The coronavirus crisis is a difficult time for all of us and normal life has been hugely disrupted. The lockdown measures may mean you’re unable to run your business at all, you may be limited by the products or services you can offer or you might be struggling with anxiety or having to home school your kids.

Whatever you’re going through, you can take some comfort from the fact that we’re all in this together and social media can help bring us together at a time when we can’t do that in real life.

But we know that many small businesses are struggling with what to post to their social media platforms right now, so we have 8 tips to help you with content ideas at this sensitive time.

1. Don’t be afraid of talking about Coronavirus

Let’s be honest it’s the thing we’re all thinking about so you can’t carry on posting on social media like everything is normal. You need to address the coronavirus crisis and talk about how it has affected your business.

Update your customers on what you’re doing, for example, moving your classes or training online, or posting out products while still adhering to the current safety measures. You might want to add this information to your website too and you can pin a post to the top of your Facebook page.

2. Don’t schedule posts too far in advance

While we’re normally huge advocates for being organised and scheduling your social media posts in advance, in a crisis situation like this where things are rapidly changing we don’t recommend you plan too far ahead. Things are developing on a weekly basis, current measures could be relaxed or even tightened and a post you write now might not be relevant or appropriate in a weeks time.

3. Understand how your audience is feeling

It’s always important to really understand your customers which is why in the Members Community we teach you how to create user personas. But at times like this it’s even more important to be sensitive to the issues your target audience are facing.

You need to think about their specific issues and problems right now and how you as a business can answer their questions and concerns. For example at Social Mums, most of the people who take part in our workshops are mums who run businesses. One of the biggest concerns our audience has right now is trying to home school and entertain the kids while getting some work done and staying sane! Which leads onto the next tip.

4. Be as helpful as you can

Adding value to your follower’s social media feeds is something we recommend you do during normal times but right now doing what you can to be helpful is even more important.

For example, Joe Wicks is running a Live PE session for kids every morning at 9am. Lots of hairdressers are sharing tips to give yourself a trim or hair treatment at home.

Think about what is going to help your audience right now and share as much useful advice on social media as you can. It could be tips to help entertain the kids, tips to help deal with anxiety people may be feeling, tips to help people exercise at home or recipes you can cook with store cupboard ingredients. Anything that is going to help your audience.

5. Show your human side

Showing your human side is another thing we recommend small businesses try and do normally, but at a time of crisis like this, it’s even more important. People buy from people and being a faceless brand right now isn’t going to help people feel connected to you. Show your face, share how this is all affecting you, be open and honest and you’ll be more relatable.

6. Go Live

One of the best ways to show your face on social media is to go Live. It’s engaging and people are able to communicate with you in real time, plus it’s a great way to show the people behind the business. Also if your customers are used to seeing you regularly in real life, for example if you run a class, it’s nice for them to be able to see you on social media instead.

We have in-depth training in the Members Community that shows you how to go Live on each platform with lots of tips for getting the best from your broadcast.

7. Don’t be afraid of selling

If you can continue to keep running your business through this crisis then please don’t be afraid of promoting your products and services. Most people would rather support a small business than buy from a big brand, so please don’t be afraid to promote yourself. You obviously don’t want to be seen as profiting from a global crisis so be sensitive about how you do it. Talk about the problems you can solve for people and be as helpful as you.

8. Keep posting and stay visible

A few people have asked if they should just stop posting on social media until all this blows over. But our advice is no don’t do that, this could go on for a long time to come.

Follow all the tips we’ve shared and keep posting to your social media platforms. Normality will resume eventually and in the meantime you don’t want your customers to forget about you.

We hope these tips are useful when trying to decide what to post to social media right now. Also don’t forget to be social, you can’t network in-person right now, so social media is the perfect place to make connections.

If you’d like some more support with your small business social media marketing there are lots of ways we can help you. Find out more here.