Latest Social Media Updates June 2020
How are social media platforms supporting small businesses?
1. Facebook Support Small Business Hashtag
2. Facebook ‘Business Nearby’
3. Facebook Business Hub
4. Instagram Support Small Business Sticker
5. Instagram Live Videos to IGTV
6. YouTube’s video ad tool
7. TikTok for Business
We thought that we would be looking at COVID-19 in the rear-view mirror by now but it seems to be sticking around for a while longer and our hospitality industry and small businesses are going to continue to struggle but hopefully not for too much longer. So, what has Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok got to help support small businesses doing it tough? And how can you make good use of these tools so that you can keep being relevant in your community?
Here are the latest social media updates and ways in which you can make use of these tools to help boost your food and beverage or hospitality businesses reach for FREE.
#1 Facebook Support Small Business Hashtag
Facebook has rolled out a #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag, encouraging users to support and get behind small businesses. So, next time you’re out and about sipping on a oat milk latte, take a pic, share it on Facebook and use the hashtag #SupportSmallBusiness and to keep it local add in your city, eg. #SupportSmallBusinessSydney
#2 Facebook ‘Business Nearby’
To support small business Facebook has also been pushing the feature ‘Businesses Nearby’ to prioritise promoting local businesses close to you. To make sure your coming up in local searches of businesses nearby ensure that all your Facebook contact details and opening/closing hours are all up to date.
#3 Facebook Business Resource Hub
During COVID-19 Facebook rolled out a ‘Business Resource Hub’ to help support businesses affected by the pandemic. It’s a free tool that includes something called a ‘resilience toolkit’ which will provide businesses with information on how to prevent business disruptions and a quick action guide.
Along with this hub, Facebook has also provided FREE templates to help communicate important COVID-19 messaging because let’s face it we’re not all PR experts. You can find this free hub in your Facebook Business Manager.
#4 Instagram Support Small Business Sticker
Like Facebook, Instagram have rolled out something similar supporting small businesses, a ‘Support Small Business’ sticker. The difference is, is that Instagram is incentivising posts that use this sticker and boosting posts/stories to a wider audience and expanding your reach for free.
Your story could also be added to a library of similar stories which will in turn also give you more reach. This is a great way for small businesses to get some well needed reach for FREE.
#5 Share Live Videos to IGTV
You can now share your live videos instantly to IGTV after recording and they are there forever. Before, your live videos could only be seen through ‘Stories’ for 24 hours but now with this new update you can now have them forever through IGTV.
Your hospo business could definitely benefit from this new feature, post more on-the-fly video content like latest food and drink specials and even record live updates reaching your community and letting them know what’s happening amidst COVID-19 it’s a great way to get great organic reach with IGTV usage slowly increasing.
#6 YouTube’s Video Ad Tool
YouTube has rolled out a new FREE ‘Video Builder Tool’ which allows small businesses to create video content without needing an expensive video production team.
Users can create short form video content and edit it through this tool and upload. One of the main benefits is that videos are intergrated into the Google Ads program and will be seen by relevant viewers.
#7 TikTok for Business
Those of you that haven’t jumped on the TikTok band wagon it might be time that you do because it can be a great way to market your business because of the sheer number of users.
This platform has blown up during COVID because we’ve all been working from home, freeing up some spare time to try/watch something new. So, how can small businesses in the food and beverage and the hospitality industry make use of this new social platform?
Create a profile for your business and start making video content – maybe it’s ‘how to’ videos on making amazing cocktails or maybe it’s your chef showing off his new menu or maybe it’s your staff creating a dance video, it could be everything. The great part about TikTok is that you don’t have to be a pro video maker, you just have to have a smartphone.
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