5 Ways to build your digital presence during COVID-19

Social media and internet use was already prevalent before coronavirus. The global coronavirus lockdown only increased the time people spend on their computers and smartphones. Mobile app downloads and usage has skyrocketed throughout 2020 as internet users under quarantine continue embracing digital alternatives to their normal lives. Even brick and mortar businesses have been forced to adapt to a digital dispensation. That is why you need to build and adapt your freelance digital presence. Here are 5 tips to help you with that.

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       Work with experts to improve your digital presence

Freelancers of any type of work, either designers, programmers, copywriters, need to integrate social media into their advertising. They need to improve their mobile apps, if they have them, and reach as many digital consumers as possible on as many digital platforms as possible. That can take a lot of your time especially if you are new to the market. That is why you need help.

If you are a business and your workforce includes remote employees from across the world, outsourcing all your administrative tasks to an international PEO (Professional Employer Organization) such as NH Global PEO, can be a great advantage. A PEO will handle your payroll and employee benefits management and, consequently, free up enough time for you to personally manage your social and digital presence.

You will also need help in crafting your social media messages. Hire an experienced social media manager and probably a few online influencers to help you drive your brand story. Other experts that will help your course include app developers, web developers, and SEO experts. You know, professionals who understand how the digital world works.

2.     Focus on your audiences’ persona

How well do you know your core customers? This is the time to find out. Your digital presence is only as strong as the fan base you have online and the connections you have with each of your core customers. One trusted way of creating that connection is through understanding and appealing to the ideal customer’s persona. Invest in customer persona research to get insights on how to treat your target audiences. Effective persona research will even reveal to you ideal customers that you never knew existed and that you have never made any deliberate attempts to reach out to.

You can use A/B testing, surveys, questionnaires, and usability tests in the user research. After getting the data you need, develop ideal customer personas and use them to discover who your best customers are, their online footprints, and how you can craft/target your campaigns to appeal to as many of the personas as possible.

3.     Reach out to audiences to be there for them, not the other way around

COVID-19 has been hard on everyone, your ideal customers included. They need someone to look out for them, and you have to be that “someone”. So, in everything you do online, focus less on you and more on your audience. Of course, you need to make money to survive the harsh coronavirus tides, so you cannot afford to overlook ROI, but you need to understand that ROI is not the ultimate target at the moment. Focus on engagement metrics such as how many orders, requests you have. And how do you get user engagement during a pandemic? By sharing with your digital audiences’ information can help them survive the pandemic. Prioritizing engagement over sales. By showing your audience that you’re there to help.

4.     Share relevant news

Building on point #3, you will be more visible online if the content you share is relatable to people under quarantine. Be the authority figure that fact-checks social media reports and counters misinformation. Reimagine your visual content and start showing videos and images that encourage social distancing, wearing masks, and hand hygiene. Many freelancers, for example, are building their online presence by sharing images of their customers enjoying their meals outside, adhering to all WHO safety guidelines. You don’t have to copy what other freelancers are doing. Be creative and unique in your own way. while at it, make use of the relevant COVID-19 hashtag, but remember to adapt the hashtags to your location and industry.

5.     Try out new platforms

Expand your reach to new social media platforms. Apart from registering in some copywriting platforms, make sure you expand your presence. You know the best platforms for connecting with your ideal audiences, but you might be surprised by how many people on platforms you dismiss as irrelevant are actually interested in your skills. Maybe a new Instagram profile won’t be as effective as your Twitter and Facebook pages, but you can try to appeal to their audiences with some of your work. People are bored indoors and will click on anything with some entertainment value. What’s more, the content you share with them doesn’t need to be new. You can repost the same images you posted on Facebook, only that you will need to adapt your captions to the new platforms.

Continue Reading: Challenges of being a freelancer amidst the pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has changed how people are connected, but the good thing is that technological advancements, precisely internet and social media, and global networks have kept the world going. That is why it is imperative to have an online brand presence even if you have never thought of your business as online-oriented.