Consumer engagement during uncertain times

Times are uncertain that’s for certain. We’re providing our best practices for brand communication during uncertain times. And offering a FREE social media audit & strategy session.

While your business may be physically closed, you can still keep your consumers engaged in other ways. The best place to turn with the most reach is social media. Below we’ll address some key ways to keeping consumers engaged via social media this time.

Social Media is always important but it’s even more important when you don’t have consumers coming in every day to your restaurant/boutique/salon and it becomes one of the only ways to keep in touch with your Cilents without individually calling them all and let’s be real – you don’t have that kind of time.

How to Use Social Media for Consumer Engagement

1 – Determine content buckets: You should already have content buckets for your brand. We recommend 3-5 and they’re most likely as follows depending on your industry:

a- Offering: Services, menu items, product
b- Education: Tutorials, instructional videos/blog posts, product benefits
c- Community: Relatable content that makes your brand human – UGC, posts about interests you know your consumer has, partnerships, BTS (but keep it professional & purposeful – please don’t show me what your kids made this weekend unless it’s relevant to your business). This can include a variety of topics and varies most based on your business type.

2 – Be consistent and focus on engaging content (buckets b & c), you want to be sensitive to the times – people aren’t spending as much as they may normally but they’re desperately seeking entertainment so they’re in tune and engaged with your content. This should make up a bulk of your content.

For example, if you have a hair salon, consider creating tutorials for how to care for your hair at home, how to make your hair color last longer, hair styling tutorials, how to cut bangs (you know people are doing this in a quarantine!). If you have a restaurant, post a recipe video for a popular menu item, ask a bartender to go live and teach how to make a signature cocktail, create a poll for favorite menu items, share your staff’s favorite menu items, talk about something you like about your neighborhood that’s relatable, etc.

3 – Engage. You have to be social on social media. You can’t post it and forget it. Go check out your consumers profiles and engage (comment/like) with their content. Check out other businesses using the same hashtags as you (local is preferable if you’re a locally-focused business) and engage with them. Ask thoughtful questions don’t just post emojis or omg i love that! Give them something to respond to. Ask a question, make a thought-provoking content. You’re out here to create community! Build relationships.

4 – Sell softly. If you’re still open for business (e-commerce, takeout only, gift cards, booking for June, whatever), then let them know! Talk about it. Post product offerings with an engaging caption “We know your roots are killing you. We can’t wait to see you back in the salon. We’re booking for June if you’d like to reserve your appointment now.” Make it relatable. Don’t just sell to them, give them a reason to want to see/read your post. And keep it short. “An extra side of fries makes everything better. We’re open for takeout and delivery.” Just please don’t beat them into sales “There’s 1 appointment left in June! If you want your roots touched up, reserve it now! Don’t miss the chance!” Unless you’re always booked up, they probably won’t believe you first of all so please don’t lie and secondly it’s so aggressive. There are occasions however where this is ok to put in your stories. Just be mindful to the situations people are currently in.

Was this helpful? Have any questions? Feel free to reach out for a complimentary audit of your Facebook or Instagram or to talk more about how you can use the platforms during these times.