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How is your business doing during the tough time of COVID-19? Are you struggling to connect with your customers?
Don’t despair! Even if you simply don’t have any crisis communication plan in place or looking for an upgraded one to combat the crisis, there are ways you can use to communicate with your customers and improve your company’s standing during this pandemic.
Here, Social Media is the key.
Why is social media the best way to communicate during COVID-19?
With a big part of the globe following the norms of lockdown and quarantine, social media has been the only engagement tool that remains active to access the latest information and stay entertained. Using social media platforms, you can better connect with your customers, even from your comfortable couch. Isn’t it great?
Globally, people use social media channels more than ever to connect with others during this period of social distancing and self-isolating.
How to communicate during COVID-19 through social media?
As a business, the questions like “what is good to communicate and what is not?” “how to keep the audience informed and entertained?” can be tricky to tackle during this unprecedented crisis. Here are some ways in which businesses can communicate during COVID-19 through Social Media.
1. Revamp Your Previous Plans
The first step to communicate through social media starts from deactivating all your pre-scheduled plans and looking for new ways on how to get more Instagram followers, YouTube subscribers and increase reach during this pandemic.
While social media is your perfect medium to connect, communicating as if nothing happened is a big mistake. Hence, you need to make sure that your digital communication and marketing mode matches the relevancy of your business and pandemic both.
For instance:
- Try urging your users to stay connected with their friends and family via videos, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
- Rethink the theme and content of your upcoming publications, and make sure it is not tone-deaf in the context of COVID-19. Avoid talking about travelling, gathering, or any such things that negate the norms of social distancing.
- Make sure the pictures you use in your posts are taken indoors.
2. Stay tuned to the latest updates and News:
The situation is changing rapidly. Even a post planned for the next week may seem irrelevant. Hence, be careful while responding to your commenters. Stay updated with the news. Don’t speak anything you aren’t sure of, instead refer and redirect your audience to the right sources to gain the correct information.
For instance, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc. set up a “COVID-19 Information Centre” that gives the latest information from WHO and the governments. You can redirect your readers to such sources to steer away from speaking something wrong.
3. Involve your customers in your Digital Communication
Don’t take this pandemic as an opportunity to capitalize on as most of the businesses are doing. This is not an occasion of self-promotion or cashing in. It is an opportunity to humanize, reinforce your relationships with your audiences, and boost your brand image.
Remember, the needs of your audiences have suddenly changed. They are no longer as interested in your offerings as they used to be earlier. But they want to be informed, entertained, and assured. So, instead of staying silent, find the right approach to stay connected with them. Make them feel privileged, feature your devoted customers in your videos, conduct a webinar with them, ask about their ways to spend time during the lockdown, and so on.
Relevant: Read how this young entrepreneur helped the new business owners thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic here
4. Reflect on your brand’s role during COVID-19
Ponder over the role you can play during this pandemic. Respond to your every consumer’s questions even if it is about the basic things like new working hours, return or refund policies, and so on. In this way, you can spread positivity and empathy. But be careful with your tone and humour. Most likely, some of your customers would have lost their loved ones or jobs during this crisis. So, always keep these situations in mind while communicating anything through your social media channels.
You can offer some free services, or price cuts to help your customers improve their self-isolating time. For instance, you can provide some free fitness programs, nutrition counselling, etc. to help them improve their immunity and stay safe from coronavirus.
Even if you had to shutter down your business during this pandemic, stay in touch with your audiences and communicate on your values so that they may get back to you after the crisis. For instance, if you are in the food business, you can post recipes videos on IGTV, Facebook, YouTube, and other trending platforms.
5. Sync your digital communication habits with your customers’ tendency
As said above, people during lockdown tend to watch more videos than written content. Thus, you should adapt your communication as per the users’ newfound tendency. For instance, prioritize your Instagram marketing efforts with the type of videos that ranks higher on Instagram’s explore page. However, all types of videos perform well; stories, reels, IGTV, live videos, whatsoever you name it.
If you are going to launch any new product or plan any event, digitize it by going live on Facebook, Instagram, or simply make a YouTube video introducing your events, products, services, etc.
6. Use high ranking keywords but relevantly
Another good communication strategy during this pandemic is to use such keywords that have high search volume during this tough time, even if they don’t match your business. “#Coronavirus” has been one of the most used hashtags of 2020 on social media channels. It simply means that you should create more content about COVID-19, lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, fitness, immunity, etc. Don’t stuff the keywords forcibly. Here, creativity is to match the relevancy of the keywords with your business offerings.
Conclusion
The strategies listed above will help you set up a successful COVID-19 communication strategy on social media platforms during this unprecedented crisis. Time is tough, but you will get over it, and emerge as a better and stronger version of yourself. In the meantime, be positive, stay connected and stay compassionate to your customers.
If you found this article helpful, read more insightful and inspiring posts here:
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- Meet Amber Voight: From Homeless to a Millionaire
