Why Social Media is Crucial to Small Businesses During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Social media – we all know what it is, most of us have it and as we have seen over the last fortnight it is an incredibly powerful and important space for so many. Whilst many important humanitarian conversations continue in this space, I put the following thoughts together on a more practical level as I have seen so many beloved small businesses struggling and I wanted to offer some guidance.
Having worked in this area in both large and small businesses I have been reflecting on why this feels a more prevalent time than ever to make sure you are getting the most out of your social media and why, even when you have perhaps furloughed your team and more, should you devote time to it. Here are my three reasons why you should stay on top of things and some tricks and tools I have used before to make that easier.
1. Your social media accounts inform customers what is going on
Customers will, now more than ever, use your social media accounts as information points. Perhaps you’re changing opening hours at the drop of a hat, having delivery issues or just generally flying by the seat of your pants, your social media channels are the best way to keep people up to date and clear on how your business is running. If you have an account on a platform that you don’t use, either get rid of it or make it clear to customers you don’t check it and direct them to where they can get in touch. People expect quicker response times on social media platforms compared to email so stay on top of this as much as you can. Use things like Instagram stories to share anything relevant for that date. Story highlights are also great for showcasing products and how customers can use them (for example, Padella Pasta have done this really well for their pasta kits). Don’t be scared to face into public feedback – own it, respond to it and flex your customer service muscle. People are hopefully a little more forgiving right now on mistakes and will respond so much better to you if you act with haste, humanity and humility.
2. Your social media accounts help you sell directly to people
Enable your social media accounts as business accounts. It means you have better tools to direct customers to sales such as the Instagram hyperlink ‘swipe up’ functionality (for those businesses with over 10,000 followers - been some interesting debate about this on Vulture this week), which gets them straight into a selling page on your site. Make sure you check and respond to all messages you receive and use tools like auto responses where you draft replies to help you answer commonly asked questions quickly. Be aware that some messages can fall into a ‘requests’ folder – do not miss these as these are new customers/followers and an opportunity to widen your customer base! Also, with a lack of other interesting things going on during the pandemic people will naturally be more inclined to post about your business so use that word of mouth opportunity as much as you can. Remember people are not socialising in the ways we used to. Rather than asking a friend where they got their dress from, they will see them post it on social media and click on your @ mention if they have tagged your brand.
Make sure to present things well to customers and encourage as much social sharing as you can -making your products social media friendly does not mean they need to be millennial pink and covered in sparkles. Neat presentation, a personal touch with a reminder to share and just making stuff look as nice as possible goes a long way.
3. If your social media accounts look a bit dodgy, people will think your business is a bit dodgy
I cannot tell you how little time it takes to make your account look polished and how many free tools there are to do this. My suggestions are as follows. Only use square photos on your Instagram feed and if you are going to repost someone else’s photo, screen shot it, crop it correctly and then credit them with a tag and in the comments. Do not pollute your Instagram story with only reposted stories from your customers, it has a tendency to be boring and also doesn’t really express your point of view. If you are posting a video make sure it is the right dimension and note – 90% of people watch feed videos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the sound off so add some subtitles if you can (there are free ways to do this). If you have branding, use it. If you don’t, make it - I have! There are two brilliant free apps called Adobe Spark Post and Unfold. I made all the graphics for my website on Spark Post and use Unfold on my Instagram Stories (I have noticed Dishoom have also been using Unfold for their stories or something that looks very similar). I promise you, building legitimacy when you are a small business hustling like you never have before makes a difference and will help your conversion to sales. When you do things by half people are able to sense it and it will influence their view of your business/products.
I have seen reams of businesses nail this and reams of them get it totally wrong. I must do a shout out to my local small businesses doing their best job right now: The Common E2, Pavilion Bakery and The Sun Tavern. Pavilion in particular have done a great job to getting a personality and brand across.
Ultimately social media in this time of social distancing allows you to retain a personal contact with your current and prospective customers more than any other bit of technology. People are using it to get their fix of human contact and the small businesses that will survive this tough time are the ones people care about on a human level. Do not neglect it or forget about it.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch – I am between roles currently and would love to help.
