A Social Media Must-Do During COVID
There is no playbook for social media strategy during a global pandemic. Uncertainty reigns. But there are some things we are sure of. We do know that your clients and customers are spending more time than ever before online. We also know that companies showing empathy, care and meaningfully helping their customers and clients are generating powerful brand trust and loyalty. This challenging time provides an important opportunity to engage with the people who matter most to your business.
Reacquaint Yourself with Your Audience
You think you know your audience, right? You’ve been faithfully serving them for years. Well, times have changed and your audience may very well have changed with it. There’s a new normal which has led to a change in habits, buying decisions, and needs. You need to keep a real-time pulse on what this new normal means to your audience and your company. How to do this?
Start Researching
What has changed about your target customers? Are they working from home? Homeschooling? Quarantining and enduring self-isolation? Are they taking care of loved ones who were previously in daycares or nursing homes? Has their income changed? Their shopping patterns have certainly changed, but how? What does their day-to-day life look like now versus a year ago and how do you need to evolve to meet their changing needs?
Use Your New Knowledge to Build Trust and Loyalty
Capitalize on this moment to engage with your audience. Focus on care and how your company can provide meaningful support to get through the crisis. Respond to questions on your posts. Create timely, relevant content. Share audience comments that are particularly helpful or thoughtful. You have a captive audience. Are you captivating them?
Call Out for User Generated Content
Now that you have your audience’s attention, get them involved in your brand. Focus on support rather than marketing right now. Solicit feedback and listen. Ask them to create content showing how they are using your product or service in their daily lives. How is it helping them endure the pandemic? This creates a strong sense of community, and an engaged community is the most important component of effective social media strategies.
Let Us Support You
We at Media Strategy Experts are helping our clients navigate social media strategies and campaigns during these uncharted times with:
social media strategy and implementation
audience building and engagement
content creation
We are excited to welcome social media expert Allison Girvin to our team. Allison was an executive at ABC News, Bloomberg Media Group, NBC News where she created the Business, Technology and Media Unit, and The Huffington Post where she launched the first of its kind live streaming news channel in 2012, and built an audience for a product that had never before existed. By the time she left three years later, HuffPost Live had hit two billion video views.
Learn more about how we are helping our clients. Please contact us to discuss your social media challenges and goals.