At the beginning of lockdown, I wrote about how brands could use social media during the crisis. At that stage everything was new and we were in the panic stage of the crisis, since then although we still don’t know how long these measures will last and what their impact might be, we’ve had the chance to amass some data and better understand how we can respond now.
We now know that consumers are looking to businesses (both global and local) to help support them through this uncertain period. In the UK consumers are more likely to look to smaller local businesses during this time.
At the same time we’re seeing a global deterioration in mental health, with 45% of internet users in the UK and the US reporting that their mental health has worsened – with anxiety and stress being the two main ways that this is manifesting.
We have also learned that social media continues to play a key role in brand discovery for both markets, predominently through social ads and friend recommendations, but also through organic social posts.
So – how does all this help us find a path forward?
I talked in my last post about making sure your social content was helpful. This still stands but now we have a better idea about the type of content that you can create.
Anything that supports your users health, mentally or physically is a great place to start, as long as it falls within your current brand content pillars. I can’t count the amount of updates I have seen from brands who are suddenly talking to me about meditation when they’ve never mentioned it before.
You want to approach the content creation from your brand lens, and think about how you can be supportive to your community and remain authentic.
I’d also recommend boosting (or putting some ad spend) behind your most popular helpful posts, to aid with content discovery, and that you encourage tagging and sharing.
Everything I said about building community and actually having conversations with your users is still absolutely the best course of action. Not only is it the right thing to do, but consumers will remember the brands who were helping when there is once again money to be spent.
As more information is accrued, I will post here again about ways we can use social in a post Covid/lockdown world – but it’s currently still too early to make predictions.
As always, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
All the data came from the Global Web Index Coronavirus hub.
Something to add?