Social media has long been an effective way to engage with your community online. However, now more than ever, social media is imperative to all businesses. WhatsApp has reported a 40% increase in the use of the platform since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Unsure as to how your business can effectively use social media in this unprecedented time? Read on!
Remaining Relevant
Relevancy might be the most important thing on social media, even pre-Covid19. Your imagery, tone of voice and topic of conversation should always be relevant to your community. Further, the channels you are using should be appropriate to your audience and the message you are posting. The more connected you are now, the more engaged your audience will be in the future. This means that you should probably postpone the campaign coming up that had images of large groups of people for a while.
If you aren’t sure what campaigns and posts you should pause, take time to hit pause while you work it out. An article by CMO Australia outlined that businesses should take the time to analyse the market and audit what social media posts should go ahead at the current time.
Business Information
Social media should also be used to keep your community updated on business information. Most platforms have an area where you can advise your audience of updated business hours, product offerings and changes to normal operations. You should ensure these are always updated with the most current information to remain relevant with customers, to re-enforce that you are engaged on social media, and to assure them that your social media channels are a place they can come for credible information.
Pinned Posts
Take advantage of the pinned post feature on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Pin your most relevant post to the top of your page to keep visitors updated on hours, and changes to business operations and services.
Regular Updates
More people are at home; therefore, more people are spending time online (including you!). Make the time to stay regularly engaged with your audience, whether that be through posts, stories, videos, comments and more. Leverage the fact that there are more people online and use it to build a stronger community.
What has changed in your business and day-to-day operations since COVID-19? Is that relevant to your audience? Remember to add some emotion to your feeds so that people can relate! Have you started a new initiative that is helping people or businesses through this tough time? Let your community know what is happening!
Hashtags
Hashtags are useful to not only broaden the discovery of your posts but to discover conversations that you can join. Make sure you follow the relevant business, geographical and COVID-19 hashtags so that you can engage in conversation with your community on a meaningful level.
Social media allows your business to take part in relevant conversations, and leverage the opportunity to engage with your community so that they are still engaged with you when COVID-19 is over. Take some time to reassess your social media strategy at this time and use social media to remain ‘social’ even when distant.
