The pace of change is swiftly increasing, an unprecedented experience for many of us. Persistent apprehension of the future is causing fear and anxiety. Our lives have been drastically affected in a daunting manner, with the closure of businesses and uncertainty surrounding their reopening. We are keeping our distance and have confined ourselves within our homes.
Even if your business has slowed down, reduced staff, or switched to remote work, there are still ways to maintain an active social media presence. Follow these six easy steps to make it happen.
How to Maintain Your Social Media Presence Right Now
1. Rely on Old Blog Posts to Share With Your Audience
Rather than being concerned about producing original content, particularly if the individual in charge of this isn’t available at present, you can distribute past blog entries on your social media platforms. If your posts have long-term significance – implying that your themes are still applicable and informative – you can reuse them and generate various content segments. This approach allows you to use less time worrying about what to compose and devote more time to what is genuinely important for your business.
Although the current situation presents difficulties, it is not a time for marketing. However, this does not require you to stop all activities on social media. Despite halting some campaigns, you can still incorporate creativity from your current marketing strategy and adapt it to the existing health crisis.
To maintain a connection with your audience, make use of available resources. This is crucial for keeping your online presence vibrant and relevant.
2. Share Inspirational Messages
It is a crucial moment to reveal your business’s personal aspect, as people are in great need of it. The news and social media are filled with negativity, and your effort to combat it can certainly make a positive impact on someone.
Revise your message’s tone while concentrating on how you can contribute to the evolving circumstances of today. In the current climate, there is a great need for hopefulness and positivity, so make certain that you impart messages filled with inspiration and optimism in any possible way. Whether you are sharing advice about remote work or instructions on how to decrease the virus’s spread, your social media posts must be pertinent and empathetic towards the present scenario.
It is not mandatory for this to solely focus on business.
Observe how Nike reinforced the message to remain indoors.
Nike was able to convey a highly significant message without compromising their core values of inspiration and empowerment.
3. Focus on What You Can Do for the Community
Revise your communication tactics and focus on highlighting your current or potential contributions towards your community. Utilize your social media platforms to disseminate useful and applicable details that extend beyond promotional content.
Are there any grocery stores that have recently restocked toilet paper, hand soap, and sanitizers? Are there local diners providing free meals for those in need? Are there any fundraising campaigns that your visitors and customers can contribute to? Have any makeshift clinics or health centers been established in your area? Share this information and help spread the positive news.
If possible, collaborate with other organizations and devise initiatives that can bring about positive change, whether it’s for front-line workers, community members, or local businesses.
Amid these trying times, both big and small gestures such as Heinz and Magic Breakfast’s provision of complimentary breakfast and Uber Eats’ offer of free delivery can make a significant impact.
4. Continue to Provide Excellent Customer Service
Despite the changing times, you should not give up on your social media platforms. Rather, you should increase your efforts, particularly in customer service, as your followers and clients will likely have many inquiries. Be prepared to address every question your customers may have, regarding issues such as altered business hours, takeout service options, delivery methods, and support opportunities.
Sharing relevant announcements with your customers through banners on your website, newsletters or email blasts, or social media posts is crucial to inform them about how the health situation is impacting your business operations or the industry overall. By doing so, you can help alleviate their panic and keep them updated about any potential limitations in your services.
Mercedes-Benz reminded people that they are not alone in the request for social distancing with the following approach:
It is important to ensure that your intentions remain sincere when engaging in these activities. Take this opportunity to emphasize to your customers that you are dedicated to being there for them and appreciate them for who they are, rather than solely for the revenue they generate.
5. Stick With Simple Tools
There’s too much happening currently, thus it’s not ideal to excessively contemplate your social media updates. It might be particularly challenging if your regular social media manager isn’t present. Are you now solely responsible for managing your brand’s online presence? That’s why it’s crucial to make use of uncomplicated resources that facilitate efficient and speedy completion of your tasks.
Canva is a tool that simplifies the process of designing and publishing materials. It provides users with a variety of customizable templates, logos, fonts, and graphics. Additionally, you can export your designs as videos or GIFs. Canva has a convenient sharing feature, as well as viewing and editing options that are very useful for remote work. It also includes built-in commenting and approval tools, making it ideal for the current work-from-home environment.
Canva is both free to use and incredibly user-friendly. Additionally, it seamlessly integrates with e-clincher, allowing you to streamline your content creation process and focus more on what truly matters to you and your business, especially during these challenging times.
6. Schedule Out Posts in One Sitting to Save Time
This advice is especially useful for small and medium-sized business owners who do not have employees working for them at the moment. You can rest assured that your social media presence can still be strong and active.
Just because you may have extra time due to social distancing measures, it’s important to not solely focus on social media. Instead, consider using this time to help your local community and spend quality time with loved ones during this challenging time.
Remember to make the most of your time by planning all your posts in one go. To accomplish this efficiently, consider using a social media management tool such as e-clincher, which lets you schedule posts in advance for all your social media accounts. By doing so, you can save time, stay well-organized, and concentrate your energy and resources on other vital tasks.
