small business

Social Media’s Role in the Coronavirus Outbreak and How Businesses Should Learn from It

Posted on by Mario

As a person who provides social media services, I am aware that despite so many users sign up for social media account every day, it doesn’t mean that they will be an active user as well. Many people use social media as a way to express themselves or maybe reunite with their high school friends or long-distance family. However, not everyone will go online every day unless they are a public figure, a social media influencer or a business entity. Yes, you read that right. Social media can be the best place for business to promote their products and interact or communicate with their customers. However, now that the world has been hit with the world pandemic – the coronavirus outbreak, some businesses were forced to either reduce their employees’ salary or just close their business. That being said, if they had kept going for a little longer, they would have endured this pandemic. Why? That’s because social media has a big role in this pandemic and if you own a business, you can actually make use of it to promote your brand. Well, there are good and bad in anything, but here’s what I’m going to tell you…

Social media and coronavirus: The Good!

Social media is one of the best ways to share news nowadays (it may be the only way for some people), especially if you are trying to alert people of something serious in a very, very quick manner. Whether it be coronavirus news from individual states or news on a national scope, social media gets the message where it needs to go. You’ve seen pretty much everything in terms of the coronavirus over the last few days to weeks. The number of people being affected by the illness in states, counties, and specific cities and towns come to mind. This news has made people aware of how the situation has been constantly deteriorating the sense of normalcy across the nation. Social media has also educated us about the symptoms of coronavirus – in turn, perhaps saving lives! Now, that’s not the only thing good about social media role for us during this pandemic. For business, it can be a good chance to get to know your social media followers because well, many people have time to be more engaged on social media than they ever did before. Some companies have their employees either work from home or take some leave request during this pandemic. Those who have social media but have nothing to do tend to spend more time on social media than when they were busy with work. At the same time, many people create beautiful creations such as Instagram templates and other stuff to do for social media content to keep people more engaged and also keep them from feeling bored. You should do the same so you won’t lose any customer and your business can keep going!

On the other hand, the bad side…

Well, I’m not going to lie, but every good side has a bad side, including this. To contrast the first point that I made in the section above, social media is great for spreading information and news, but some of that can be misinformation or “fake news.” Misinformation, especially about coronavirus, can cause panic. People who see misinformation on social media may think what they are reading is actually true. If it’s something as important or serious as a worldwide pandemic, you should do a little research to see if what you are reading is actually factual. Otherwise, you may be inclined to share the misinformation and fuel the fear of something that isn’t necessarily true.

Whether it is a business or a personal profile, you should refrain from posting anything that makes fun of, ridicules, or minimizes the situation. It could spell trouble for you, especially as a business. If you are going to post about coronavirus, be informative and make sure your followers know what’s happening with you, your business, or the situation overall.

Business and Conscience: Inspiring Examples of Companies Giving Back during Coronavirus Outbreak

Posted on by Mario
  1. Jackson Brown Jr. once said, “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” Couldn’t agree more, right? I don’t know about you, but this virus outbreak somehow opens my eyes towards what I can’t see and what I don’t know. You only know the importance of washing hands properly and how to do it after the outbreak. You know the importance of growing your human conscience during this period and you certainly know some people are not willing to be selfless and instead being the opposite of it by taking advantage of the situation. However, if there was one thing that was mostly tested in this outbreak, I could say that businesses could be prompted to take certain actions to the next level, in a cringeworthy way. Sure, the Melbourne SEO services I have provided for the past few years might be losing some of our customers this year, but that’s actually the risk we might see coming, but not the virus. That being said, I wouldn’t start selling masks and hand sanitizers just because of this situation and I am sure my employer wouldn’t do that either. Yes, when I mentioned this, I have seen some businesses doing ridiculous things just as a way to deal with coronavirus outbreak. I mean, a restaurant that sells food and beverages could go so far by selling masks and hand sanitizers on Grab Food. Like, what the… Okay, I don’t want to curse here, but I didn’t see that coming. That being said, setting aside this kind of discovery, let’s start seeing kindness everywhere conducted by inspiring companies that give back to the community during coronavirus outbreak that can become your inspiration as well. Yes, there are people who are nice out there. If those businesses can do it, you can do it too. Keep reading this article to be inspired!

