How to use social media to stay in touch
Helping your business survive isolation during this pandemic
Our world as we know it has changed seemingly overnight. A few weeks ago, we were living our lives, following the same routines and businesses were flying along beautifully.
Then bam, we’re hit with a pandemic as we’ve never seen before.
We’ve seen businesses forced to close and more and more people working from home.
For some of us, working from home isn’t a new thing – we’ve been doing this for years now. But trust me, it did take some getting used to. Not having people around to chat with every day was a significant adjustment.
But we could network and go to real-life events to defeat the loneliness.
This time it’s different. It’s not business as usual. We have to stay inside, and events all around the country are cancelled.
Imagine if this happened 20 years ago!
In many ways, we are fortunate to be living in a digital world. We may be housebound and isolated, but it doesn’t mean we have to be socially isolated. As a lover of social media, I’m rapt we have it to keep in touch.
While we are stuck at home, more and more of us are spending our days browsing online, looking at articles, reading the news, finding online courses to upskill, and spending hours scrolling our social media feeds.
If this pandemic happened 20 years ago – businesses couldn’t work online, and the only means of communication we’d have is the old phone on the wall. Be thankful for what we have!
I’ve seen people organising virtual coffee chats and virtual happy hours on a Friday afternoon which are great ideas.
There are no rules that you can’t virtually hook up with friends, families and colleagues, so stay in touch and share some laughs – we could all use some fun during these trying times.
What to share on your business social media channels
As a social media manager, I’ve had a few clients contact me and ask what they should be posting during a time of a pandemic.
Everything seems such doom and gloom, and they’re not sure if they should be posting about the coronavirus and its impact (or giving advice) or continuing as usual.
Here’s my advice:
It’s not business as usual right now – many people are struggling, and many have lost their jobs.
Being overly funny or flaunting luxurious items won’t resonate with anyone in a time of crisis. You should promote what you’re doing but keep it within the context of what’s happening in the world.
People are looking for added meaning right now. Most of us are at home and trying to find some purpose. Many are looking at learning new skills. If you run an online course, offer discounts and encourage people to sign up while they’ve got the time to learn.
Write blogs to share your knowledge about things to do (i.e. what to post on social media, fun things to make with your kids, how to help your kids with school work and so on), and then share these on your business socials.
Use this time to show more of the human side of your business – introduce your team, show the world what they are doing to cope during this time.
You’re dealing with an audience, and possibly a larger one than before. Keep your identity and focus on content that would resonate with your audience. Don’t be too cheerful at a time when everything is up in the air, but don’t focus on the doom and gloom either. Your audience may love to hear some good news!
Staying social online is the best way to beat home loneliness
In general, people don’t stay down for too long. We are all hoping that things will settle down soon. We’ll get used to working from home, changing our lifestyles to adapt to self-isolation measures, and staying in touch using every digital medium possible.
Share your knowledge with your audience, help people adjust to working from home, offer advice on systems, run giveaways to lift spirits, promote online training and above all, remain human and kind.
I’d love to hear what you’re doing to help your business stay social online.