research. Red culture, as a unique cultural heritage of China, its dissemination and promotion carry great significance in contemporary society. By collecting and analysing 1500 valid questionnaires, combined with descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis, this study deeply discusses how the big data of the Internet of Things can optimise the evaluation method of the social influence of red culture, and puts forward effective improvement strategies. The results show that the application of IoT big data significantly improves the public’s awareness of red culture, and its data diversity, real-time performance and depth of analysis play a key role in improving the accuracy of assessment. The public’s emotional attitude towards and participation in red culture have a significant positive impact on the improvement of awareness. Based on the above findings, this study proposes to further enhance the communication effect and social influence of red culture by enhancing the innovation and interactivity of content, strengthening the personalised recommendation system, and utilising the big data of the Internet of Things for real-time monitoring and in-depth analysis. This study provides a new perspective and empirical evidence for how to use modern information technology to promote the dissemination of traditional culture, and has important theoretical and practical significance for guiding the inheritance and development of red culture.