What Should You Be Posting On Social Media During COVID-19?

It looks like the light at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel might finally be in sight and that is a good thing for all of us here in Central Pennsylvania. While getting back to what was normal only a few weeks ago may not be possible it appears that the worst of this may be over. For the lucky, that just meant sitting at home spending their day on the Internet interspersed with trips to the grocery store or to go out and cut your grass. That also means that Americans have spent a lot of time on social media in these past few weeks and we’re not out of this just yet. In fact it is quite possible that we may have to go back into lockdown over the course of the summer as COVID-19 reappears.

If you are a business owner or run a social media account you know how important that can be. Hopefully you have kept up posting, if just to keep yourself busy during this period but hopefully you have adjusted your message a bit to take into account what is going on around us. If you haven’t (or even if you have), Nicely Done Sites has a few ideas to consider.

First, we’ll get this out of the way. There is no handbook when it comes to posting on social media during a global pandemic. You could say that we are writing it as it happens but there is no one set-in-stone method. Some of this might work for you, some of it might not. 

A New Normal

You know the five A’s when it comes to a personal situation. One of them is acknowledgement and you need to acknowledge that we have entered a period with a new normal. Chances are you have seen every business under the sun post this acknowledgement and there is a good chance that you have as well in one form or another. 

Tell everyone that you are taking this seriously. If you aren’t it will get out and people might hesitate to do business with you during this time and let’s face it at this point, every sale counts. Detail some of the changes, be it protection for your employees or closing your doors to customers. At this point, people understand and this same thing can be done when the time comes to re-open in (hopefully) a few weeks.

This also gives you an opportunity to create sales or at least website views which can result in sales. If you operate an e-commerce store online don’t forget to take this opportunity to point your customers to your website and your store in particular. You might be able to get a few sales out of that, and every sale counts.

Don’t Stop Posting

More people are online and on social media than ever before. Many people are just using it to whittle away the downtime and there is nothing wrong with that. The more posts you create, the more will be seen and hopefully will be seen by some new potential customers. 

People might find it a bit insensitive to constantly post but some people might find it to be a welcome relief in between all of the bad news coming from media outlets and all of the press briefings with government officials. You have a business to try to save and you might have employees that you are trying to keep employed so that means that you need to generate sales. Most people will understand that and just remember that on social media there are always nattering nabobs of negativity (i.e. trolls). They have chosen to spend their time in isolation being negative. Don’t let them get to you.

But Watch What You Post

There are people who are extremely sick because of COVID-19 and as we are reminded on every newscast there are thousands of people who have died. While York County has not been hit as hard as some other counties in Pennsylvania we have lost some people and we have had several hundred people test positive. Your customers or followers on social media might be related to one of them or knows one of them. 

When you post, be empathetic about this. You can certainly understand having to sit at home doing nothing but twiddling your thumbs but there are thousands of people who would gladly change places with you. In the grand scheme of things, you don’t have it that bad. There are hundreds of people queuing up at local food banks hoping that they can get enough food to keep their family fed as well. These are uncertain times.

That is not to say that you can’t offer some humor during these difficult times but do it the right way, especially if it is going to reflect your business. You might have noticed that your social media feed doesn’t have quite as many memes on it. Maybe that’s because there is no news other than COVID-19 or maybe that’s because it just isn’t appropriate right now. 

Your language should be more subdued than it normally is. When advertising a product or service you might want to acknowledge that not everyone will be able to take advantage of it at that time and thank your customers or followers for sticking with you during these times, especially if they have bought something from you.

Don’t Go Overboard

Finding the right number of posts with the right amount of content should be what you are striving for at any time of the year, even during non-global pandemic times. Just like during what we used to call normal times, if you posted too much content you would either be ignored after a bit or your followers would not be able to see it all since they had lives to live. Don’t flood their timelines, let CNN, MSNBC, FOX News or your local news affiliates do that. 

Highlight Your Efforts

These are difficult times and we’re not out of the woods just yet. If you are donating money, time or food to charities or nonprofits highlight that. When times get tough it can bring out the best in people so if you are sharing with others who may not be quite as fortunate, why not toot your own horn a bit. 

At the same time you can give your customers a chance to help too. Perhaps for every online sale or gift card sold you will donate a portion of the proceeds to a worthy cause. In this time when your customers are stuck at home this could be how they are able to give back to their community. You might be surprised just how effective that can be.

Need Help? Nicely Done Sites Can Help

These are not normal times for any of us but we will get through this. We’ve lost thousands of our fellow Americans to COVID-19 and it is unlikely that we have seen the last death. This is something also that is likely to affect us for probably the rest of 2020 and maybe even a portion of 2021 as well. The great thing with social media is that it allows any business to advertise and if you have an ecommerce website you have a storefront that does not close, even when the humans are sent home. Hopefully this has been your lifeline towards staying in business.

For anyone out there who needs help with social media content, Nicely Done Sites can help with that and if you do not have an ecommerce page on your website we can help you with that as well. You might have to wait until the lockdown is over to get started (or not, the plugins can be easily downloaded) but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel with that. Believe it or not, COVID-19 could make your business stronger.

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