No one could’ve anticipated that 2020 would be the year a pandemic takes the entire world by storm. There’s no doubt that the Coronavirus has impacted marketing and social media services around the world. Who do you sell to when people are losing jobs?
Now as people are asked to stay indoors and practice social distancing, they find themselves looking to stay connected with friends and family and this is where social media has been shining over the past few months. Facebook and WhatsApp usage has doubled according to Mark Zuckerberg, and there has been a rise in support groups coming together to help others during this crisis.
Websites and apps like Reddit, Instagram and TikTok have also seen a surge in users.
But even then, your marketing strategies may not be as useful as they used to be, so where do you go from here?
Rethink your current social media strategies
This isn’t the time to attempt to capitalize on a global crisis. Instead, use this slower time to rework your marketing strategies to improve them. Reflect on your goals and priorities. With everything changing so rapidly and drastically around the world, your customers are looking for support. Instead of looking at attracting new customers, how can you retain your already established audience?
Share positivity
Social media is a place to start conversations and spread good news. Now, especially, all platforms are riddled with negative news. You can make a difference in your customer’s lives by sharing positive stories, photos or videos. Social media users are desperately looking for positive content to engage with amidst global panic and they’re more likely to keep following your pages if you’re creating positive posts.
Show empathy
Through social media, you can let your followers know that you understand what they’re going through. It’s important to show customers that you care about them and not just their business. When sharing posts, pay extra attention to make sure that content is not insensitive or tone-deaf. When promoting products, customers will understand that you need to do so in order to stay afloat; try not to be too pushy when selling your products.
Update your information
Customers will likely visit your social media pages in order to know whether or not you’re still operating and what times your business is open. Make sure that your operating times on social media and your website are up to date and share any relevant updates with your customers as soon as possible. This is important for cafes and restaurants especially – if you have reduced hours but do not update this to your customers, you will have them showing up at your business unhappy.
Focus on engagement
Rather than focusing on conversions, shift your focus towards growing your social media pages and engagement. Build a better relationship with your followers online by creating content that they would want to see and interact with. Depending on the nature of your business, you can share tips on working from home, or even how to bake bread! Share light-hearted content related to your business or industry to increase social media engagement. It’s vital to remember that consumer spending has drastically dropped and promoting your products 24/7 will not make an impact on your customers.
Explore new platforms
If you’re not making use of most (or all) of the social media platforms out there, now is the perfect time to learn the ins and outs of every website or app. Of course, each platform caters to specific demographics. Facebook and LinkedIn are popular amongst older audiences, while TikTok and Snapchat are more appealing to younger generations.
Explore each platform and see how it could benefit your business as a whole – not just in creating leads and conversions, but by creating a loyal customer base. If it’s appropriate for your business to create TikTok videos that are fun and quirky, there’s no harm in doing so! Reach out to as many different types of audience as you can and experiment with different platforms.
Create video content
There’s only so much Netflix users can consume, and when they’re looking for something new, you could play a huge role in what they watch! Create educational and fun videos for your viewers that your followers can engage with and share with their friends. Using apps like TikTok, Snapchat and even Facebook or Instagram Live have proven to be effective ways of engaging with audiences and now is a good time to experiment with different types of video content.
Creating longer YouTube videos to create a following could be beneficial too. If you’re a restaurant owner, you could start teaching your customers how to make dishes themselves now that they’re home 24/7. There are so many types of YouTube videos out there and there’s always room for more, no matter what industry you belong to.
