The COVID-19 pandemic caused a notable decrease in shoppers or mandated closure of businesses from the government. It’s a difficult situation, but it’s a great opportunity to change your usual marketing opportunities, such as focusing more on social media marketing.

Increased Social Media Usage

People are being forced to stay indoors and social distance. As such, they are in search of ways to stay connected to everyone else. That’s where social media comes in handy. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook has reported that there has been an increased usage of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in the last few months of quarantine.

There have been more local support groups on Facebook throughout the crisis, with millions of people looking to connect every day. More individuals are coming together to help out the most vulnerable people in their communities by volunteering with daily tasks and providing shopping.

Other social sites also have a huge increase in the number of users and overall engagement. For instance, Reddit reported an increase in traffic in various subreddits such as travel, education, news, finance and sports. The r/coronavirus community features 1.2 million members and has been ranked the 2nd among the top growing communities on the site.

In the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, Instagram has seen an increase in impressions by at least 22%. TikTok also enjoyed a 27% increase in engagement between February and March 2020.

Social Media Allows Safe Shopping Experience

A lot of brick and mortar retail locations have closed their doors. Now, customers are relying on online shops to buy their items. Globally, e-commerce is booming and the same can be said of Australia. In the last year alone, Australians spent about AUD $ 28.6 billion converting to about US $ 20.3 billion on online shopping. By January 2019, online shopping makes up 9% of the total retail sale in Australia.

Predictions are that by the end of 2020, Australian businesses online should expect 15.1% revenue growth. The number of online shoppers is also expected to reach 20.3 million by the end of 2019, about 5% higher than in 2018.

Retail and service-based businesses are looking for ways to offer services to their customers via live streaming and virtual technology. Fitness centres and gyms should also take advantage of this to stream and schedule virtual workout classes where people can exercise from home.

Share Your Community Contributions Through Social Media 

Statistics and updates about the coronavirus pandemic have left too many people in the cold. If you want to make a huge impact with your customers and improve your engagements you should let them know that your business is contributing to the community or presenting content that encourages people.

Business advisor Alister Clare from Credit Capital says, “Build business relationships by being a giver. You need to show people that your business is much more than making a profit. It should help build trust with the employees and your customers. When people trust your business and the message you are putting across, they are going to share your products with their peers thereby spreading the message to new customers. “

What Can Business Owners Do?

social media marketing

As the COVID-19 pandemic spouts trouble for people and businesses globally, your social media marketing efforts should be reflective of this fact. It’s also time to serve your market and add more value by being a beacon of leadership, light and hope. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What are the current opportunities in the market?
  • Are there gaps in the market that your business can resolve? 
  • What are the security expectations when the crisis ends?

By digging deep and doing your research, you should be able to identify the needs of your target market. As such, it will be a leading insight into your social media strategy. The key is to find out the questions that trouble them.

Whatever happens, you need to be the voice of reason and offer reassurance by providing informative content to answer any serious questions that your customers might have. Social media relies on supply and demand. A lot of people have too much time on their hands so they are looking for relevant content. You need to give it to them.

Connect with your audience on all the social media platforms if necessary. Give every platform the attention it deserves. Put the content in front of the right people to increase conversions. Focus all your advertising and content budget on the core needs.

Conclusion 

Many businesses have been able to handle the tough times because the leadership was willing to pick up the aftermath of devastation and clean things up then proceed afresh. You can achieve this new realm of possibilities by using social media marketing.

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