There are several studies out there that show how social media has helped small businesses to flourish in recent times. Apart from being able to directly communicate and interact with the client’s online, social media has assisted many small businesses to build relationships with customers and build upon increasingly innovative forms of engagement.
According to a study published by Small Biz Trends, 77.6% of small businesses use social media to promote their business, Facebook being the most popular. Around 90% of marketers proclaim that social media helps them to get more significant exposure for their brands and companies.
However, this current situation of the world where the pandemic has disrupted life brings in new challenges and difficulties. Let’s take a quick look at some of the ways social media remains the key for small businesses to progress amid COVID-19.
Role of Social Media amid COVID-19
Here is a list of seven things that perfectly explain the role of social media for small enterprises amid coronavirus pandemic.
Celebrities, Influencers, & Social Media Personalities
Information technology has developed an ecosystem around the planet where people have found their calling as a social media personality or an influencer. Today a lot of young people along with women consider celebrities and their endorsements as their point of reference with respect to their buying behavior.
This followership of social media influencers can be found in various parts of the world where people these days find their decisions heavily influenced by them. This is why during this current pandemic, small businesses need to focus on these celebrities and build mutually beneficial relations with influencers across niches and customer segments to propel themselves forward.
Facebook Shops
On the 19th of May, 2020, the CEO of Facebook made a huge announcement regarding the availability of a new feature known as Facebook Shops. This is directed towards companies who might be facing considerable risks and other troubles due to the on-going pandemic.
Facebook Shop is free to use, and it allows businesses to set their product offerings and display them on Facebook page and even include them in Instagram profiles. This is allowing small enterprises to set up their virtual shops on the popular social media platform and use it to sell products and services from anywhere and any part of the world.
Giving a Positive Outlook
Our present times have brought us a lot of distress. With several millions of people losing their jobs in the United States and numerous others who are facing eviction notices from their landlords, these times are the toughest we have seen in a long time.
This is where small businesses can reach out to their communities and play an active role in keeping it together. For starters, small companies can even run agendas to support a cause, may it be a family that needs urgent help or a community that requires an extra bit of love and support.
Businesses can and should use social media to show people the positive side of things even though nowadays things look pretty bleak.
Instagram’s Stickers
While mastering how to make money on Instagram can take a commendable amount of time, brands and businesses need to realize the significance of Instagram stickers. While many consider them to be just cute and aesthetically pleasing, using the right Instagram stickers at the right time can enable your stories to become more exciting and may even allow you to accomplish your company’s marketing goals.
This new dynamic and graphical element can be used for both images and video stories. There is a considerable room for customization, and this can include Hashtags, Mentions, Location, and whatever message you might want to give off to your viewers.
Helping Out Others
During the COVID-19 crisis, the role of social media has been deemed even more crucial to for individuals, communities, and groups of people to keep themselves positive. Not only social media platforms have become a significant source of information for the general public, but they are also able to inspire them to do well in their lives.
Companies need to focus on the aspects of togetherness right now to bring people together and help each other out throughout these literarily troubled times that we all are experiencing.
They can share stories about courage and compassion, and while they can carry out their marketing schemes, simultaneously they can also reach out to customers and see if they need support.
Keeping Stakeholders Connected
With lockdowns, social distancing, and isolation measures still intact in a lot of places, businesses these days are finding it hard to keep the system running. This is where social media offers them a primary ability to connect with stakeholders and broadcast news about their continuing operations.
This helps them to keep stakeholders informed about crucial information regarding their performance and how they are still striving forward. It is important since a business deals with a lot of different types of people. These can include suppliers, vendors, logistic service providers, marketplace owners, etc. Social media allows companies to keep stakeholders connected during the pandemic.
YouTube’s Video Builder Tool
Since we all know, and it’s pretty clear that many businesses are struggling these days due to the COVID-19 crisis, tech giants like Google are reaching out to support small enterprises under these turbulent times.
One such occasion came recently, where Google announced the launch of free to use YouTube Video Builder Tool. This allows businesses to create 6-15 second videos using a wide range of layouts and customization options.
Since it is hard for companies these days to acquire resources to create videos and in-person shoots, this new tool comes as a huge relief. A business can just provide images, texts, and logos to create their own video through this new tool.
Conclusion
Social media for small enterprises has been progressively beneficial as it allows them to promulgate their business culture and work ethics. I hope this post was able to offer you some delightful insights as to how small businesses can use social media during the COVID-19 crisis.
For more questions regarding the topic, please feel free to let us know of your feedback or query by mentioning it in the comment section below.
