What to post on social media during COVID-19
If you’ve wondered, “What do I even say right now?” when you sit down to create social content for your brand, you’re not alone.
We’re all in uncharted territory. And we’re likely to be in these choppy waters for some time.
But as I’ve been saying from the beginning of this crisis, now is not the time to go dark on social media and abandon the community you’ve worked so hard to build.
And frankly, none of us can afford to stop filling our pipeline with potential leads. It may not be “business as usual,” but business must go on.
So today I’m sharing 5 content ideas and prompts that will help you start thinking about what to say on social media.
As you read, think about how each of these can apply to your brand:
What makes the most sense to share based on your brand values, what you actually sell, what resources you have available, and what your audience needs?
1. Acknowledge the crisis and tell us how you’ve been impacted.
We are all dealing with this, so there’s no use pretending otherwise. Candidly share how your business has changed as a result of the coronavirus.
Start with operational updates. How are you serving customers now?
Are you offering a curbside service, or do you have new hours? New restrictions on in-store traffic? Are you delivering, or do you have a new e-commerce store? Help us understand how to buy from you now, if that’s changed.
If you already shared this at the start of the crisis, be sure to check back in with periodic updates so the information looks recent.
With a stale, inactive social media presence, people might assume the worst - that your business went under!
Then, go deeper. Transparently share how this crisis has affected your company’s vision or mission.
Or, instead of shifting course, has this caused your brand to dig its heels further into a particular brand value?
This can look like many things, and none of them require a big production.
You can even film a quick smartphone video of one of your company’s leaders expressing how this has shifted their own perspective on your brand’s industry, category, company, or community.
Don’t be afraid to get more vulnerable than you’ve been on social media in the past. If ever there were a time for radical candor, it’s now. This is about building trust, and signaling to your customers what your values are so you can attract the right people to your brand.
2. Share how you’re embracing your mission and community.
Now is the time to rally together. If you’re doing anything in your community to ease the burden of this crisis, tell us on social!
Many of my clients are hesitant to share their philanthropic efforts for fear of looking as though they’re bragging. But there’s a big difference between a full PR campaign to shout about your good deeds, and a simple post or two telling us how you’re stepping up.
Don’t be afraid to share. Otherwise, your customers might never know about this one extra reason to love you!
If you’re supporting a specific nonprofit, focus on them with the content you share. This is a win-win: it takes the spotlight off of you (alleviating the concern that you seem self-serving) and elevates their work, yet your brand still benefits from the halo effect of altruism.
And if you’re not doing any of this, and not sure where to begin, start here:
What’s the most natural, genuine way for your business to be of service to your community?
Look first at who you already serve with your products or service, or what you already sell, and then align that to the greatest need in your community. Think of the lateral moves and side-steps that feel relatively simple to implement and that others in need would really benefit from.
Maybe this seems like a tangent for an article about social media content, but great content isn’t born in a vacuum.
Great content happens naturally when your brand is actually doing things worth talking about.
3. Make us LOL: inject humor, lightheartedness, or levity into your content.
After weeks of isolation and shelter-in-place orders, it’s obvious we’re itching for a little fun.
Now and before, we often check social media as a way of giving our brains a mental “snack break.”
So rather than take yourself too seriously, consider how your posts can provide your audiences with a mental or emotional release that’s related in some way to your industry or category.
Not sure where to start? Ask! Don’t be afraid to poll your audience directly for guidance on what they want to see right now.
Your mileage may vary here, depending on your brand principles and values, and the tone you usually take on social media.
But of all the places a brand could forgivably loosen its corporate tie and adopt a more casual, witty demeanor, it’s social media.
Stay attuned to what your audience really needs. If that’s a laugh, and your brand can credibly provide one, by all means do so!
If in doubt, ask around. Everyone marketing on behalf of a brand needs a sounding board. Ask trusted colleagues if something’s missing the mark before you schedule it out.
4. Co-create! Collaborate with other businesses.
Partnering with another brand for a special, limited-time promotion can be a great way to broaden your audience.
If you’re at a loss for social post ideas, collaborations are an engaging way to inject fresh creativity into your content.
These work best with other businesses that share an audience with your brand, but aren’t a direct competitor.
One example might be a fertility specialist teaming up with an OB-GYN, or an upscale hair salon teaming up with a med spa. These share the same patient or customer pool, but don’t compete directly. In fact, they may even be great referral partners.
The focus of your collaboration could be a giveaway of some kind, in which you each give away a product or two and promote it in your feeds. When the other business posts about it and tags you, they’re also sending traffic to your profile. If users are required to follow both you and your giveaway partner in order to enter, this can provide a boost in follower counts, too.
Take it a step further and go Live together on Instagram. What kind of conversation could you have together?
Absent something to give away, you can use the tactic of going Live with other brand-aligned businesses to simply have interesting conversations that are relevant to your audience.
Instead of focusing on creating content, which might seem like a struggle if you’re feeling creatively tapped, you’re simply documenting a conversation and inviting others to participate.
Not sure where to start? Begin by identifying a handful of potential collaborators. Reach out to explain what you’re thinking so far, that you’re open to their ideas too, and see where the conversation takes you.
This open, inviting approach works best for influencer outreach, too.
BONUS: Combine this partnership with #2 by inviting a nonprofit to benefit from your promotion in some way - and your collaboration could really take off.
5. Bring it back: Repurpose your best content.
Recycling content is by far one of the most underutilized tactics in social media and content marketing.
And right now, many can’t afford to invest in heavy content production.
If you’ve already gone to the effort of creating something, don’t just post it once and call it a day. Maximize your investment!
For one thing, algorithms prevent your content from being seen by everyone who follows you. And even those who do see it are likely scrolling at breakneck pace, and may not remember it.
We are barraged daily with more information than we can possibly take in. We’ve essentially been trained to ignore content, even as we seek it out!
So unless you’ve been using the same image or video in a Facebook or Instagram ad for weeks and weeks, it’s unlikely that your audience is experiencing what we call in advertising “creative fatigue.”
If it’s been a while since you last posted an image that performed well on Instagram, post it again with a different caption.
Have longer-form content? Even better. Share different pieces or outtakes from that on social. This works equally well with epic (long) blog posts or other written content, infographics (breaking them into bite-sized pieces), and videos (editing longer videos into shorter social cuts).
Even cropping an image differently is enough to give your post a fresh look.
When content production budgets are tight, repurposing is your best friend.
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I hope this helps get your creative gears turning. If it inspired you to try something new on social, please let me know by sending me a message on LinkedIn.
