Should you update your social media strategy during a pandemic?

COVID-19 has turned daily life upside down for people and businesses across the world. It has changed the way we work, how we shop and where and with whom we interact. No matter how well planned and thought out your social media strategy was prior to the beginning of the pandemic it’s unlikely that you had factored this in. As a result, it’s essential to start looking for ways to update your social media approach to take into account what’s happening in the world and how this has shifted what people want, whether that’s in terms of content or tone.

Should you update your social media strategy?

The short answer is: yes. Definitely. There are a number of different ways that you can do this.

• Building listening into your strategy in a more focused way. Everywhere your business exists digitally right now is a potential opportunity to service customers and build relationships. What do people want, how do they feel and how will this affect your business?
• Update your basic information. Your bios may need an overhaul to reflect changes in business hours or products, shipping delays or location closures.
• Don’t post because you feel you have to. Tokenism is dangerous in social media today, whether that relates to Black Lives Matter or care of NHS key workers. Design a new social media strategy that ensures that every post has purpose – why are you posting this, what’s the message, who are you trying to reach and how can you be more authentic?
• Bring people into your social media marketing. Now more than ever we are responding to people and seeking connection, whether we are isolated or not. If your social media strategy previously focused around infographics or logos try to shift this more towards actual people, whether that’s customer generated content or your own team.
• Update your approach to timing and content type. Currently, there is no commute for many people, gyms are out and routines are very different. This could be significantly affecting the type of content that will work best for you as well as the best time to post it. It’s important to update any assumptions that you were previously basing strategy around that relate to content type and timing.
• Rethink your ads too. Whatever data you were previously using to make decisions about social ads will need to be reconfigured to take into account new pandemic routines. For example, overall click-through-rates for social ads have fallen which means that less expensive ads may not be as effective.
• Give your content context. The world has changed drastically and your marketing will be redundant if it doesn’t reflect this. For example, images of people in crowded restaurants enjoying dinners and drinks, going on luxury holidays or having lots of hugs will feel totally out of context for most people right now.
• Change your approach. It might be necessary to take a more long-term view and shift from selling to inspiring and informing for the moment. Customers may still want to connect but not in the way that they did before.

If you’re considering updating your social media strategy to take into account the impact of the pandemic now is a great time to do it.