Many of us may have had to close the doors of our businesses recently, and work from home. However our clients and customers, and our relationships with them are more important than ever. Where possible we all want to be able so support our customers now, and ensure they and their businesses, are in good health when our doors reopen.
Many of the businesses I work with are small businesses, and they are anxious and concerned about how best to respond to these unprecedented times. Most do not have dedicated Social Media Managers and are uncertain what approach to take, yet appreciate that a digital relationship is currently the only one they can maintain with their customers. Below are some of the strategies I have advised my clients to use:
- Have A Clear Campaign Objective Ask yourself what you want to achieve. Do you want to remain front of mind with your clients/customers and run a Brand Awareness Campaign? Do you want to drive Online Sales and if so how will you arrange payment and fulfilment? Are you offering support in the form of tips/advice/online classes/video content etc.? Once you decide your campaign objective set specific, measurable KPI’s so you know if you are achieving your objectives.
- Find Inspiration It can be daunting to create appropriate Social Media content for incredibly busy news feeds and timelines. Look at what other businesses in your sector are doing, particularly larger businesses who do have a full time specialist team creating their content. Check out examples of award-winning social media campaigns for ideas. You should also look at what your competitors are doing, and at other accounts that are speaking to your audience
- Tailor Your Message You know your customers best, you understand them, their concerns, and their pain points. Make sure that the content you publish on Social Media speaks to them, at this point in time, and the circumstances in which they now find themselves. Offer advice and solutions, don’t push sales, rather let your audience decide to approach you to buy if that is the solution for them now. You also need to ensure that every post is appropriate to the particular Social Media channel on which you are posting.
- Measure and Analyse Review your social media activity to see if it is achieving the Campaign Objectives you set out at the start. Are there particular themes or post styles that are performing better on particular channels? Are you seeing better engagement on certain days or at specific times of day? Are some posts getting no traction? Use this information to inform your plans for the next part of your campaign.
- Use a Social Media Content Calendar As you plan to focus more intently on your digital relationship with your customers and clients the workload can seem overwhelming. The key is to plan carefully, use the content you create wisely, repurposing where appropriate and using the results from your analysis to to inform future activity. A Social Media Content Calendar will simplify this process, taking it from overwhelming to achievable. I have created a template that will help you through the next month, at the end of which we will hopefully be looking towards returning to a more recognisable way of doing business. Pop a request in the comments below and I will be happy to send you over your personalised version.