Since March of 2020, we’ve all been waiting for the day we can “go back to normal”. We’ve worn masks, stayed inside, gotten vaccinated, and yet normal appears no closer than it did in March. If you’re a small business owner, you aren’t able to handle the COVID Pandemic in quite the same way that other people may be able to. Many small businesses cannot work from home and rely on a storefront to sell their products and services. The COVID Pandemic has raised a lot of difficulties for small businesses and with no drastic changes to those difficulties on the horizon, it might be time to explore new options to make your business a part of the “new normal”. In this short series, we’re going to discuss a couple of these options that will help you restore your client base and expand your business despite the circumstances –and you’ll be safe and healthy the whole time you do it.

Small businesses have always relied on advertisements of some kind to acquire new customers. Long ago we used street signs, then newspapers, and eventually social media. It’s important to broadcast your business in a place people will see you and throughout the COVID Pandemic people have been spending a lot more time on social media. So the answer is obvious: increase the visibility of my business on social media. But this raises more questions such as “Do I really have to?” and “How?”. The answer is yes you do and we’re here to help.

The first and easiest step is to make sure you have your business set up on social media. Make sure your handle –what you might know as your “at” or “@”– is something closely related to your business name. It’s also important that you list important information about your business in your bio or profile. On Facebook, you can list the hours you are open, ways to reach you, your website, and so on. Instagram doesn’t offer as many options, but you can still link your website, location, and a couple other important pieces of information. If you have a logo, set that as your profile picture –and if you don’t have a logo stick around for part 3 of this series. 

Now that you have social media accounts set up, you need to begin populating them with content. In order to capture a wide audience, it’s important to keep this content relevant, clean, and professional. 

Do post:

Well lit photos of your product or services

Professional looking graphics to advertise changes in hours or availability

Short videos with appropriate audio

Don’t post:

Grainy pictures with aggressive filters on them

Hastily made graphics with unclear information

Long rambling videos with messy audio

The average business spends about 6 hours a week on social media, but you can spend less time if necessary. The important thing is to keep it clean, relevant, and consistent. 

If you can’t find the time to make content for social media yourself, you can always outsource this task to a media company such as Hemlock Media Co. This ensures your content is always high quality and fully representative of your business. 

Now that you have social media set up, in part 2 we will discuss the next step: a website.