How to promote and market your company on social media in times of COVID-19?

It’s a tough question, to which we propose a few great solutions that really work!

People all over the world are trying to adapt to the new social distancing rules, while small companies and their social media managers are looking for innovative ways to communicate with their followers and costumers. It is not more important than ever to stay connected, as people and companies use social media to keep in touch with friends, read news and have fun. Facebook and Instagram observed a 40-perent higher engagement rates due to Covid-19.

But just because people are spending more time on social media, it doesn’t mean that the content a company posts should be the same.

The type of content that you post now is directly connected with the state of your company and with how COVID-19 affects your field. You have probably set one of the following goals:

• Sales
• Keeping your costumers
• Brand awareness

When it comes to the current state of business, one of the following three things may happen:

• Companies that remain open for business and are looking for opportunities
• Companies that are closed for business
• Open companies in privileged positions

Scenario 1: Hustling

If your company is open for business, but you are currently struggling to keep it afloat (e.g. restaurants with delivery or different stores), you want to share content that will increase sales through social media. This is a very hard and stressful period and you are probably focusing on free organic platforms such as Instagram more than ever. Here are some ideas:

• Post an Instagram story every day. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it is more important to remain relevant for your followers.
• Connect your online store to Instagram Shopping by including products in your posts and stories.
• Encourage loyal followers and costumers to share your content. Share their content in your stories and other platforms. It is also important to thank your customers for buying or ordering from you in this time.
• Sell your services, but share your content in a spirit of education, appreciation and mutual support

Scenario 2: Companies currently closed for business

If your company cannot do business right now (e.g. wedding photographers, hairdressers, florists etc.), you will want to share content that will help you keep your existing customers.

Keep in touch with your loyal followers to always be on their mind. Don’t forget that they will want to return to the service and experience you offer again, as soon as they can.

For example, 4P FITNES is collaborating with their employees, to give their followers tips for home workouts and motivate them with various challenges.

Share educational videos as a story, Instagram Live or IGTV. If you don’t usually make videos, now is the good time to start.

• Update your Instagram and highlight your content (tip: create highlights ‘in times of corona’ and add all the content that you are now sharing in your stories.
• Update your Instagram bio and archive all the posts that don’t fit your new aesthetics.
• Create a TikTok profile! You will soon get a hang of the app and figure out how to make your first video. So, if you have extra time, this is an excellent way to spend it, as you can attract an incredible number of viewers. You can also use the video on other social media platforms (like Facebook or Instagram).
• Develop new habits. Now’s an excellent time to try out new things that you can keep doing throughout the year. Plan your content a month in advance or dedicate 30 minutes of your day to connect with new followers.

Scenario 3: Business as usual

If your business is unaffected and you’re not worried about the financial situation, your goal is raising awareness.

The world has slowed down, and you can use this to your advantage. You could start new social media accounts, platforms for communication or start a campaign with influencers.

If you’re not using YouTube or IGTV, now is the time to consider starting it. The production value may not be perfect, but keep in mind that people are spending way more time on social media and the number of views on all social platforms is rising. We recommend starting to make videos.

Another way of raising brand awareness and investing in marketing is collaborating with influencers.

You could turn to influencer you have collaborated with before and ask them to share older but transformed content from your past campaigns.

This way, influencers will get some income in these difficult times, and the brand acquires content and recognizability in a less expensive way.

Many US influencers saw better engagement on sponsored posts and all they have to do is tweak the content and captions to make it fit the new stay-at-home lifestyle.

A Slovenian influencer Lepa Afna collaborated with Twix and launched a competition and used an enjoyable challenge to adapt her content.

These are only a few guidelines you can follow on your social media, depending on your company’s situation. There are no experts on how to do market your products during a pandemic and nobody really knows how to react, so don’t be too self-critical. We see changes every day (even every hour) and you can expect a lot of concern and uncertainty, as well as lower productivity of your team.

Stay healthy!

Beglobal

A few weeks of exploring and testing TikTok, the app proved to be an indispensable marketing tool for individuals, companies, and communities.

What is TikTok and where does it come from?

TikTok is a social media app for iOS and Android, which is used to create and share short videos. TikTok has become popular among the younger generation, as it allows for a lot of creativity.

In 2016, the Douying app (TikTok for the Chinese market) was launched. Next year, in 2017, the Chinese Company ByteDance introduced Music.ly outside of China and named it TikTok. Today, TikTok and Douyin share the same software, but they keep separate networks in accordance to Chinese censorship restrictions.

If you are sceptical about the popularity of the app, let’s take a look at the statistics.

