The pandemic has transformed businesses and it has been a huge challenge for many industries and organisations. Lots of businesses have experienced people working from home because of the pandemic and lots of businesses are now rethinking the entire business model.

Social media has been proven to be the e-commerce avenue that has remained undisturbed by the last year. Companies have taken advantage of that during the pandemic. Social Media marketing spending increased by 74% for business. If the pandemic taught us anything, social media has never been more critical to be successful.

But how can businesses take advantage of social media? Here you will know how your businesses can be benefited by social media in a pandemic.

Benefits Of Social Media For Businesses In Pandemic

1.Rise In Internet Consumption

Are you finding yourself a lot more online during pandemic? Well, you are not alone. With the majority of the countries being in lock downs and quarantined, the overall internet consumption of the world has been rising since February 2020. This means more people than ever before are coming online each day.

This means more businesses than before are opening online each day to cater these people. These businesses are now attracting more audiences online each day. You can literally turn around the business given that you stay up to date with all the algorithm changes and the fluctuations in your sector.

2.The Importance Of Maintaining A Brand Presence

Have you come across any advertisement lately which did not focus on promoting their products, services but just wished you the best of health? That’s what is called maintaining a brand presence. Consistent posting is crucial, using content idea generators can be helpful in coming up with ideas for content.

“You don’t build a business, you build people and then they build the business”

 -Zig Ziglar

Not every user comes online to buy stuff. It is time for businesses to establish goodwill and create a positive aura through SEO practices and social media marketing as people are buying less and just surfing the internet more.

For example, the marketing strategy of HDFC Bank, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian bank brought on board composer AR Rahman to create an online campaign to pay tribute to the indomitable spirit of India. Campaigns like these go a long way and build goodwill for a brand.

Similarly, IKEA realised that the pandemic had forced people to engage with their living spaces more than ever before. They started promoting their AR & VR functionalities on social media platforms.

Planet Fitness, an american operator of fitness centers posted free exercise classes via Facebook live which turned out to be very popular with people stuck at home.

NIKE, on the other hand, tied up with multiple athletes for its “Play Inside” campaign where athletes use social media to set challenges for users to take up well at home.

3.Rise In The Number Of Online Stores

Most businesses except for those engaged in essential goods and services are at a standstill. On top of that, these enterprises are also cutting back on costs. This basically means that the ax falls on the marketing team. How to market anything effectively if there is a budget cut or worse, if the shop shutters are down?

This situation has given rise to many online stores coming into existence who can deliver products and services as per the latest guidelines released by the government except for the red zones. These stores can still access their target audience living in the green and orange zones and continue with their business operations.

Think about it, just a notification update on your website and social media channels and your whole consumer base is aware of the state of your business operations. 

4.Huge, Global Reach

Today there are 3.1 billion active social media users globally. These are crazy numbers when you realise that social media only emerged about 15 years ago. Today, one in three people around the globe are active on social media and all you need to reach them is an internet connected device.

Of the 3.1 Billion users, about 2.6 billion are on Facebook, 2.1 Billion are on YouTube, 1 Billion on Instagram and 700 Million are linked in. Virtually every business can now find their customers active on social media.

5.Pinpoint Your Target Market

Social media channels hold a huge amount of data on their users that they provide to advertisers to help them make targeted ads. This includes basic information like gender, location, age but also a massive array of demographic interest and behavioral data.

If you want to target 18-24 year old males who are single and live in the US that love dogs but dislike cats? No problem, it’s only a few clicks away. In addition to basic targeting you can also target those who have interacted with your organisation before.

You can call them Custom Audience, these are the list of people who have visited your website, people from your existing email list, people who watch your videos, people who like your facebook page and much more.

6.Data Measurement & Optimisation

On social media, you can measure literally everything. How many people watch your videos, how many people liked or reacted to the video, how many people commented and shared the video, clicked on the link and so on. Using a tracking pixel, the social media channels can even record the actions that people take as they travel around the internet.

For example, if you click on an ad in social media then make a sales inquiry on a website. This data will be pulled back into the social media channel. This allows marketers to track conversions and optimize their spend to increase the return on investment.

The algorithm of the social media channels also optimize your ad spend to help you achieve your objectives at the lowest possible price. They have a vested interest in helping you because the more money you make, the more you spend advertising on their platforms.

7.Insights From Digital Marketing Network

The sudden increase of people being indoors has led to a change in lifestyle where consumers have shifted to spending more time online than before. Brands already catering to the sofa surfers, have shown to be in the clear. In some cases we have even seen an increase in sales.

