As billions of social media users scroll through their newsfeeds – now more than ever before – it’s important for organisations continue to utilise their online voice when it’s needed the most.
During the pandemic, online activity has seen a dramatic uplift as self-isolators and people working from home fire up their remote Wi-Fi connection. And such statistics have seen a huge spike in digital traffic as Coronavirus-related search terms on social media peaked at nearly 20 million mentions on March 11 alone.
In addition, our brand partner Force24 has discovered that – since the UK lockdown began – digital engagement had increased by 180% across B2B and B2C sectors. So, as the majority of the population continues to log-on from the safety of their own homes, the world is watching every move online.
Yes, consumers might not be hitting the ‘buy’ button as they battle to save their future careers or having to take up furlough, but what the audience is doing, is digesting available content digitally.
So, if an enterprise can dedicate some quality time to enhancing its social media voice, now is not the time to go quiet.
However, this isn’t the moment when brands should instantly go in with a ‘hard sell’ to push their products or services, customers will be more trusting – and likely to come back – if an organisation’s online comms are respectful, understanding and answer vital questions with insight and advice.
Social media can perhaps be the perfect platform to provide free help, intelligent conversation and ‘tech4good’ initiatives.
It’s not solely about being online – the message must be controlled too
Although working days may look a little different now – and this could likely become the ‘new normal’ – the same message on social media remains, to provide audiences with authentic, helpful content that is familiar in its brand tone of voice and engaging.
Having a focused, uniformed approach – but still encouraging employees to share posts and add their own words in order to personalise messages to their network – can help to achieve the all-important cut-through organisations vitally need. Why? Because customers trust the opinions of ‘people like them’ over brands. In fact, Comscore found that engagement rises by 28% when people are exposed to both official content and employee-generated material.
Consumers are more likely to share and interact with content from people they know, meaning it can be distributed more widely than anything else, compared to what an official brand channel publishes – saving time and resources on top of everything else.
Additionally, for those companies – and their employees – that can answer customer queries through free support and advice, this can be a powerful way of becoming a trusted source of information and online communication that’s aligned with an organisation’s mission, tone of voice and values.
And a strong way to achieve this? Through social sharing platforms.
These are a fantastic way to deliver a consistent brand message via staff because teams can easily log onto their company’s profile and post content that’s already been created and approved in-house. With that comes consistency and uniformity, especially when cut-through is difficult to master.
Now is the time for enterprises to encourage employees to focus on their online comms, share uniformed messages and control the narrative. Having a loyal group of brand advocates can help an organisation to truly stand out from the crowd in an authentic and trusted way – at a time when they need to the most.
If you’re interested in empowering your teams to work together, and generate leads via social media, SoAmpli’s sharing platform is free to new customers during the COVID-19 crisis. For more information, email: nick.washbourne[at]force24.co.uk. Make sure you also connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
