From friends ritualizing Zoom by sending calendar invitations for video conferencing happy hours to employers and staff having remote meetings, we’re all interacting electronically more than ever — email, texting, Facebook Live, Tiktok, Instagram Live, and YouTube. Social media is crucial right now. Not only is it a fast, direct, and powerful data source, but for a great majority of people, it’s the first place they ingest information about anything.
Small businesses are currently taking a huge hit and if they want to stay afloat they must adapt. During this strange, unpredictable time, a fear has been instilled in many individuals to decrease consumer spending. It’s smart for entrepreneurs and small business owners to focus more of their time online. Some businesses may not be sure of how to react, respond, or handle this “new way” of doing things. Here are some surefire, helpful tips for your small business to have social media guide you through these unprecedented Coronavirus waters.
1. Utilize chatbot messaging to provide support to customers 1 on 1
To make up for the social media shift, businesses have been using Facebook Messenger campaigns through chatbots to build up their email/client lists Iike Manychat. Their user-friendly site only takes a few clicks from setting up your ad, linking it to the chatbot, and once someone initiates with the chatbot, their contact information is gathered. This gives you a new potential client to pursue and communicate with. From these connections, you can use the email lists with an incentive to sign up by offering promos and/or deals. Retail businesses and restaurants could give out discounts and meal specials and promote their clients and customers with gift cards or prepay services so they can give yours and other businesses a lifeline. When it comes to open rates and CTRs, chatbots are superior to “old fashioned” email lists and getting better all the time. According to Upscope, the response rate for a chatbot is 26% faster than an email. Since it’s a live chat, the client is talking to someone in real-time and not waiting for an email. A sense of trust is built quickly. The same article stated that 38% of customers made purchases because the person-to-person interaction was more seamless than email.
2. Create personal video connections
Focus on the largest audiences, not the fastest growing – Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. In March of 2020, SensorTower reported TikTok to have the “most downloaded non-game app worldwide with more than 115.2 million installs.” Tie your business with videos via TikTok, then distribute that video through other social media outlets. Make Instagram stories for your friends or do Instagram takeovers on other accounts you can help. According to Facebook, the U.S. alone has seen a 70% increase in Instagram Live usage. Screencastify is a free tool right now to do interviews, screen records, edit videos, and share videos on YouTube who recently partnered with EdPuzzle. Communicate with your followers, customers, and clients in fun, interesting ways with the use of YouTube videos for training. Build that support traction by posting updates, direct messages, likes, videos, pictures, specials, bingo board games, whatever you think will give the best traction!
3. Implement trending hashtags social media campaigns to stay relevant that inspire
Instagram influencers make do with the thirty hashtag limit the app offers, and to reach new audience members they sometimes include hashtags that have nothing to do with their content/product. For example, if your small business sells vintage clothes and “#latte” is trending, even though your business does not sell lattes it’s wise to use that hashtag to grab any potential fans following that trend. Also, focus on hashtags that are around 50K to target more niches categories and create co-branded hashtags with other small business partners. Business owners can utilize common trends like #covid19 (12.3 million trending posts), #coronavirus (17 million), #socialdistancing (6.5 million), #quarantine (13.8 million) and #stayathome (10.3 million). To give you an idea, the hashtag #stayhome (22.2 million) has skyrocketed in trends and impressions since the launch of the Stay Home sticker and hashtag on Instagram.
4. Be transparent and in more communication with current customers
According to SproutSocial, 86% of consumers believe transparency is more important than ever, 85% are more likely to stick with a brand through a crisis if those brands are transparent, and 78% want brands that use social media to connect people with each other. If you were on the fence about pivoting your business more towards social media, now is the perfect time. So be honest. Empathize with your clientele. This is a time to build relationships with your followers. Conversations and clicks must be considered before sales and conversions. Try to connect with people in real-time. Whether it’s live streams on YouTube, group Q&As, webinars, live virtual tours, and/or post and comment in real-time, stay in touch. Be there for them. Flesh out your relationships. Become more of a friend than a business.
5. Monitor Google Trends keywords spikes for opportunities
Lots of things are changing week to week right now and some technologies like Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Screencastify have increased users over 400% in the last month. Ecommerce will continue to explode as consumers eschew physical stores and crowded gatherings—but this can create logistical challenges. Delivery services across the board are seeing an onslaught of new customers as consumers continue avoiding public places. More of their demands will come from digital services that fulfill everyday needs beyond retail, including the delivery of food and goods via Grubhub, Postmates, DoorDash, as well as online grocers like Instacart and FreshDirect. Offer drive-thru, curbside takeout, and/or third-party delivery if you are a restaurant. Concentrate on what you can do and communicate that message to your guests. Many restaurants are pivoting away from “making reservations” to “let us deliver/come pick up.”
A good social content action right now can be brainstorming creative PSA posts. Chipotle, for example, has created campaigns for Zoom lunches with friends and has even gotten celebrities in on the action. Back in March, Southwest Airlines began promoting a sale that included no change fees. Because of this, the airline has seen up to 40% day-over-day increases of ad impressions on YouTube, 40% on Facebook, 30% on Twitter, and 15% on Instagram.
6. Create Partnerships and give back to communities
Choose a social media marketing agency from Clutch.com or hire a freelancer from LinkedIn ProFinder where you can find true social media experts with credible reviews to have breakthrough results for expanding rapidly on social media that are affordable. If you’re able, use social media to let your followers/customers know you can contribute any extra supplies to area food banks or assist the elderly with grocery shopping. Promote your good deeds with social media marketing to help build your brand. Efforts to donate time, skills, and money are beginning to spring up across the country to help weather this crisis. Small businesses are using the hashtag #quaranteam for surviving during this crisis. It’s the perfect hashtag to support workforce togetherness and unity. Your business can volunteer your time and give back to those that are struggling. Eater has compiled a huge number of efforts aimed at helping restaurant workers and Google Docs have sprung up with nationwide volunteer efforts and a mutual aid group master list.
7. Take advantage of reduced social advertising costs to reach all-time social media usage
Social media usage is the highest it’s ever been in history since its inception. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, since the pandemic began advertisers have pulled their funding on many social media platforms. Because of this, it’s now cheaper to purchase ad space and cheap clicks for setting up future retargeting campaigns to drive conversions. By using Facebook and YouTube retargeting strategies you will have more flexibility in creating custom audiences from your web traffic. In regards to Facebook ads, you want to make sure your call to action successfully directs any potential clients to your landing pages. Utilize those successful keywords! The same can be said for Instagram and their shoppable product tags. These tags will help distribute and share your product to a wider audience.
Contributions to conversations need to be valuable and appropriate. Pay attention to where your customers are reviewing your products, discussing purchasing decisions, and exchanging views on your business. Don’t forget to use humor and positivity during a crisis to be uplifting and hopeful. Use the pandemic as an interesting way to conduct business while quarantined. Maintain a strong brand connection by keeping the conversation online. Continued visibility in your market is essential for long term profitability and ongoing investment. Putting your customers’ and employees’ health first is the right decision and demonstrates a ‘we before me’ value.
People feel the need to connect more due to daily changes in lifestyle, whether those changes are drastic or casual. We’re all in “this” together, so let’s make the best of it. Don’t forget, we might be social distancing, but we still have social media.