Tips to boost business during these challenging times: Social Media

Tips to boost business during these challenging times: Social Media

Tips to boost business during these challenging times: Social Media

On the 24th March the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced a series of new measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the UK. In a televised announcement he asked British citizens to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a significant impact on businesses and the economy. At this difficult point in time, it's important to ensure that your business is actively implementing digital marketing activities to give your business the best possible chance of making it through the tough times ahead.

How it affects businesses

There are three economic scenarios that could potentially unfold during this pandemic; a quick recovery (which we all hope for), a global slowdown, and in the worst case a pandemic-driven recession. With this in mind, businesses all over the UK will be turning to their local communities and regular customers for support.

But what about the B2B (business to business) companies that tend to rely on marketing strategies that are heavily based on socialising and networking to build customer relations? What about the small business that tends to gain new customers through word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation?

When it comes to current and planned marketing efforts, businesses face unique challenges during a crisis but taking an online approach can help. Here is the first of 5 marketing tips that can help keep your business on a client's radar and help your business through this difficult time.

A marketing tip that can boost your business

Social media

Too obvious? The social media industry is bound to become bigger during this pandemic. I recently read in an article that 'you need to keep in touch with your customers or you risk losing them. It's always cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one.'

These powerful words ring true in this current uncertain time. It is important to shout loud and reassure customers that you are still there - the best way to do this, is of course, engaging with clients and potential customers on social media.

How are social media platforms responding to COVID-19?

According to Google, "since the first week of February, search interest in coronavirus increased by +260% globally." For such a globally affected issue, it can be expected that a spike of search trends around Covid-19 would take place.

However, social media platforms such as Facebook have taken action in blocking anyone running ads to exploit the current situation. As is Google, who have removed any content on YouTube that claims to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment, and is also blocking all ads capitalising on the coronavirus... rightly so!

how can social media help business during this time?

For nearly half a decade, the nature of social media has shifted to it becoming one of the most important marketing and communication tools.

To begin implementing a social media plan, businesses should consider their goals, their target audience and what message they want to want to share with their audience. Once you have these in place, you should consider the following tips to generate more interaction on social media:

1) Make use of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the perfect place for B2B companies to be. LinkedIn's 'Marketing Solutions' blog noted that 61 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers and 40 million are in decision-making positions. Most people on LinkedIn are actually seeking company opportunities or to read valuable content.

2) Create insightful content and offer clients & businesses helpful tips
Creating new, frequent and insightful content is a necessary practice of business in any industry as according to Dragon Search Marketing, "61% of a consumers buying decision is influenced by custom content."

3) Engage with customers by linking, reposting and commenting on other people's content
Research shows that businesses who provide a good customer experience, are estimated to bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors, who do not. Interacting online with customers and potential customers can influence their purchasing decisions and make your brand more trustworthy.

4) Create video content
HubSpot noted that in 2020, 92% of marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy. This has increased from 78% in 2015, showing the importance of video marketing and how it is growing drastically.

5) Uploading business photos or images.
It is important that your posts stand out, and are visual.
80% of people remember what they see, compared to ten percent what they hear and 20 percent of what they read - it is that simple. Make sure you use photos to engage with your audience.

6) Utilise trending and general hashtags to support your content.
Tweets with hashtags get almost double the engagement of tweets without. Use hashtags that are related to your content and also research the most popular hashtags in relation to your business. The 'trending' facilities of most social media platforms, make this quite a straight forward, but often under-utilised strategy.

7) Show off your client testimonials on social media.
Third person validation is an extremely powerful tool. It is now said that 92% of customers read online reviews before buying. So make sure you showcase all your positive reviews, and take time to check what people are saying about you.

Potential outcomes

While these are just a few ideas to get you started, it is important to remember that nearly half of the world's population are using social media platforms. Furthermore, 90% of companies on social media use a range of platforms for brand awareness and companies which engage on social media get 119% better return on investment.

For more information or business support during Covid-19, please contact Dragonfly Creative on admin@dragonfly-creative.co.uk or call us on 02920 782 873.