Social Media While Social Distancing: How to Create Buzz for Your Brand During Covid and Beyond
Increasing brand awareness, building audience engagement, and boosting a business’ bottom line are always at the top of any marketer’s do-do list and don’t come without their own unique set of challenges, especially during these unprecedented times. Luckily, the digital domain hasn’t disappointed. Get creative during Covid-19 with these proven social media strategies.
If the Covid crisis has taught any brand/business owner anything, it’s that improvisation, unorthodox strategizing, and creating new, innovative ways of communication are paramount to surviving a global pandemic. Businesses – big and burgeoning – have been forced to get resourceful and creative with the way they engage with current and potential customers, while boosting revenue and brand awareness. Thankfully, conducting meetings, interviews, and remote working situations have proved to be possible via conference-gathering digital applications, such a Zoom and Google Meets. But, how have brands, services, and companies engaged with customers while staying six feet apart? They’ve turned to social media applications, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok to keep things humming along and the conversation going. Take a page out of their business-building book with these helpful hints to increase your brand’s audience engagement and still be in the black by month’s end.
Pick a Platform – Or Two or Three
Every week, there seems to be a hot, new social media platform making its way into our already-inundated digital lives. While it can seem daunting and time-consuming to keep up with every new app on the social media market, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok clearly dominate the social media competition, especially for conducting business. Most people have profiles and accounts with these applications due to the respective sites’ scrolling ease and user-friendly features. Once you’ve decided on a few social platforms, concoct a 1-2 sentence mission statement/tagline for each platform to aptly rep your brand. Set up your brand’s profile page, keeping it short, sweet, and specific, along with some high-quality imagery for visual appeal.
Evoke Emotions
Don’t underestimate the emotive potential/value of content. Post and create content that’s beguiling, evocative, and that’s ultimately going to get your audience to click the “share” (or “buy”) button. Think of it like your social media “call-to-action.” Make it your business to create emotionally charged content and share-worthy stories that are diverse, educational, informative, and align with your brand’s identity. Don’t share the same types of stuff day after day; mix it up by keeping things fresh, interesting, and engaging. A great way to start is by telling your brand’s story, bringing it to life, and strategically injecting into your content. Remember to keep it original, irresistible, and empathetic to your audiences’ needs. If you’re not exactly a savvy scribe, this may be a great time to hire a professional copywriter, content strategist, or social media manager.
Keep an Eye on the Competition
Be a social sleuth and be aware of your competition’s social media presence. What’s working for them? What’s being shared the most? What’s garnering the most comments/likes? Hootsuite is a great social media tool to help you analyze your competition’s social presence, including the best SEO practices and keywords for your brand.
Perform a Social Media Audit
After a week or so, perform a social media audit of what’s working and what’s definitely NOT working. Who is engaging with your posts? Which social media platforms do your target demographic most respond to? The numbers may reveal which platforms to skip and which ones to save. Not every platform works for every type of brand/business.
Create a Social Media Calendar
Once you’ve decided which platforms stay and which ones go, you’ll want to take some time in creating a social media calendar and setting up a posting schedule. From images to link sharing to blog posts to videos/tutorials, Hootsuite, again, is an indispensable tool to set up automatic scheduling times/days to all your social platforms. Most social media-savvy businesses post daily to 4 times weekly, but this is something you’ll need to experiment with to find your brand’s social sweet spot.
Assess Your Social Situation
Like any aspect of your business’ day-to-day operations, you will need to continually assess your social media strategies to see what’s getting play with your audience. The best way to really know is by simply asking your audience what they want to see and share. Send surveys to subscribers on your mailing list through Mail Chimp for helpful feedback.
Even during a global pandemic, the show must go on and it’s always “business as usual.” Social media has proved to be a strategic, game-changing tool in building brand awareness, increasing audience engagement, and boosting the bottom line. What are some ways social media has successfully improved your business’ customer engagement?