Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1272101
ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION JULY 22, 2020 Page 16 Continued on page 17 Are You "Being Social" with Your Customers? By Todd Ginter, PSAI's Director of Marketing The art of doing business during a pandemic is certainly challenging. Businesses are finding out that customers are changing the way they interact with businesses. If you have found that your communication with customers has broken down, it may just mean that you are not meeting them where they are. Where is that place? Social media. If you are waiting for customers to just walk in or even call you out of the blue like before, you are lagging behind the times. Why is social media important? Simply put, during a worldwide health crisis, people are looking for information and they are doing it through social media channels as much, if not more than, other sources. While you may have been scrambling to update your policies and updating your website with COVID-19 response information, how are you letting your potential customers know about this information? Are you just hoping the public randomly went to your website to check-up on how your response differs from other businesses? If your answer to that question is yes, or worse yet, you have not even created a COVID-19 response or even updated your work policies…read on. Social media for business is different than your own personal accounts that you may have on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you hate social media because you believe it is just people posting selfies and their latest culinary atrocity, don't worry, this is not what I am talking about. Your business page is about your brand and the personality of your company. Whether you are a social media novice or an expert, you need to use social media to improve your organization's customer service experience and also to communicate more effectively during this crisis. Remember, if you don't go where your customers are, then you will have a harder time finding business. To help you out, I have put together information to guide you through this process. Don't worry, all you need is a combination of simple social media skills and your excellent customer service acumen. You can do this, even from your kitchen table. Why do you need to be on social media during a crisis? There's one place that everyone is still allowed to congregate during social distancing: social media. Social media use is up across the board, because people not only have more time on their hands, they more likely to connect with colleagues and friends through on-line meeting apps. Plus, when there's nothing else to do, why not scroll mindlessly through your social feeds, right?