COVID-19 Checklist For Your Business: How To Manage Your Online Presence And Keep Customers Updated
Use your local business profiles, website and social media channels to provide the latest information to those searching for your business.
Local Business Listings
For some local businesses, it can be a directory listing, not your website that your customers will see in Google Search results (Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, etc.). Be sure to update your Google My Business (GMB)(Google Maps Page) listing to highlight how your business operations have changed during this time.
This could be updated in the description of your GMB page, or it could be a special GMB post you publish. It’s also important to update your hours if applicable. The below image showcases your options for creating a post specifically for a “COVID-19 update”:
Your Business Website
Banners & Pop-Ups. Many websites can add temporary pop-ups that display only once on a device when a new user/consumer view your website. Another alternative is adding a banner on your website stating “COVID-19 Update: Currently We Are….” (where you’d state briefly what your company is doing during this time/where your company’s status is at) with a “Click To Learn More” button taking those users to a FAQ Page, Dedicated Page or Blog Post.
FAQ pages. Many brands, and especially local businesses, need to create and address common questions about how their business practices are handling and adapting to COVID-19. Specifically, an FAQ section that details how your workflow has changed to emphasize safety and policy changes regarding how existing projects are being handled.
Dedicated pages/blog posts for COVID-19. For businesses that are significantly impacted by the crisis, it may be necessary to explain how you’re adapting on a dedicated page or blog post. In your statement, outline the situation for your customers and keep this information up-to-date. You can also share these pages/blog posts on your social media channels.
Social Media Channels
Update Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn. For all businesses, posting on Facebook is free, and allows you to utilize your Facebook page to inform consumers about what measures your company is doing to combat COVID-19, and how it’s been impacted by it. Also, make sure to update your hours on platforms where it is applicable to do so. The same kind of content you’d put on your website should be posted on Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn. Take the time to build up your following on these social media accounts. Since you can’t directly (in most cases), interact with your consumer, feel free to interact with them on social media. Create Facebook Live videos, virtual events, etc., we’re all going through this right now. Connect with people on an individual level, and letting them know you are there for them will help them to remember who cares about them.
Conclusion
Recently, Forbes published an article stating that, “Digital is likely to be the clear winner here, and companies – including ones that may not so much as had a Facebook page before – will need to move into social (media) marketing, content marketing, and SEO.”
If you feel your company could use some help with implementing Google My Business updates, crafting content for social media posts, creating content for new pages/blog posts on your website to update the public about COVID-19, or finally, using this downtime to address updating your website (which in a normal time you may be too busy to do), whether that be your SEO, or completely redoing your website (now is the perfect time to do that, as things may be a bit slower and you can divert your full attention to it right now), so when this thing is all over with, you’re ahead of your competition and are on-top of what you can control.
Contact Ken with Maltese Marketing or call him directly at 616-389-5605.
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