The disruption by the novel coronavirus on businesses has been nothing short of disastrous and businesses have been left scrambling to figure out viable ways of staying in touch with customers, business partners, and even staff. As may be imagined social media, particularly Instagram since it is one of the most popular, is playing a major part in the reconfigured digital marketing strategy. With people forced to stay back at home, they are spending more time online, especially on social media networks like Instagram. This represents a very good opportunity for refreshing your Instagram marketing strategy. Some practical tips on increasing customer engagement on Instagram during quarantine:
**Ensure You Share Only Accurate Pandemic Information **
The COVID-19 pandemic has had such a great impact on life as we know it, it can be impossible to avoid mentioning it in some way or the other in your Instagram posts. However, given that most people are extremely anxious and stressed out fearing for their and their family’s safety, you must make sure not to include any content that is inaccurate, suspect, or alarming. The last thing which people locked up for days on end in their homes need to do is to panic. If you must post anything news or safety tips on the coronavirus, you should make sure that the information is accurate. Remember that fake news can not only hurt your reputation but also harm the health and safety of your followers. It is a good policy to only reference credible sources of information like WHO, CDC, and state authorities and reputed public institutions. According to News.un.org, regardless of the intention, the sharing of falsehoods can have a deadly effect on the public. If you want to post unpublished information, you can get quotes and opinions from medical and public health experts. Information from authoritative sources reflects well on your credibility and people are liable to place more trust in you.
Share Inspirational Stories and Buy Followers on Instagram
Even as people are spending more time on social media like Instagram during the pandemic, they may be becoming frustrated with the disruption of their lives. In this context, sharing inspirational content can give them a new feeling of confidence that they too can survive and take charge of their lives once more. If you like, you can buy followers on Instagram to help you to give a stronger momentum to your content marketing. Conventionally, experts have always advised marketers to keep the Instagram photo captions short and sweet because followers have a lot of information to process, and they don’t like to read much. However, now that they are forced to remain home, they have more time on their hands and are ready to read longer narrations, especially when they are led by engaging captions. The simple way of doing it is to choose a very good photo of something relevant to your business and interesting to your followers and add layers of content that are aimed at giving it a fresh context. Focus on writing a crisp and compelling photo caption to encourage followers to read the content in detail but make sure you do not over sensationalize it or use misleading captions just to attract eyeballs.
Publish Content Suited to At-Home Activities
Since people are spending extended times at home, they are often at a loss regarding how to spend their time productively. By focusing your Instagram content marketing on topics centered on things that they can do at home, you will find that your followers can relate better with you. Subjects that are sure to find high levels of engagement include better productivity when working out of home, tips on staying fit without having to use specialized gym equipment, how to deal with anxiety and stress, what to include in a healthy diet as well as teasers on products and services that they can look forward to when the lockdown eases. Depending on what your business sector is, your content can focus on various aspects of music, fine arts, and literature, recommended books to read and films to see, cooking lesson for newbies, as well as armchair travelogues that capture their imagination and feed their desire to travel and discover the world.
**Conclusion **
While all the earlier activities were focused on engaging followers and adding value to them during the quarantine, it is also true that you need to evolve a marketing strategy to deal with the new reality after the passing of the pandemic. Consider that analytics of the earlier period as well as that of the quarantine period and try to come up with ideas that can effectively deal with the new normal. Use your understanding of customer behavior to predict the needs and wants of the customers in the post-pandemic period and what your followers expect from you. Evaluate the various tools you can use to automate your activities so that you can achieve more productivity and better engagement
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