During the COVID-19 pandemic you hopefully have a lot of time on your hands as you sit at home in semi-quarantine. It might seem boring but it is better than the alternative of catching the disease. During this time you have probably spent more time on social media than you may normally when you can go out and live your life. That can be good or it could be bad but social media is playing an important role in our lives now.

People Spending More Time On Social Media

Let’s face it, more people get their news from social media than probably should. Of course you know why that is as it makes sharing news and information so easy. It could be something as a quick pick me up for your friends or followers or it could be much more serious like a warning from your state or local government. It is an easy way to get information in front of the masses. 

Do you want to know how many people in York County have tested positive? Head to social media. Need to hear what Governor Wolf or President Trump had to say and you couldn’t watch their briefings (either because you were doing something else or because the networks refuse to air them)? Head to social media. Do you need some safety tips? You can get them fast on social media. Need to keep up on the virus around the world? Social media is the place to go.

What Is Fake And What Is Real Regarding COVID-19?

Of course like with anything in today’s society not all of this information is good. Fake news have been pervasive in our political system and it has found its way into social media with COVID-19 as well. It could be as simple as a “cure” or a way to prevent it that worked for someone that they shared. It could be someone spreading misinformation on purpose. It’s not easy to filter this all out efforts from social media companies have not been 100% effective.

Take This Opportunity To Promote Your Business

Social media can also be a powerful tool for your business at this point. Let’s face it, if you are spending more time sitting around at home bored chances are others are as well and they too are spending time on social media. Don’t stop posting to social media at this time, in fact you might want to post more.

Those people spending time on social media will see your ad or your post. It could be a welcome diversion and they might just remember your name when this is all over. Or they might not even wait and they might give you a call or just start to follow your business. At the very least that is a start. 

Don’t Go Overboard

Of course you will want to tailor your posts to the situation. If you have a normal schedule of posts you might want to change that up a bit. Show empathy toward your following and for others, after all you are sitting at home bored so you understand what it’s like. You’ve probably also seen what happens with people who contract COVID-19 and it is easy to empathize with anyone who has contracted it.

That is of course not to say that your posts should be devoid of any humor but a post coming from the heart every now and again can go a long way. It can be done while promoting your products or services at the same time and that is even easier if what you offer can be used to help combat this.

Social Media Will Determine How We Remember COVID-19

Social media will play a large part in how we remember COVID-19 and it will allow historians in the future to study this. Social media shows an unvarnished view into the thoughts of the average person, something that in the past could only be had through letters or diaries. It will provide not only the thoughts but also pictures and videos of life during this. 

Social media will save the information put forth by politicians and other leaders and in the future it will provide an unprecedented look at what our leaders were doing and hopefully help determine what they did right and what they did wrong. We may one day show our posts during this time to our children and grandchildren when they learn about this in school and ask what it was like. 

Imagine if social media had existed during the Revolution or the Civil War. It would make historians’ jobs so much easier but of course that is not the case. But imagine if it had existed during the Spanish Flu of 1918? Perhaps our response would have been different had an unvarnished look at it been available. We’ll never know about that though.

Should this change the way you post? For your business maybe it should temporarily. On your personal page, post what you want. If you want to post Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips, you do that. If you want to post every single word spoken by Tom Wolf or Donald Trump, have at it. If you don’t want to post anything, that is your choice too.

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