Brands that are traditionally offline, have innovated new online products in an effort to adapt to this new way of living. Lockdown is drastically increases the consumption of data and since online time for users increases, companies are now paying more attention to digital mediums for marketing.

This has led to a rise in the number of inquiries for digital marketing agencies and freelance professionals.

8.Voice Search Technologies

Before the spread of coronavirus pandemic, most people use voice search while driving. We can now expect even greater use of voice based assistants like Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant, especially in public places as people will tend to avoid direct contact.

The possibilities for the future of voice technology are endless. At the moment, one thing is clear: voice search is taking off among consumers who are smitten with the latest home voice assistant devices including Amazon’s Echo and Google Home.

Just as quickly as voice is taking off among consumers, so too is it driving a need among businesses to develop a voice search strategy to incorporate into their marketing plans because voice is changing the way people search for and find brands to interact with.

It will approve the customer experience and help you stay ahead of the competition. At the moment, there are alreat 45 Million voice-assisted devices in use in the United States.

9.Engage Your Audience

Traditional media like television, print, radio and outdoor are broadcast formats meaning there’s a handful of media publishers sharing a message that the audience can’t respond to. These formats have evolved to make their media more interactive.

With modern smartphones everyone is a media publisher, billions of people can take a photo and publish it to social media in seconds. Then there’s billions of other people who can respond.

This unique attribute of social media humanizes a brand by giving you a unique voice, helping create meaningful connections with their audience, ultimately increasing trust.

10.Virtual Interface

Virtual interface is another big benefit of social media for business in a pandemic. With the help of this, we can deliver some of the services in a digital format especially using things like augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.

During the pandemic, people realize if they really do need to go into the shop to try on makeup if they can use an augmented reality app that allows them to put the makeup on and try and test it?

Do they really need to have a consultation with a fashion  adviser if their virtual avatar can try this on in VR to see what the clothes will look like from all different perspectives?

So this whole ‘try before you buy’ in this new world of virtual interfaces will continue in 2022. This is transforming how businesses offer their services.

Social Media Tips For Business Owners

• Political Opinions

Be very careful of the words that you use and the type of content that you are sharing on social media. If you have very strong political opinions then keep those to your personal profile or just don’t share them at all on social media to be extra safe.

• Positive Thoughts or Quotes

Quotes do very well on social media. They get alot of likes and shares because they just bring an overall positive vibe when there is so much negativity on social media. So share something positive and uplifting and you can never go wrong.

• Funny Meme

When you are posting something humorous about the situation you are facing, you are going to have to use your judgement about not being offensive. So be really careful and cognizant of that but that doesn’t mean that you can’t bring any humor.

• Questions 

Questions are the best way to increase engagement on social media. You ask your followers questions and they feel compelled to respond. It gets those comments up there and increases your engagement. You can get better results overall on social media.

• Action You Are Taking

As a business owner, you have lightly taken some sort of action to address the pandemic. Whether you have increased different cleaning habits or whatever that is, share that on social media with your audience.

• How To Do Business With You

Many businesses have had to shut down completely or change the way that they are interacting with their customers. It is really important that you tell your customers how they can do business with you right now. Maybe you have had to go completely online, let them know how to still engage with you.

• Behind The Scenes

The way the businesses are operating has completely changed. So give your customers a little behind-the-scenes glimpse of what your day to day looks like. Let them see how it has impacted your daily operations or where you are able to work  and how you are able to work and communicate with your customers.

• Helpful Information

This is information specific to pandemic. Remember not to share personal opinions or information that could be seen as polarizing or offensive. Make sure that you are sharing helpful information to allow people to stay healthy and improve their lives.

To get a little extra exposure to your post, make sure that you tag the original creator (if you are sharing someone else’s post) of that content.

• Throwback 

This type of post works particularly well on Thursdays because it’s “Throwback Thursday”. So if you post this and you do it on Thursday, make sure you leverage the hashtag for some extra exposure.

The reason I recommend them is that having images that show people engaging in community with others, attending events, being around people, just living their lives and travelling adds some hope. It allows you to see images and think that we can return back to this life that we used to have.

• Thank Essential Workers

There are so many people working hard right now to keep all of us safe and well fed. Make sure you recognize them and recognize their hard work that they are putting in. Make sure you are building relationships and connecting with your audience so that when the pandemic is all over, you have an audience of raving fans ready to do business with you.