06 Apr When the Going Gets Tough, Should Your Social Media Posting Continue?
Social media marketing is powerful and essential for promoting your business online by increasing brand awareness and boosting audience engagement. Whether your focus is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or any other emerging social media platform, adjusting your social media strategy with the times will help ensure that your brand stays connected with your audience and relevant in the minds of consumers. After all, the primary goal of social media is to provide value and effectively communicate with your audience.
Amidst concerns over COVID-19, you may wonder if your brand or business should still keep posting on social media. Your loyal customers will be glad to know your business is there to support them in their needs, whether that be through your relevant products and services, by providing helpful resources, or by just being emotionally uplifting and supportive. A complete absence on social media may be harder to recover from further down the line. Therefore, it’s important to keep posting on social media during these times — but you’ll definitely want to modify your social media strategy.
Let’s take a look at how you can make a difference to your customers on social media and how small businesses in particular should approach social media in the coming days.
How Can You Make a Difference to Your Customers?
It’s true that more people are working or studying from home due to social distancing precautions, which also means that people are spending much more time on their electronic devices in an attempt to stay connected to the rest of the world. However, it’s important not to overwhelm your followers with more frequent social media posts, especially posts that completely miss the mark when it comes to tone and relevance, or else you will risk alienating your customers in the long run.
Your brand has the power to either turn away your audience or prove yourself as a caring, responsible brand. It’s all up to how you manage your social media communications.
Before posting anything on your social channels, you’ll want to ask yourself, “How will this benefit my audience? Will it matter to them?”
What your customers need now more than ever is the sense of a human connection behind the brand name of your social media accounts. This means not only getting the tone right for your posts, but also halting irrelevant automated social posts and irrelevant social media ads. Irrelevant content may relate to public events or travel. Instead, let your consumers know that you are there for them to provide support with useful resources and uplifting content.
When it comes to how you can position your business as a helpful resource, consider posting resources from credible sources regarding health and precautions (such as information from local governments or the World Health Organization) and updates to your current business practices. You may want to take a break from promoting your less-relevant products or services during these times. Instead, you can post about those products or services which are related to your consumers’ current needs, or you can pause on product promotion altogether in favor of more general niche or industry posts. All your followers want to know is that your business genuinely cares about them right now.
With these new approaches to your social media posting, you’ll want to re-evaluate your social media strategy on a day-by-day basis. What you posted yesterday might not be the most relevant thing to post today. The same goes for your social media platforms. What you post on one platform, especially right now, will not be the most effective post on another platform. Considering using Facebook for longer updates for your customers, Twitter for the latest bite-sized news and short messages, Instagram for photo and video posts, and LinkedIn for business-related news and updates.
Your brand can certainly be uplifting, and positivity is more than welcome by your audience in the face of the stress from COVID-19 news. However, it’s just as important not to cross the line into posts that are insensitive or use tactless humour. Your consumers want to know that you are taking their well-being seriously, and tone-deaf jokes will quickly turn them away.
Facebook, Small Businesses, and COVID-19
It’s not just businesses that are showing support for their customers on social media right now. Social media platforms themselves like Facebook are showing their commitment to helping small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far, Facebook has announced that it is investing $100 million USD toward helping 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries. Eligible small businesses that apply and are accepted to this grant program can hope to receive assistance with their workforce, rent, operating costs, and connecting with customers. Sign up here to be notified when Facebook begins accepting applications for this program.
Additionally, Facebook has provided a business resource hub to help businesses stay prepared and informed regarding COVID-19 and its impacts. In the resource hub, you will find immediate action recommendations, a detailed business resilience toolkit, and a shorter quick-action guide. Facebook has also provided resources on how to currently go about using its platforms, such as product selling via Facebook or Instagram, or hosting virtual meetings and presentations through communication channels like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Access to free courses are also available for business owners who want to be able to maximize their use of Facebook’s capabilities.
Facebook has also announced that even more initiatives for helping small businesses in the face of COVID-19 are still to come.
We’re Here for You
Just as you are there for your customers, we at Virtual Stacks Systems UK are also here for you and your business. Our digital marketing experts are available to help your business stay active online and connect better with your customers for long-term growth through social media marketing, SEO services and more. Contact us today to discuss the current digital marketing needs of your business and how our team can support you.