With COVID-19 forcing people to remain in their homes, businesses all over the world have been devastated and have been left wondering how to best tackle the unprecedented situation. However, given the fact that businesses can’t afford to remain shut indefinitely, they are now trying to adjust to the changed circumstances and reconfigure their marketing campaigns and also come up with innovative ideas for addressing customer needs. In this context, staying connected with the target audience is even more important with social media like Instagram increasingly playing a more active part in keeping them informed and entertained.
What Changes Should You Make to Your Instagram Strategy?
Given the drastically changed environment, brands are confused about what they should be posting on social media, particularly Instagram that they were using so far extensively. The last thing that businesses should do even if their operations have been badly disrupted is to stop communicating with their target audiences. Rather, because your customers are spending more time online free from the usual distractions, marketers have a unique opportunity to strengthen their relationships with their customers and increase brand loyalty. However, businesses need to be sensitive to the circumstances and not continue with its-business-as-usual attitude because it would come across as patently untrue, and they could be perceived as being oblivious to the heightened sensitivities and worries of the customers.
Buy Followers on Instagram to Boost Your Engagement
According to social media experts, brands need to overcome the challenges of the pandemic by striking a fine balance of becoming human and empathizing with their target audiences while continuing to market their businesses to the extent mandatory to survive. However, brands need to also appreciate that this is uncharted territory for all and there is nobody who can be assumed to be an expert in marketing during pandemics. Brands that do not have a large follower base can find it difficult to create a buzz. It can help to buy followers on Instagram in the initial stages for elevating the engagement rate. Some sensible advice and recommendations on what brands can consider for staying connected to their target audiences on Instagram.
Listen to Your Customers and Acknowledge Their Concerns
The present conditions have proved to be very tough for everyone and customers too are under a lot of stress. In this kind of situation, if a business tries to ignore the pandemic and pretends all is well, then it will come across as naïve at best and insensitive and uncaring at worst. You must let your followers know that even though they might not be able to buy your goods and services, you are there to listen to their concerns and are doing your best to manage everything in the new normal. If you must promote your products, explain the reason why you are doing so. Sometimes businesses are not merely about generating a profit but have a responsibility to their employees to take care of them. Acknowledging the situation and adding context to your actions can humanize your brand and result in stronger customer bonding.
Don’t Disappear from the Feed
With your followers spending more time on Instagram than before, it is a good opportunity for your brand to connect with them. If the pandemic has resulted in a situation that customers cannot access your products or services, you should instead focus on posting content that not only reinforces the brand value in their minds but also helps them to address their concerns. Remember to add context to the images that might have been shot much earlier with copy specific to the current situation. Find creative ways of engaging customers with your posts; maintain a consistent posting schedule so that your customers know that you are very much there fighting to overcome the circumstances just like them. Be sure to make the posts reflect empathy for your customers – memes and other forms of oddball humor may backfire so be wary of using them. Keep in mind that your customers may have tougher reality to contend with so be mindful of the content and tone of your posts.
Engage to Provide Value Not Push Sales
At a time when your customers are busy trying to make the best of a very bad situation, you can focus your Instagram activities to provide valuable information that can help them to solve their problems. You can use photos, videos, infographics, carousel posts, or Instagram Stories to provide access to useful information and resources. According to socialmediatoday streaming on Instagram can help brands connect better with their customers. Encourage followers to stay focused, productive, and positive as well as socially connected so that they can demolish the issues of social distancing.
Conclusion
When you give valuable and entertaining content to your followers, you can be sure that they will make your Instagram posts their preferred choice for the consumption of content during the lockdown period. In the process, brand awareness, engagement, and memorability increases.
