Without a doubt, the year 2020 has been one of the toughest yet, in many ways. The global pandemic has taken a toll on many industries and changed the habits and behavior of people, both online and offline.
While many businesses declined, there are those that embraced the changes and made the best of it. We have seen a sharp growth of online activity and demand for online content, and that is not changing any time soon. In the wake of a new reality, you can adapt and overcome the current obstacles, or you can watch the opportunities go pass your business. It is all up to you.
Leveraging social media in the time of corona has never been more challenging, and more rewarding, for that matter. Creating the right strategy and playing the right cards at the right time can now be more impactful than ever.
Let us go through the effective things that you can do on social media to boost your business during the coronavirus pandemic.
1. Breathe like your audience
If you do not fully understand the needs and wants of your audience, everything that you do will be less impactful. Even if you think that you know your audience, this might just be the right time to re-acquaint yourself with them. Try to define the basics about your target audience: age, gender, geolocation, income, interests… so that you know who you are talking to, and what is the right way to do it.
During a pandemic, many things, interests, and habits of people around the globe have changed. And that includes your target audience. You need to conduct research and find out what are the biggest things that are not the same. Are they still going to work, or they work from home? Are they exercising from home, instead of going to the gym? Are they spending more time with family members? Has their online time increased, and by how much?
With this information, you can create a spot-on profile of your perfect audience, and tailor your activity on social media, to fit their needs, and create a strong relationship that can last long after the pandemic is gone.
2. Optimize your website
Whether you have a successful online business with a lot of audiences, or struggling in the time of crisis, now might be the right time to improve the performance of your website. You can start with your hosting provider. These times are the right for understanding how good your hosting provider is. Flexible plans are great for turbulent times, so make sure you read the reviews before you choose the right provider for your website. Check out the different plans, special offers, and all the features that you need.
Once you are happy with your hosting provider, you can check if your website and plugins are up to date, and further boost the performance that you will need once your new audience starts pouring in. Of course, if you picked the right hosting provider, they have already done this for you, so you do not need to spend more time on updates, and compatibility.
3. Scheduled posts do not work anymore
With news changing hour by hour, and people’s working hours shifted from 9 to 5, to whole day flexible shifts, you can simply forget about prime time and scheduled posts. These days you simply can not rely on 9 to 5 times and be certain that your audience will see your posts. Many people working from home might adjust their time to other family members like kids, and their daily routine, ditching the “prime time”, and working early in the morning, and later in the evening.
New reality needs adjusting, and you can not predict too much, so you must be always on alert and seize the opportunities when they arrive. You can use great tools for social listening and leverage that insight to create great posts at the right time. Don’t be afraid to test posting times, and see which are the best for your audience, so that you can maximize the effect during the day.
If you play as you did before coronavirus you’ll be missing out on many conversations and engagements, and your social media posts will not be as effective as you might want them to.
4. Focus on conversations, not just on clicks
The paid advertisement focuses on clicks, but in the essence, every social media starts with their most powerful weapon – conversation. By focusing more on content that will more likely result in a conversation and sharing, we are boosting your reach and engagement. Lighten up the mood with entertaining posts, support your users, build your community step by step, and use storytelling in order to make the best of what your social media channels can offer.
Don’t be afraid to ask your community what they want. Give them the opportunity to create content with you, and reward them for doing so, because there are many great stories behind these great people, and if you can use them in the right way, you can all benefit from it.
5. Be open for new ideas
If it was ever the right time to try out a new strategy for a social media channel – it is now. Think of all the ideas you had before and try them out. Even if none of them work, you will have great insight into the way your future engagement should go. The reality is that these are the times in which you must expect the unexpected. You cannot rely on predictions because there is a lot of uncertainty on many fronts.
Try new channels of communication, and new functionalities that social media platforms have introduced recently. Find and experiment with influencers because they can be budget-friendly and very effective partners. If you have an influencer program, this might be the right time to revisit it. If you don’t this just might be the right time to create one.
Play it smart
There is one thing that is true in 2020: your audience is online, and on social media, more than ever. They are looking for ways to be more social because they are physically bound. If you can use that as your advantage, you can strengthen and expand your community, and create bonds that will last way longer after this pandemic is over.