As mentioned above, here are the companies that are giving back to the community:

  • Microsoft announced that they will keep paying the hourly workers who support their campus.
  • Google established a COVID-19 fund that enables all temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms of COVID-19, or can’t come into work because they’re quarantined. They have also made their video conferencing service, Hangouts Meet, available for all G-suite customers until July 1, 2020.
  • Forbes8 is hosting a free digital summit on March 20, 2020 under the theme of Business Resilience: Thriving in Crucial Times. The speaker roster includes top experts and best-selling authors such as Chris Brogan, Rohit Bhargava, and Dorie Clark. Many of the speakers were slated to speak at the cancelled SXSW this year.
  • LinkedIn is opening up 16 of its learning courses for free. Courses that provide tips on how to stay productive, build relationships when you’re not face-to-face, use virtual meeting tools and balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way.
  • Adobe is giving higher education and K-12 institutional customers of their Creative Cloud apps the ability to request temporary “at-home” access for their students and educators. This is being granted through May 31, 2020 at no additional cost and is available globally.
  • Amazon is hiring 100,000 more workers and giving raises to current staff to deal with coronavirus demands. Well, unlike some bosses who cut people’s salary with an excuse of coronavirus outbreak, Amazon is doing amazing things to appreciate their employees.
  • Starbucks has extended its mental health benefits. In partnership with Lyra Health, Starbucks is offering its partners personalized, confidential mental health care, 20 free in-person or video sessions every year for partners and each of their eligible family members, online scheduling with most providers available within two weeks, and access to a provider network of mental health therapists and coaches.
  • Dolce & Gabbana announced that it has partnered with Humanitas University to fund a coronavirus research project.
  • Giorgio Armani has donated $1.43 million dollars to four hospitals in Rome and Milan, as well as to the Civil Protection Agency.

Denzel Washington said, “At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished… it’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.” It’s never too late to share kindness and you are not going to be poor for that. You don’t have to give millions if you can’t afford it. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal, so whatever you have and you want to give, that’s all that matters.

Instagram Cheat Sheet: How to Use Hashtags for Your Instagram Posts Properly

Posted on by Mario

I used to not mind all the likes I could get on my Instagram posts and how many people were engaged with my content. However, after having a side business, I realized that using social media is much more than what meets the eye. From social media engagement itself, you can have a chance of getting people to consider buying what you sell. For that reason alone, many business owners start hiring social media services to engage with their potential and returning buyers. Social media is an essential piece of your business marketing strategy because social platforms help you connect with your customers, increase awareness about your brand, and boost your leads and sales. With more than three billion people around the world using social media every month, it’s no passing trend. Now with the rise of Instagram use for social media, it has become clearer that Instagram has better potentials for you to increase your brand awareness. Instagram enables a business to sell something more than just products. It can help to build up a better word of mouth. Reaching out to the audience through a platform like Instagram makes the relations with the target audience friendlier. However, reaching more audience and improving engagement with users is not an easy matter especially if you don’t set up social media ads. That being said, there is one of the ways you can ‘cheat’ Instagram marketing strategy without actually cheating if you haven’t got the time to hire a social media specialist; hashtags. Hashtags on Instagram are useful as they help other Instagram users discover your profile, which can ultimately increase the likelihood of obtaining more followers. Contrary to Twitter, using more specific hashtags on Instagram can help build a bigger audience for your business…only if you use it properly. So, how do you use hashtags for your business Instagram account posts and stories? Keep reading to find out!

When using hashtags, here are a few rules you need to know in order to use it properly:

  • Before posting your content, do some hashtag research
  • Find words that are related to your content and your business
  • Look at the number of engagements using the specific hashtags
  • Remember this; hashtags with most posts (like hashtags with million posts) may give you a boost in likes because many people will likely search those specific hashtags; however, there is also a higher chance that your posts that use those hashtags would be ‘cloistered’ and it could be possible that your posts would disappear from those specific hashtags because there would be other new posts coming from other users in just a few seconds since well, many people use those hashtags. Hashtags with thousands up to hundred thousand posts (below a million) may not give you a boost in likes and findings, but you can help people who are looking for what you sell narrow down search results and directly find you. Yes, hashtags like that can improve the possibility of your Instagram posts to be found by people in an easier way. For that reason,
  • It is important to combine both hashtags with most and least engagement in one post
  • You can use up to 30 hashtags and anything beyond that won’t show up in search, but I recommend using at least 15–20. In general, more is better! Go for all 30 if you use them well. Include as many as you can use strategically while staying relevant to your business.
  • Yes, you can use hashtags in your Instagram stories and even your bio! Make use of the right hashtags that are relevant to your business
  • Avoid using irrelevant topics and hashtags no matter how popular and trending those hashtags at the moment

Those are the rules to Instagram hashtag cheat sheet! That way, you don’t really cheat but if you follow those rules, you are on the right path of your business world.