social media

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.

Beauty and the Gram: How to Promote Organic Skincare Products on Instagram

Posted on by Mario

Aside from accounts that have poetic quotes, I have always found myself being fond of naturally-sourced skincare product company on Instagram. Some accounts are really inspiring for women and encouraging self-confidence in a more positive way. Why do I find organic skincare more appealing? That’s because skincare products that contain naturally-sourced ingredients usually do not only promote activities and campaigns that are against animal testing and harmful chemical ingredients, but they also promote confidence and positive outlooks with natural beauty for everybody who follows them. The thing I like the most about those organic skincare companies is that they promote natural beauty without having to change who you are. However, as a person who provides social media services for clients in the same field, I have always observed the way competitors do things and promote their business on Instagram and it has come to revelation (and realization) that not many organic skincare does it the right way. Are you a business owner who starts selling organic skincare products? Well, if you are, first of all, let me tell you that you have got a good start to start something good and valuable like that. However, are you doing it the right way? In this article, I’m going to tell you how to promote your organic skincare products on Instagram that will not only sell your products more effectively, but will also spread positivity and kindness on Instagram which can also increase your business values and credibility. Keep reading this article to learn more!

First of all, avoid offending messages

Beauty products can sometimes trigger messages denoting beauty standards such as beautiful girls should have white skin, slim body and straight hair. Oftentimes I have seen many products claiming that have been proven to be effective in whitening and slimming and changing what’s supposed to be the standard of beauty. Yes, you must avoid that kind of message no matter what. Aside from it being offensive, it is also possible that kind of message will demotivate people and lower their self-esteem and confidence.

Be consistent with your content and schedules

One thing for sure when it comes to social media even for every business is that you have to be consistent both with your content and schedules. When making content, you should be consistent with patterns, colors and the messages you want to deliver to your target audience. When posting the content, you should make sure that every content is posted according to schedules and the prime time in your country so that people know when they can expect your content coming soon.

Encourage bravery and confidence

Selling beauty products doesn’t always mean making people enhance their beauty from outside. It is also about enhancing their inner beauty and self-love. You can’t fully give people the true benefits of your skincare products if they have low confidence and have no audacity to be themselves. Your content messages should deliver both motivation and knowledge on beauty.

Help audience discover the true meaning behind cruelty and harmful chemical free

You are offering a collection of natural products with no sodium laureth sulfate, no parabens, no gluten, and no animal testing. However, you can never deny that indeed you still need a little bit of chemical ingredients and even active ingredients. That is okay since it is completely normal. That being said, you need to ensure the safety of your product use and convince people that your products are not fully chemical. Don’t forget to include full ingredients and be transparent about it while explaining about your natural ingredients as well.

In the highly competitive beauty and cosmetics market, simply owning a natural beauty brand with great products is not enough. You will have to work hard to tell your unique story and to make sure the right audience is exposed to it. Content marketing is a great way to present your brand, your products and your company’s unique identity on a range of platforms and channels, so you can win your customers’ hearts and attention.

Tight on Budget? Here’s How to Use A Quick Social Media Marketing Strategy with No Budget

Posted on by Mario

Social media managers rarely boast about large budgets. Most can be found enviously gazing at the IT team that has been lavished with the latest tech tools, no expense spared. Your budget may not be reflective of the size of the business or organization. It may be reflective of the business or organization’s view toward social media marketing. As a person who provides social media services for businesses, I can tell that there are two main problems when it comes to social media marketing; first, the target, second, the budget. Finding targets can somehow be linked to the budget you have because using money, you can use social media ads to reach as many people as possible (depending on how much you are paying the social media platforms and what kind of target you want to reach) and those people are usually the ones who really need your business. However, if you own a small business that is still growing gradually, you can’t help but think about your budget, right? Sure, you might need that later when you have the budget, but for now, you can work on your social media marketing strategy without some budget first. Let’s call this “planned testing,” and let the results become your benchmark for your next more-budgeted strategy in the next following months. How? Keep reading this article to find out!

Make use of free design tools

80% of marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing. And there’s a good reason for that. When people read information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information. If a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65%. Visual graphics are essential for social media. In fact, I would say they are the most important thing you must do to be successful at social media. While large brands out there have in-house graphic designers and their own special social media team, what if you don’t? Well, then, you can make use of free design tools. All you need to have is your own mobile phone camera and a little bit of basic Photoshop skill, you can create a unique design of your own. There are also graphic design tools offered for free by some websites. Although there is not much you can get from free design tools, at least for a start you can learn more about it and practice until you perfect it.

Being transparent about who you are

The biggest problem in social media marketing is how difficult it is sometimes to trust a business owner or an online shop on social media in this day and age because many of them were involved in fraud or other shady things out there. For that reason, it is okay to represent your brand and let people know that you are the owner of your business. It doesn’t mean you are boastful – you are showing them that you are not a scammer. You can put your personal Instagram or Facebook information on your bio. For example, if you own an online shop on Instagram, you can start putting your personal Instagram account on your bio. This way, the people who need your products or services will know that you are a real person. Of course, for that reason, your personal account should also be more convincing as well.

Use proper hashtags in every social media content post

From Instagram to Twitter, hashtags have truly brought a revolution in social media marketing. A hashtag is basically a word or phrase that comes after a hash mark or a pound sign (#) and is used on social media platforms to group messages related to the same topic (i.e., #smallbiz is a hashtag used to identify a post that has information related to small businesses). In order for your content marketing efforts to be fruitful, you will need to find a way to get your content in front of the right people. This is where hashtags come in. Hashtags are very important for small businesses on social media because they provide a way to give your content added visibility. That being said, you need to make sure that the hashtags you are using are relevant to your business and have acceptable amount of traffic as well as reasonable numbers of followers of the said hashtags. Therefore, you can start gaining more relevant targets and the right people who will buy your products or services.

And with that, we wrap up your social media strategy guide for 2020 and beyond…on a tight budget or no budget at all, since the points I have mentioned above are absolutely free! Hopefully this guide served as some much-needed inspiration for figuring out how to create a social media marketing strategy.