Refocus Your Social Media Efforts During The Pandemic

Many marketing executives, social media managers, and business executives have been struggling to adapt their marketing and branding efforts so their social media content remains relevant and appropriate during the pandemic. 

In a previous article, I addressed how you can use social media to communicate during a time of crisis, but now where do we find ourselves? The sheer length of the pandemic means we can’t continue to function in full-scale crisis mode, but many of us simply aren’t “business as usual” yet. How do we move our efforts forward in smart, meaningful ways that are sensitive to this ever-changing climate?

According to the “Digital 2020” report, released at the beginning of the year, 4.54 billion people worldwide were using the internet. That’s a 7% increase from the previous year, and we’re nearing 60% worldwide internet penetration. 

Once the pandemic hit, internet and social media use increased across demographics. More time is being spent on social media sites, but the ways people are using social media has changed. Here is what marketing executives and social media managers need to know now:

1. Logging In For News

It’s no surprise that back in March and April of this year, people flocked online to get updates on Covid-19. Many chose to visit specific social media channels, and they used those channels’ internal search engines to find updates, news and information. We had started to see this trend in news consumerism over the last few years. Last year, for example, 55% of Americans got at least some of their news from social media. But reliance on social media for news seemed to really take off in response to the pandemic.

With so many people using social media for news, it’s important that your content stay topical and also sensitive to the news cycle. While your brand may be fun or sarcastic, you’ll need to understand how your content might be viewed in a user’s feed when sandwiched between two news stories.

That said, embrace this trend and share news about your business! Your customers and even your employees might be looking at your social media for updates — to see if you’ve made modifications to your services during the pandemic or find out if you’re still in business.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/