BONUS: How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Business
To ensure a prosperous digital marketing plan, relying on the latest trends or making assumptions about client preferences is not sufficient. Instead, it requires insights that are based on data analysis.
According to Jess Reilly, the chief marketing officer at Rebel Interactive Group, those who excel in marketing comprehend that digital marketing that can be scaled to an extensive degree now centers on advertising which targets people, meaning it involves being knowledgeable about what message to deliver, when to deliver it, on which platform, and to whom.
The process of selecting a digital marketing approach encompasses the creation of buyer personas, determination of objectives, selection of suitable digital marketing tools, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategy.
1. Build buyer personas to understand your target audience.
Personas of buyers are imagined figures that depict the typical consumers who would potentially be interested in your brand. These personas serve as a guide for promoting your products and services to this specific group.
Reilly stated that developing buyer personas is crucial for identifying your marketing approach through uncovering the identity of your buyers, the challenges they encounter, and most significantly, the objectives they aim to achieve in order to shape your messaging strategy.
When creating customer personas, take into account the subsequent data about your desired audience.
- Job type
- Interests
- Age
- Gender
- General demographics
- Most-used social platforms
- Beliefs and values
Afterward, alter your approach according to these particulars.
A helpful suggestion would be to gather opinions and customer feedback through online surveys, emails or text if you want to comprehend the pain points and desires of a particular market.
2. Identify your goals, and align them to your strategy.
What specific marketing objectives are you hoping to achieve? Perhaps you aim to enhance brand recognition, boost product revenue, or expand your social media reach. Clearly defining your goals will help you focus your efforts and we’ll delve into some concrete illustrations.
If your goal is to heighten brand awareness:
Is your brand recognized by your intended audience as trustworthy? Do they have knowledge of your brand? Do they have sufficient trust or familiarity with your brand to make a purchase?
If boosting brand recognition and enhancing your business’s standing are paramount.
If your goal is to raise consumer awareness:
On occasions, your business may not be pursued by customers due to their lack of comprehension regarding how your product or service can enhance their lifestyles. As a result, there could be insufficient search activity for your desired keywords.
In case you aren’t facing any issues related to your website traffic or sales process, your problem might be low consumer awareness. Consequently, your objective in your digital marketing strategy would be to inform potential customers about a particular problem they may come across and then present your solution.
If your goal is to increase traffic:
Having more traffic is considered a crucial KPI because it typically results in increased sales leads and actual sales. As a result, traffic is usually considered a top priority among business owners.
The most effective areas to concentrate on if you aim to increase website traffic are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, a well-executed search engine optimization (SEO) plan, and email marketing.
If your goal is to increase leads:
It is impractical to anticipate customers to purchase an expensive or intricate product online without prior experience. Rather, concentrate on creating potential customers for your sales team to follow up on.
If your goal is to increase sales:
To enhance your sales figures, it is essential to use email marketing in a tactical manner and drive more visitors to your website’s landing page.
3. Choose digital marketing tools based on your primary goals.
There exists a range of marketing instruments such as content marketing calendar templates, social media platforms, and email marketing software, each with its own benefits and objectives. As a result, determining the appropriate tools for your company will hinge on your desired outcomes.
Prentiss explained that every business has a unique requirement or deficiency, which could include insufficient reviews, unfavorable Google rankings, or an urgent need to revamp their website. As a result, each business must use a distinct set of tools to fulfill their specific needs.
Arrange your objectives in order of importance and closely evaluate your financial plan to identify the most beneficial prospects. When your sales goals are still distant, opt for cost-effective options like sending emails or publishing on social media as there will be some loss in your sales funnel. You can constantly reconsider and try out alternative resources available in the market.
4. Audit your current digital marketing strategy.
The process of auditing your digital marketing strategy entails analyzing past successes, experimenting with current approaches, and identifying areas where changes can be made.
- Discover the true ROI of past efforts. You’ll need to measure ROI for digital marketing campaigns you ran in the past. Reilly advised business owners to ask how much “lift” each marketing channel provided in previous seasons. “Using a combination of customer purchase data, digital tracking data and any traditional media buys you have, you can dive into the data to discover what your true ROI was in the past and opportunities to grow in the future,” Reilly said.
- Test new strategies. Before going live with your new strategy, test it to see what might work and what won’t. Spend time figuring out if there are aspects of your strategy that can be fixed or improved.
- Determine what needs tweaking. Prentiss recommended monitoring your progress to determine what might need shifting. “We set daily, weekly and sometimes even monthly reminders to check on the progress we made,” Prentiss said. “The daily and weekly check-ins on what we created are very important in the beginning so we can adjust what we are doing. This truly ensures the success of the campaign.”
In summary, if the expense for each lead surpasses the profit made from finalizing the transaction, then your return on investment is inadequate and adjustments should be made.
