Now is a very important time to be connecting with your customers online. Whether you’re an essential service or working from home in self-isolation, there’s still an opportunity to keep the lines of communication open between your business and its customers, no matter what level of lockdown is in place.

So, if you’re trying to find ways to keep your business going and remain at the forefront of your customers’ minds, think about tapping into your market online, and leveraging your brand socially with these three helpful tips from Bartercard.

1. Choose platforms that support your brand

Platforms that fit your brand will always create better results when it comes to attracting followers and getting new customers. What’s more, posting on platforms that feel authentic to you will come more easily. Think about whether your brand will lend itself better to more visual platforms or if a more conventional B2B platform will better suit your brand identity.

Clothing brands and retailers rely more heavily on imagery, making Instagram—where creativity can really shine—a platform where your identity can really stand out and make a lasting impression. Instagram has over 800 million users, but has changed its feeds to a more interaction-based curation, where audience engagement is critical to exposure. While online deliveries are halted for many businesses, lockdown is still a great opportunity to promote your brand, create wish lists, and entice your customers to think of you when the lockdown is loosened.

Platforms like Instagram can also leverage partnerships and collaboration by cross-marketing a new concept or initiative to each partner’s followers, effectively putting complementary brands in front of new markets.

This is where the success of partnership and collaborations hinges on brand synergy and the overlap of similar markets. When a brand is put in front of a new audience, it needs to stick enough to make a lasting impression and compel consumers to act.

LinkedIn is a strong choice for the business-to-business (B2B) sector, and Facebook will support virtually any brand thanks to their diverse user base of about 2.2 billion monthly active users around the world.

2. Leverage influencers

It’s hard to build a base of 800,000 followers on your own. Leveraging influencers is a great way to fast-track your growing reach. Tagging a well-connected brand or personality on Instagram who chooses to add you to their feed could reach potentially millions of followers.

Influencers can not only outperform print advertising, but can do so without the exorbitant cost of a print ad in a newspaper or glossy magazine. For example, imagine a fashion start-up tagging a celebrity, who decides to add the photo to their feed. The celebrity’s millions of followers then see the brand in their timelines, with the added authority of a celebrity endorsement, launching the brand into the market without them having spent a dime on advertising!

3. Use the latest technology to create quality content

The best social media marketers are sticklers for quality. This means pixelated images, distorted aspect ratios, and cheap design quality are not tolerated. The latest technology, from phones and digital SLR cameras to design software, as well as expertise in your field, are key to making your message stick.

Poor lighting, positioning, and styling in your online images can all break the formula for a widely shared post and erode the credibility of your brand. Research and follow what the best brands are doing to meet (and even set) the industry standard. Post topical content. Comment, share, and repost other brands frequently. You may soon find other brands are willing to do the same for you.

Make Bartercard a part of your online reach

For more business tips on how to attract new customers and increase your footfall, visit the Bartercard Blog.