Didn’t you adapt your social media strategy in times of COVID-19 to attract more customers? Now is the time to get down to work and make the best of this new normal. Quarantined social networks were used more than in any other season, did you know that? The people who dedicated themselves to promoting their social networks grew in followers and strengthened their community in the midst of this health crisis.

A marketing strategy is the guide to the objectives you want to achieve commercially. This is made up of specific steps that help you promote and sell your brand, but above all, it gives you the opportunity to connect more effectively. In this way, a marketing strategy will allow you to reach your target audience and will be the light throughout that journey. 

Quarantined social media has become everyone’s distraction at home, and brands that managed to see that opportunity took their social media strategy to all platforms that went with their type of content. They adapted their language to a more human one and gave a chance to different tools that they didn’t even think to use before. For this reason, it seems prudent to give credit to all the platforms that have helped when adapting the strategy in times of quarantine, but first let’s talk a little more about social networks in quarantine.

Quarantined social networks

The quarantined social networks took advantage of the closed doors, they decided to enter through multiple screens and at different scales. They adapted their content in an empathic way and sought to connect from support. As with inbound marketing, it was about adding value to the content and improving communication for the growth of the brand. How? Creating fun, informative content and making the most of all windows to learn new things. All in distance but closer, just as they adapted at home to spend the holidays from a distance. 

According to data from the social media management platform Hootsuite, calls on Facebook increased by 70% in times of COVID19 and voice messages multiplied. Downloads from digital video conference platforms also grew and visits to YouTube increased by 51%, as did videos of exercise routines. But as a social media strategy, it could be said that brands used a quarantined social media strategy like this:

• ✔ They took advantage of this time of confinement to present their products,
• ✔ They were promoted as a brand but without sounding like “buy me now”, rather with an exchange of benefits,
• ✔ They used their networks to show their values ​​and principles as a brand,
• ✔ They took advantage of social networks to empathize and humanize, while providing hopeful messages in difficult times to their community,
• ✔ They dedicated themselves to teaching something new, 
• ✔ They created creative and participatory campaigns that aimed to entertain people at home,
• ✔ Encouraged engagement in social networks
• ✔And they were projected into the future. 

Social media strategy in times of COVID-19 

The greatest strategy that could be evidenced was the transformation for the good of many brands that many before the pandemic were already asleep and with content leaks. Quarantined social networks were an escape route for many and reinvention was much more than integration to different platforms, as it was the content offered that drove the quarantined social media strategy.

1. They dedicated themselves to humanizing their networks: showing their day-to-day life and creating help spaces for those who did not see it very well in this quarantine. Creating conversation groups on specific topics and support forums with specialists to address anxieties about the new normal.
2. They changed their way of speaking: everyone put on their masks and began to thank their community, creating spaces of recognition and giving useful things to pass the quarantine beyond a “raffle”. It was not a we want to raffle you must continue, but rather a I want to give away, who needs it?
3. They educated from their networks: Each expert did his bit and contributed knowledge in different ways. Growth was evidenced in free courses, webinars and conferences via zoom. 
4. They created campaigns designed to entertain: they promote themselves through different types of games to pass the time and they shared recipes, tips, videos and even love messages. 
5. They joined new platforms like tik tok and showed their fun side as a brand. 
6. They thanked: they used their quarantined social networks to thank their community, dedicate time to it, to make them feel important and loved.  
7. The social media strategy that was most applied was to create engagement with its users , this feedback strengthened many communities and even helped them grow significantly. 

Most used tools and platforms in quarantine

The tools were varied, from applications to play games to group video calls. But the quarantined social networks was not to be everywhere and nowhere, but rather to adapt the message of support and consideration to their social networks. Offering things of value in exchange and experiencing how each platform could be an opportunity to become known and support the community:

• The first place is occupied by WhatsApp, because calls, voice messages and the sending of photos increased with this quarantine. It was also an ideal medium to connect with clients in a more personalized way.
• The second place is occupied by video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Googlemeet. These were used as the new chat rooms, ideal for carrying out webinars, online meetings with clients and even ideal for giving private concerts to a large group of people. 
•  The third place is won by Tik Tok, because it was the medium that was used the most to encourage the audience. With the creation of funny videos and fun content to entertain and be shared. 
• The fourth place is for streaming platforms such as Netflix (their consumption increased by 48% ) and YouTube, which in addition to having an increase in views, was used by social media strategists to increase their content to entertain and educate. 
• The fifth place is for social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, which, because they are the most frequented by users in this pandemic, were windows full of content. 

Social media strategy that was best adapted in quarantine

One of the tasks of the social media strategists was to measure the increase and the way in which people were sharing the information they received, how they were encouraged to participate in certain activities without the need to exaggerate the payment of ADs and bet more to arrive to them organically and intuitively. For example, according to data from the French multinational market research and consulting company (IPSOS) : 96% of Peruvians on social networks belong to Facebook, 46% to Instagram, 34% to YouTube and 12% to Twitter. . Another important fact is that by 2019 44% of Peruvians on social networks followed Influencers, so seen in this way it could be quite profitable to reach potential clients through them. 

Taking these data into account, the presence of brands in certain social networks, it sounds important in the Peruvian territory that your brand starts from any of them to achieve certain objectives. In addition, in the social media strategy in times of COVID 19 of many brands, it was evident that all the data previously exposed were taken into account, since:

• Ecommerce added closer communication methods to communicate with their customers such as the WhatsApp button on Facebook.
• They created educational spaces on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram.
• They used public figures and influencers to create content, as part of their quarantined social media strategy.
• It allowed brands to stand out and display in a more humane way. 
• And they were encouraged to create audiovisual content to speak as experts about their brands. 

Is it worth creating a quarantined social media strategy?

Definitely yes because it was an opportunity to: 

• Grow the audience and strengthen the community,
• Boost sales from trust and empathy, 
• Because it provided the opportunity to learn more about how customers felt about all this and thus be able to anticipate the solutions,
• Ties with customers were strengthened,
• New leads have been added. 

In such a way that to adapt your social media strategy to this new reality, you could implement things such as: good customer service (implementation of Inbound marketing in your social media strategy), inform your customers about the modifications you made To fulfill your services safely, continue to be a window of information from empathy. 

How to adapt your social media strategy in times of COVI-19 to attract more customers?

• Start talking from the more human side of your brand ,
• Ask your customers what they like about your brand,
• Create informative spaces that can help you improve
• Remember that social networks are for human beings,
• Lose the formality and reconnect with your community,
• Make the personality of your brand a constant message,
• Publish content in different types of format, 
• Create space of gratitude whenever you can,
• Take advantage of the emotion to connect,
• Create useful information to share on networks,
• Always be very clear about the emotion you want to generate with each publication.