Are you scratching your head wondering what you should say to your followers during the Coronavirus crisis? Are you tempted to keep quiet and wait until it all blows over?
While that’s an understandable reaction during this period of national upheaval and anxiety, it’s actually the opposite of what you should be doing. Your community needs you to be visible, supportive and help them get through this. And to help your business get back on its feet when all this is over, you need to ensure your audience doesn’t forget about you.
Here are five things you should be posting on social media right now:
1. Acknowledge the crisis
Covid-19 has affected us all in one way or another so it’s pointless and insensitive to pretend it’s not happening. It’s certainly not ‘business as usual’ for anyone at the moment. Think about what your audience needs to see and hear from you at the moment. Be sensitive to what people are going through and create a conversation where people can share their feelings.
2. Offer help and support
Create and share helpful content which meets the needs of your audience right now. Your followers may be struggling to come to terms with having to temporarily close their business, working from home for the first time, or juggling childcare and running their business. Try sharing posts and stories with tips, advice and strategy or collate your ideas into a blog post or LinkedIn article.
Content ideas include:
Coping with anxiety
Keeping fit at home
Home schooling tips
Keeping children entertained
Staying focused when working from home
Understanding furlough status
Self-care when self-isolating
Getting a good night’s sleep
Home pampering tips
3. Be inspirational
Encourage your followers to stay positive and say what you are doing to keep upbeat. Share motivational quotes and good news stories in Instagram and Facebook stories such as the weekly Clap for our Carers. Focus on how the crisis is bringing people together and making us appreciate the little things more.
4. A little light relief
We all need a bit of escapism and laughter in a time of crisis – as long as we take care not to offend anyone. Keep an eye out for, save and share other people’s posts – such as memes and videos – which will lift your followers’ spirits.
5. Keep selling
As a small business owner, you most probably need to keep bringing in money to feed your family and pay your bills and the government’s financial assistance won’t come through until June. As long as you're sensitive to the current situation there's nothing wrong with continuing to sell – after all, small businesses buying off each other will help keep the economy going.
You may need to point out that you're still operating and still need to make sales. If you can save people time or money, they will continue to buy from you but NEVER push sales through fear, panic or desperation. Always be empathetic to how people are feeling and mindful of the context of what’s going on in any sales posts, which should make up no more than a fifth of your total social media output.
A final note of caution, if you have any posts scheduled over the coming weeks, take a moment to review them and edit or delete anything inappropriate, such as encouraging people to get out and about. In fact, it might be better to avoid scheduling completely for the foreseeable future.
If you need help creating social media content, get in touch.
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