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In recent months, it’s been incredibly eye opening to watch the whole country of Ireland come to a halt in the face of Covid-19. This has been an extremely challenging time for everyone and business owners have been forced to re-invent their entire business plan.
At Ripple Marketing, it has been no different! As clients’ plans for the year have drastically changed week on week, we have had to tear up the 2020 playbook and adapt our services and offerings to fit the new norm.
For many of our clients and businesses alike, the first place their customers hear about change is through their social media channels. With store fronts forced to shut overnight, they had no other option but to sell online and keep their customers up to date with what was happening behind the scenes.
Adapting your social media strategy during the pandemic was something of a challenge given how quickly everything unfolded, so we wanted to share a few of our tips on how we adapted and how can utilise these for your business.
Use social media to protect human connection
After an endless amount of Zoom calls over the last few weeks, you may be sick of your friends and colleagues but believe us when we say humans are incredible social beings. We have all come to realise how important human interactions are!
A crisis like Covid-19 threatens to break those bonds business owners once had with their loyal customer base. Therefore, ensure you’re main active and communicate with your customers through social. It can often be the first thing to go during a crisis as your focus shifts elsewhere, but remember you got to where you are now thanks to your customers and followers. If they don’t know how you are adapting, all your hard work may go to waste.
Post with a Purpose
Whether it is promoting a new product or increasing website traffic, each social media post should have a purpose. Many people fall into the trap of posting because they are ‘due’ to as per the social media content calendar. This often results in rushing a post, not planning a topic to post about or doesn’t offer real value to your following base.
This, however, doesn’t mean all posts need to include a specific Call-To-Action or an overload of information. Showcase your brand,whether that be through light-hearted behind the scenes pictures of what your team is working on day-to-day or a picture of a team zoom call.
Adapt to the times and entertain your followers.
Bring your customers on the journey with you
As many business owners are reinventing the services and products they offer, document how you are doing so through your social media channels. Bring your customers on the journey with you and they will buy into what you are doing, give feedback and encourage you along the way.
Showing behind the scenes images or videos will give your following a real sense of the business. More than likely, someone else is going through the same struggles and challenges that you are. Making them feel apart of a community or that they’re not alone will help build longer lasting relationships and will stand to you in the long run.
Get Creative
Spend time brainstorming and planning when to post and what you will post.
It is easy to fall into a trap of doing your social media posts last minute and doing it just for the sake of it. Taking the time to plan out your objectives, what message you want to promote and how to do so in a creative manner will hugely benefit your engagement rates. Whether it be a funny video taste testing a new cocktail on your menu or behind the scenes photos of your team at work, spending the time to get creative will significantly help.
Engage a professional
In today’s world, where information is just a finger swipe away, having a strong digital footprint is vital to engage and grab customer’s attention online.
For small and medium business, time is key. Therefore, it can be very difficult to prioritise their social and digital efforts. This is where a professional can take the stress out of planning, testing, implementing and improving.
With over 25 years’ experience and tailored packages to suit your needs and budget, Ripple Marketing have vast experience in social media management, online advertising, e-mail marketing & much more. Contact our Digital Marketing Executive, Jonathan, at [email protected] today to find out how we can help you.