How social media has helped many businesses though the pandemic

The Covid pandemic has bought massive disruption to many businesses. Some have been forced to close their doors for months on end, and if they were not able to trade online, this may have meant they couldn’t earn any sort of income.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have helped a number of businesses immensely during the pandemic and particularly throughout the various lockdowns. If they didn’t have a website, it gave them a way of communicating with their customers and selling their products and services online. Having a website created is by far one of the best ways to build up your business online but it can be expensive and can always take some time to get it up and running. This is something that just was not feasible for many businesses and therefore unless they used social media, they could not continue to trade. Some of the social media sites work better for certain businesses than others. Facebook can be great for selling products, taking bookings and updating your community of followers as to what is happening. LinkedIn is great for networking and essentially word of mouth type marketing and Instagram is ideal for those that want to showcase their work in the form of images.

Is now the right time to set up a social media marketing business?

The last 15 months have been a challenge for us all. Some businesses and freelancers have thrived and others have found it tough, or maybe not even made it through. One industry that has done well is the world of online marketing. Although initially some businesses cut back on their marketing, worried about cash flow, they very quickly realised that they needed to be investing in improving their online presence in order to continue trading. With the UK going in to lockdown and having restrictions imposed at different times throughout the year, it was vital that businesses could communicate and trade with their customers online. If they didn’t have a website then they would either need to have one built or use one of the other marketing platforms such as social media. The social media sites have proved vital to thousands of businesses as with them, they may not of been able to do any business at all. Even when restrictions are lifted, it will be a good idea to continue with this sort of online marketing as the world of online retail is ever growing and unlikely to stop.

An online marketing company or freelancer will be able to advise you on where to invest your budget to get the best return on your investment.

Are your social media accounts becoming too much to handle?

Social media can work so well for lots of different business. Some have been said that without social media advertising their business would of failed. Getting the balance right is essential when it comes to promoting your business through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Too much and people will be put off following you, too little and you will become forgotten about. When you first start out with social media marketing, you may well feel that you can do it all in house but if your business does start to grow quickly there may come a time when you feel it has gotten too much to handle. Missing messages and not responding can be detrimental but rather than cutting down on your social media marketing, why not look to out source it? A web marketing agency will be able to offer you a quick package where they manage all your social media marketing in your behalf. They will obviously change a fee for this, but it is usually well worth paying it rather than stopping the marketing altogether. You can also then call on their expertise to advise you on what you should and should t be doing to get the most out of the sites.

Expanding your business into new locations

Whenever you are looking to do something new within your business, it is vital that you plan for it in advance. It may be that you want to launch a new product or try a click and collect service or possibly target new areas to sell your products or services in.

It is vital that create a marketing strategy well in advance of when the change is going to happen so you have plenty of time to market the idea and let your existing and potential customers know.

If you are going to start advertising in new areas then you need to think of the most cost effective way of doing so. It may be that you decide to do a door to door leaflet drop or perhaps you use Google AdWords to get your site found for new locations. Whatever you chose to done sure to have a way that you can track how successful it has been. Social media is another great way to target new locations and there are often local groups that you may be able to join and advertise in to get the word around. Just always check the rules of the group before posting!

How to get your targets audience’s attention on social media

Standing out from the crowd and building brand awareness on social media is no easy task. With more and more companies and businesses using social media as a form of marketing, it should come as no surprise that competition levels are high and you need to do something to get your brand recognised and to stand out from the crowd.

You need to make sure you stand out and give your social media profiles a personality. It is easy to fall in to the trap of posting a picture or articles and a link to a blog post every day and think that you’re done,  but people will often find this boring and will quickly move on to something else. Adding a touch of humour to some of your posts or putting a picture of something funny that happened in the office allows people to connect in a more personal level and keeps them engaged. Try and move away from sounding like a robot. Choosing to use words that include feelings and emotions will help to keep your posts personal. If you are struggling, always re-read your text before posting and ask yourself does it sound like something you would say in a conversation, if not then you may need to change it.