Change Your Social Media Strategy During COVID-19 Crisis

During TMSA’s COVID-19 Town Hall meetings these past three weeks, participants have emphasized that they have seen an influx in user activity over the past two weeks. 

With people around the world staying home to limit the spread of COVID-19, marketing and sales professionals in transportation and logistics have been logging onto LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to stay informed, and to keep updated as to how other businesses are handling the situation, in order to shape their own approach.

Based upon advice from its members, TMSA shares a few practical tips when considering your posting strategy:

Post about your experiences. 

Providing your personal stories and insights is key to maximizing engagement in any social media channel and building a presence within your respective communities.

Just finished a virtual meeting with your team or with a customer? Write an article or post that shares a few marketing observations or tips you learned from the meeting. Or simply post a question such as “How do I boost team morale?” is an excellent way to get the insights you need, surface other points of view you hadn’t considered, or help others and forge new connections."

Some people hesitate to share their personal experiences, as they don't want to reveal some perceived flaw or weakness. But in these times, there's a good chance that others within your business network are feeling what you're feeling, so sharing such personal questions helps them to relate to you as a human being. 

Share something simple and visual that ties to your brand and value. 

In this unique time of COVID-19 crisis, don’t be overtly commercial. But don’t hesitate to share something that can demonstrate the value of what you’re providing your customers. Early this week, Scott Grady, President of Rush Trucking (and TMSA’s current Chairman) simply shared a visual graphic of a map of Rush’s traditional lane patterns pre-COVID and then shared a separate map that showed the company’s lane patterns in the past three weeks. The graphics used in this post via LinkedIn visually emphasizes the key message that Rush Trucking has shifted its “business as usual” to support necessary shipping of food, consumer goods and medical supplies to distribution centers. 

“This post was also a nod to the heroes of our company: the drivers of Rush Trucking,” says Grady. “Our customers want to hear stories about what we’re doing to help them through this crisis. They already know volumes and rates are down – they don’t need to hear more about this. They want something they can relate to.” Grady advises that you keep your posts simple and relatable. 

Engage in conversations that are most relevant to you. 

In addition to posting your own stories or thoughts, TMSA recommends branching out by searching for discussions relevant to your interests and experiences. Searching hashtags is an efficient way of doing this. Since re-introducing hashtags to its platform a few years back, LinkedIn has been working on ways to make them a bigger focus, and a better way to sort and discover relevant discussions. Now, hashtags may actually be more relevant on LinkedIn than they are on Twitter, where the hashtag concept started, as they enable you to seek out relevant discussions and engage with other professionals in your field/s of interest.

You may find that a simple comment can go a long way and may lead to more opportunities in future.