I was scrolling through social media and saw a brand post about their shortened hours due to “changing times”. I read the times they posted, before I realized it was posted yesterday, and they had completely different hours today. The algorithm on social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and can actually confuse your customers in times like this. A simple mistake can take you from a trustworthy, consistent brand to making your customers unsure of your value.



First of all, I want to make clear that these are extremely hard times for small business owners. Some are staying open and struggling, others are closing their doors temporarily. Regardless of what you do or how you’re doing it, the one thing that is unchanging is your customers are coming to your social media for updates and information, and it can be hard to know what to post and how to post it.



Here are my top tips for how to post on social media during constant change:



Keep Posting: It can be very tempting to use this time to take a break with your social media and focus on other things, but don’t lose focus. The average user is scrolling much more now than they ever have before, and you need to remain top of mind for when things return to normal. Successful brands should be posting at least once every 1-2 days at times when their demographic is most active. Keep It Positive: The average users timeline is filled with unsure posts of confusion and change. You can be the constant that they are unknowingly craving while scrolling. It’s very tempting to have your page full of informational posts, or stories full of how your business is operating differently, but that doesn’t change what your product is or the value it has to your customer. One of the easiest ways to do this is through nostalgia posts, reminding people of some of your biggest moments or successes. Remember The Differences Between Timeline and Story Posts: Stories on Instagram and Facebook are there to provide live updates. This is where you can inform your customers about your changing operational hours, changes to what you offer, etc. Your timeline should be mostly filled with value posts, showing what you do best. If you are filling your wall or timeline constantly with deals and changes to your hours, you are missing a valuable opportunity to enhance your brand, which leads into the next tip: Remember the 80-20 Posting Scale: 80% or more of your timeline posts should add value to your brand, and 20% (or less) should be promotional. Value means showing off what you do best that don’t include offers or deals. In times like this it’s tempting to throw this out the window and just give constant updates, but when things are back to normal you’ll want to have your demographic ready to go and excited to come back. Show Your Followers Who You Are: The one thing that is unique with small businesses is that there are living, feeling humans running them. Use this opportunity to share your positive thoughts about hope for the future. Keep it genuine, keep it short, and keep it positive.

Keeping these 5 things in mind on your social channels will make the adjustment back to normal so much easier on your potential customers.

