Keep Being Social

08 Apr Keep Being Social

We are living in extraordinary times – one day we’re going to look back on this period of social distancing and reminisce about how bored we were, and how there was ‘nothing to do’ – the fact is, we’re being isolated for our own health. Unlike generations before, who were asked to sign up to the military and go off to war, we have been told to stay home and watch TV – and in a world so full of easily accessed content, it’s really not that difficult.

That is, of course unless you’re self-employed and a little worried about the business you’ve spent five years building from nothing could soon be reset, to nothing. Generally, self-employed and small business owners are a level of ‘busy’ that most employees can’t really comprehend. That’s not a dig, it’s just a fact – I mean truthfully, could you honestly say you’d work harder for someone else’s business than you would for your own? It’s cool – your employer knows too, no one says anything but we all live safe in this knowledge.

Working from home

I’ve seen loads of my friends and former colleagues haplessly trying their hand at the ‘work from home’ life and struggling! I work from home pretty much full time and am all too familiar with the obstacles and pitfalls of working in isolation.

Also, remember I work in social media so you can imagine the kind of black holes I find myself down… I can start off looking at one of my professional peers review a planning platform and an hour later I’m on slide 72 of ”You won’t believe what these 90s heartthrobs look like now!”

The thing is, of all the distractions you have in your new home office, one of the biggest and most accessible is social media. So if you’re a small business owner and are twiddling your thumbs while on lock down, maybe now is the time to start thinking about how you can start to use content and social media to benefit your business.

Social Media Traffic

You don’t need to be in the digital marketing or social media industry to recognise that during the lock down traffic on social networks has spiked as we all migrate our personal lives online. Just look at it from your point of view, you’ve probably found yourself scrolling through Facebook or Instagram without even realising it. How many quizzes have you taken part in?

The need for 1:1 connection has surged. In a press call about Facebook’s response to the virus, Mark Zuckerburg reported that WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger usage has more than doubled since the start of the crisis. As a result of people using the platforms, interaction between businesses and customers, both existing and potential has also increased.

I’ve said it a million times; sometimes the best way to your audience is just being in the way. Sponsored advertisements and boosted posts are all well and good but you don’t need to go to a paid strategy to get reasonable reach. You just need to create interesting content on a regular basis.

Keep plugging away

If you are already producing and posting content to your social media channels, now is most certainly not the time to stop. With more people online than ever before, the chances of your content being viewed and engaged with have never been better.

If you want my recommendation, at the very least I would suggest blogging at least twice a month and publishing posts around the blog content once a week across all channels. Over time this will help you increase your web presence and contribute nicely to your organic SEO helping you improve your ranking on the search engines.

While I don’t tend to practice what I preach on my own website, this is the basic service that I offer to clients looking to get some original content onto their social media channels in order to attract visitors to their website.

Get in Touch

If you would like to have a chat about getting some digital marketing support for your small business, drop me a line – my details are on the contact page.