Statistics

• There are currently 1 billion active TikTok users all over the world.
• The TikTok app in App Store and Google Play has been downloaded more than 1,5 billion times.
• TikTok ranked one of the most popular apps in iOS App Store in the first three months of 2019, with more than 33 million downloads.
• TikTok was downloaded 467 million times in India, which is almost a third of all downloads.
• TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes a day on TikTok.
• TikTok is available in 155 countries and 75 languages.
• 90% of users use TikTok every day.
• In less than 18 months, the number of adult TikTok users in the USA increased by 5,5 times.

Have you changed your mind? If you have, you’re probably wondering what makes TikTok so special.

Why is TikTok so popular?

It started out as an app for dancing and singing with so called challenges, but it has now become much more. We can see many different types of videos, such as comedy, research, acrobatics, make up and many other types of content. Individuals can express themselves in different ways, gain followers and build a community around their passions. In addition, they can add different special effects that make their videos more unique. Content can also be used on other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. TikTok is growing at lightning speed and is constantly being upgraded. But most importantly, it never fails to entertain us with content we’re interested in. But how does TikTok know what we like?

Artificial intelligence

TikTok keeps its algorithms a secret, but different experts have explained that the artificial intelligence that fuels the ‘for you’ page, uses many factors that determine what you like to see, including how long you’re watching individual videos and how soon you swipe up.

This highly personalised app is a bottomless pit. TikTok never stops learning and analysing your activities and offers videos you might like and be entertained by. This makes TikTok an addictive app, which shows you exactly what you wish to see. TikTok is not only used by individuals, companies and brands have also notices its potential.

In June 2019, the popular American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck said this about TikTok: “I see it as much, much more that just an app for teens that dance and lip-sing songs on their phone.”

TikTok for companies and brands

Vaynerchuck’s statement has proven to be true, as the app is already being used by companies and brands in the US and other countries outside Europe. These are some of them:

• Chipotle, a Mexican food chain has been entertaining its 250 000 US followers with content and stories from their restaurants and menus.
• GUESS created its #inmydenim challenge to encourage individuals to post videos in their GUESS jeans and promote the brand. This was the first TikTok challenge by a brand that went viral.
• NBA posts content from behind the scenes and during half-time to entertain its followers.
• Loving Tan, a tanning lotion brand, collaborates with influencers to gain promotion.

A few weeks of exploring and testing TikTok, the app proved to be an indispensable marketing tool for individuals, companies, and communities. If you are one of the companies or brands who see the potential in TikTok, but you’re not sure how to go about it, we offer you:

Become a part of this popular global app and connect with us at Beglobal. Follow our TikTok @beglobalagency or contact us on info@beglobal.si.

Instagram tests

In April of this year, Instagram announced that it will be hiding likes on posts in some countries.

Countries: Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil, and Ireland

It’s a test period that has now been extended to other countries, including Slovenia. We still see the likes on our own posts, but not others’.

Instagram’s reasons for hiding likes

Instagram lists the following reasons:

• • The number of likes is fuelling users’ competitiveness
  • The most creative posts should be more visible
  • The number of likes negatively impacts users’ mental health

What is the real reason for hiding likes?

A vlogger and a self-proclaimed social media lawyer Ian Corzine from Los Angeles shares his views on Instagram’s decision. He believes that Instagram has other reasons. He thinks that the main reason is money. Why?

Influencer Marketing

A new business has been all the rage among influencers as well as companies and brands. It’s called Influencer Instagram Marketing. The way it works is the company contacts an influencer to propose sponsorship and in turn, the influencer promotes the product on their platform. Both sides benefit – the influencer gets income and the company gets promotion of their product to the influencers’ following. What does Instagram gain? Influencers use the free app to earn money and to boost companies’ sales and they can do business without Instagram profiting from it. On Facebook, companies and brands use paid advertising a lot more and the same is true for Google. But Instagram gets nothing from Influencer marketing.

Ian claims that Instagram’s test will result in a drastic drop in like counts and post visibility. This will lead to a decrease in post credibility and a drop in Influencer marketing. Companies and brands will have to shift their marketing into paid Instagram advertisements. He also believes that Instagram will soon offer the option of showing likes on influencers’ posts as a paid addition, so influencers will also start to pay for advertising.

Check out his vlog and form your own opinion:

Our opinions are divided. Time will tell. Influencer marketing is an important part of advertising, which our agency also uses.

The only reliable thing in the ever-changing digital world, is change. Our agency is aware of changes and their dynamics. We always keep step with the decisions of moguls like Instagram.