How did businesses adapt their approach to social as the pandemic hit?
The world is a changed place. There’s no need for me to go into the ‘how’ and ‘why’, because you know exactly what I mean when I say that. Pretty much all aspects of ‘life as we know it’ have been disrupted - and in just a matter of weeks.
In the world of business and commerce, the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis has caused a silent and sudden chaos (if we thought Brexit was going to be ‘the real test’ for whether certain companies or industries survived in the future, we were sorely mistaken).
Over in my neck of the woods, I can already see that social media has been visibly transformed - and from all possible angles. For example, our usage levels have already changed. We’re spending more time than ever on social platforms. More than ever, we’re scrutinising what’s been posted by businesses, bodies, public figures and technical experts.
You can see brands of all sizes continuously wiggling about with their social updates - trying to find the correct balance between continuing to operate as a business and being helpful/politically correct. It’s not comfortable for them (or us), and it wasn’t planned for… but credit to those who have tried to grasp the nettle and try to get on with it.
Being the social media users (and consumers) that we are, the current situation means that our sensitivity levels and vigilance regarding what we see online is more heightened than ever - and nowhere is this more evident than when we’re scrolling through our social newsfeeds.
So, how exactly have some businesses been adapting? I decided to ask a few industry peers to share what it’s been like for them, and to explain how they’ve ‘recalibrated’ their social media strategies to address the current challenges.
Rob Mills, Head of Content at GatherContent
“The first response for GatherContent in relation to our marketing comms such as the weekly newsletter and social posts was ‘what is acceptable and considerate right now’?
“We didn't yet know where the line was between ‘helpful’ and ‘annoying’, but we knew it was a thin line. We couldn't just carry on with comms as per our scheduled content and editorial calendar. We reduced all of our social posts and halted any new publishing for two weeks.
“During that time, I used the newsletter to be honest about not being sure what the best approach was. I felt leading with empathy and good intentions were the best approach. Alongside this, we shared previous content that was especially useful in the face of world circumstances.
“We didn't sell, we didn't carry on as usual, we paused, listened and led with value.
“I also tried to manage the expectations of our audience by telling them when we would start publishing again. I spent a lot of time seeing what people were saying about brands on Twitter and learning from there what was resonating as ‘useful’ and what was frustrating people. I made my own list of words and phrases to avoid like 'unprecedented times' because they were starting to be triggers for people.
“Three weeks on, and I am now publishing and sharing new content again - but only when it was clear some sense of normality was welcome. Simultaneously, I'm still listening, observing and keeping in touch with what people want from companies and trying to act accordingly - still trying to lead with value.
“There's no ‘playbook’ for this (maybe there is now!), so I'm taking an honest approach and hoping our content and how we share it is on the right side of that thin line.
“We describe ourselves as a 'human' brand (like many other companies), and I think that either becomes obvious or proven not to be true at times like these.”
Mike Scott, MD of Hydrogen; Scotland’s largest social media agency
“As an entirely online organisation who already store all work securely in the cloud, we saw very few issues moving to a home-based work environment.
“Our first priority was to check in on all our clients and rework their strategies and posts to make sure they fitted with the current situation. This included scrapping ‘April Fool’ themed content, and rewording some posts (for example, ‘breathtaking’ might not be the best term to use right about now).
“For many marketers working from home with plans on hold, we saw this as a time they would be frantically trying to replan for the rest of the year - or for those who were sadly furloughed, it might be a time to learn.
“To help with both these aims, we changed Hydrogen’s own social plan to put more focus on sharing advice and resources (from planning right the way through to tactical elements like copywriting).
“The key for us – for our clients’ social and our own – was to work out how the needs of the customers had changed, and how we could meet these. For a restaurant, this could mean offering recipes to make at home instead of encouraging bookings; for a gym brand it could mean offering home workouts or showcasing alternatives for weights.
“It can be too easy to focus solely on the moment - rather than looking to the future -and that’s what we’re now doing with all of our clients; focusing on the future, building their exit strategies and ensuring they are perfectly placed for when things return to ‘normal’.”
Andy Lambert, Growth Director at ContentCal
“The importance of social media has never been more apparent than it is now. For businesses that are no longer able to trade in the current climate, social media facilitates the ability to continue to support and develop a community.
“Social media helps once physical businesses pivot to more of a ‘digital-first’ approach.
“We have more eyes on our content than ever before. We can’t just carry on doing what we’ve always done - a new situation requires a new approach.
“We’ve implemented a two-step approval flow; meaning that other stakeholders can double-check the tone of the message and ensure that it strikes the right note. We’ve also pulled back on more of the ‘snackable’ type of content (like GIFs and memes) in order to focus on pushing out more genuinely helpful content.
”For businesses, cutting costs where appropriate makes perfect sense to better ensure survival, but the counterintuitive approach that many may unfortunately take is to cut all marketing.”
“I deal with many companies who ‘do business’ at physical locations. With a number of clients operating in this way, and - up until now - a reliance on social media channels to drive people into their stores, practices or locations, recent events have meant a need to adapt social content; especially from an objective and copy point of view.
“Clients with a physical location have always wanted to maintain an objective of using their social media channels to promote their locations - and drive users to visit them.
“Instead of trying to send people to a location, content has needed to make a ‘shift’ to, for example, providing updates on opening hours and how a business is responding to events. There have also been new opportunities to promote some previously under-promoted features of brands; those which wouldn’t usually get much exposure on social.
“This has also been a time to build on the ‘sense of community’. With staff having more free time at their disposal, I’ve found we have been able to share new content based upon many of the things they are doing in their local community to help - food drops, volunteering, etc. The important thing is that my clients’ social accounts remain active, and we have used this time to provide support and information whilst users are at home – for example, providing tips, advice and someone to talk to about (brand relevant) topics. All of this, we hope, will serve to help us remain visible in the marketplace, and being remembered in our target audience’s minds.”
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