Social Media’s Impact During COVID-19

The abrupt outburst of pandemics like Covid-19 necessitates the people to have access to accurate and credible information regarding the symptoms of the disease as well as the prevention measures. And in today’s world, social media has become the main source of information. They are also outlets for misinformation and false news. Yet this medium of information sharing often intertwined with frightening tactics, prejudice, false news and conspiracy theories related to the origin of the virus, its propagation and mass purchasing of face masks, altogether associated with the new social networking "data networking" networks. Besides the importance of quick access to information in these severe conditions, poor understanding or incorrect or misleading information in the context of rumors or unreliable news can lead to mass confusion, which aggravates the situation.

“Social media activity expanded in India mid-January with the initial news of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan district of China. Pandemic updates followed by campaigns such as Karo Namaste, use of hand sanitizer and masks, to Safe Hands Challenge were also noted as triggers for social media uptick during the restricted living imposed during early March.”

–    The Economic Times

How are brands using Social Media?

Businesses may use social media for commercial or civic purposes. In other words, businesses use social media to advertise, sell, promote their business (which is similar to conventional mass media marketing strategies) while using social media to interact and collaborate with consumers and, most significantly, provide consumers with a forum to tie together. You can see this as the difference between using social media to speak to your consumers as opposed to using social media to connect to your customers and make them talking about the brand to one another.

Source: Fatpos Global

Strategies for Advertisers to cope up with the hard times of Coronavirus

Marketers need to communicate with consumers during these turbulent times and use social media to get the correct message in front of people. We at Fatpos Global are determined to describe the most critical steps to take when moving the social media strategies forward from both a natural and commercial point of view:

• It's good not to be quiet as a brand, as long as you're informed about your position and strategy. A survey showed that, during tough times, 43% of customers find it comforting to listen to brands they know and trust. Another 40% want to see how brands react to the Covid-19 outbreak, though only 15% of customers claim they don't want to hear from brands at this time
• Be mindful of the current situation the label is in and track it, and have comprehensive group management. To be aware of the situation, leverage social listening and feeling tools; agree that this "normal business" approach or fixed decision tree will not be well embraced by customers or followers.
• Retail companies must rely heavily on e-commerce, before attracting in-store customers. Furthermore, should lay huge emphasis on local shopping and endorsing successful online sales to further encourage consumers to continue adding products to carts.
• For globally occurring regional and nation-wide school closures, education marketers can encourage free online learning opportunities for students, parents, and teachers to keep people involved and connected to the classroom.
• Always being linked has become an all-embracing trend as people obey shelter-in-place orders. This gives music, technology, and lifestyle sectors the ability to step up and share various ways to preserve sanity, including live streaming events, making video calling free and open to users and exchanging advice about how to deal with the new normal effectively.
• As for the travel segment, given the current situation, it is appropriate to minimize the paid marketing activities. Yet funding for natural and group management will increase. Most customers are canceling or rescheduling travel plans and companies have to take this flood of customer service needs into account.

Focus on broad sections, such as athleisure and loungewear that have seen a market upswing. We have seen a huge change in the past few weeks in the way brands talk to their customers, and how social media outlets promote such discussions across the globe. One thing is certain—"business as usual "is not the way forward, so you need to change your brand strategy to suit this moment. Yet it can, and it can be achieved successfully.