Marketing your business during COVID-19 and beyond (Part 2/3)
Welcome to our 3 part marketing guide, supporting SMEs with their marketing activity during and beyond COVID-19.
In this article (part 2.) we’ll be looking at –
- Creating newsworthy content that will compete against bigger brands and is going to get you noticed
- How to use hashtags and new COVID-19 features from Instagram and Facebook
- Facebook LIVE – why stepping out of your comfort zone is really important right now
Creating content that gets you noticed
You might think that now is not a good time to push out content but think again! There are so many small businesses out there gaining top spot Google rankings. So, what’s the secret?
The secret is to think about what your potential customers might be searching for right now, what are their needs and challenges? Tie this into longer tailed keywords and come up with a few titles. Search for these titles on Google and see what comes up. If your title isn’t producing the right results it could be a good opportunity for you to get the top spot.
Getting it right with COVID-19 hashtags
With the sheer volume of social media posts around COVID-19 it’s important you think outside the box when using hashtags to ‘get noticed’. Instead of #COVID19 or #coronavirus you might want to explore other hashtags that are relevant to your post but will improve your visibility and engagement. Here are some tips –
- Look at what your competitors are using and identify which posts have drummed up the most engagement (it could be the hashtags have helped to reach the right audience)
- Use hashtag tools, Influencer Marketing Hub list some great ones to use to discover hashtags relevant to your business and also what is trending
- Use your social media channel recommendations. Depending on what is trending each channel will provide some help in which hashtags you should be using in your posts in real-time.
What is important to note that all your hashtags should be relevant to your post topic. Do not include a hashtag just because it is trending.
Here are some generic hashtags to get you thinking –
#CoronaVirusLockdown
#CompleteLockdown
#MotivationMonday
#ThursdayThoughts
#SocialDistancing
#MyPandemicSurvivalPlan
#WorkingFromHome
#PandemicIn5Words
Facebook LIVE – step into the limelight
Facebook LIVE has seen an increase of 50% in viewers so now is the time to step out of your comfort zone and into the limelight! You can answer COVID-19 questions, provide some guidance and more importantly try and create cheer and positivity.
The length of your live video does of course depend on what you are sharing but on average a length of 1-2 minutes would be ideal. If you were providing tips and guidance then this time may be longer.
It is important to remember when creating a video to keep it relevant to your audience and think about how you can encourage your viewers to engage, ask questions for example.
