With the majority of the globe quarantining at home, the only socializing that can happen is with a screen to separate us. As a result, Twitter added 14 million users in Q1 2020; Facebook.com traffic increased 27%; and unsurprisingly with the almost daily announcements of company-wide layoffs, LinkedIn has seen an increase of 55% more conversational activity.
So with perhaps the most attentive online audience in human history, every consumer-facing brand has had to make a hard pivot on their communications strategies, especially on social media where the comments can be blunt and the share function lethal. I am continually impressed by the agility and creativity of companies both local and international who have quickly adapted their product and/or focused their messaging toward awareness and aiding those in need.
Below are some of my favorite examples from the last few weeks. Who have you noticed leading the pack on social media? Please share!
Toast – Restaurant POS Tech Company based in Boston
As soon as state governments began ordering the closure of all non-essential businesses, the restaurant industry was one of the first and hardest hit. With their entire client base at risk, Toast quickly took action through Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn with a call to #RallyForRestaurants. They developed this separate hashtag campaign and social media persona for the initiative, encouraging their followers to support their favorite restaurants through online ordering and/or gift card purchases, which the Toast platform supports. This also encouraged the restaurants to participate with a personal spin on their social media accounts. The hashtag is used in 5000+ posts on Instagram as of publishing, and the branded Facebook and Instagram pages have 2500+ followers.
marlo marketing – Full-Service Integrated Marketing and Creative Agency based in Boston and NYC
In a similar vein, marlo marketing is a marketing agency with numerous hospitality clients who were quickly faced with a depleted customer base and little to no revenue. Within hours of the quarantine announcements in Boston, marlo started a #BuyAGiftCard campaign across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with easy-to-share graphics and another easy and consistent call-to-action for both restaurants and customers alike to share their recent purchases. Taking it a step further, Marlo Fogelman herself is leading an online discussion on May 7 at 1pm about the state of the Boston restaurant industry and what reopening may look like.
Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition
On the entertainment side, talk show hosts across the globe were ripped away from their live audiences and production crews. We have all quickly become intimate with other people’s homes on endless video calls, including our favorite late night entertainers. Jimmy Fallon’s At Home Edition of The Tonight Show on YouTube literally hits home for every working parent right now. While his wife Nancy films, Jimmy delivers his monologue from the playroom while their daughters, Winnie (6) and Franny (5), waiver between helping and distracting their parents. The result is a series of charming mini-episodes with other celebrities popping in via video chat to share their own attempts at homeschooling, cooking, crafting, and more. In addition to lifting the viewer’s spirits, each episode is also dedicated to a charity. While viewing the episode on YouTube, the user can click a “DONATE” button on the website that is associated with the charity of the day. Unlike television where the viewer has to elect to pick up their phone or computer to participate in a donation, keeping the content and donation information on the same platform and/or device likely increases the likelihood of engagement. So far The Tonight Show has raised more than $22k for City Harvest, $25k for #SaveWithStories, $55k for Feeding America, and several other charities.
Hayley Paige / A Practical Wedding
To all of the couples who were to say, “I do,” in 2020: I am so sorry. And to the entire wedding and event-planning industry, I am also so sorry. Couples have quickly changed course – either eloping to city hall; holding wedding ceremonies with friends and family watching from afar in their cars; or postponing altogether. Vendors also changed strategy from sharing blissful social media content to pure crisis management. Hayley Paige, a wedding dress designer who is known for her bubbly personality and body positive messaging, adapted her content on Instagram to help brides through the difficult decision making. She hosted an Instagram Live Q&A session to talk about things like how to preserve a gown during a postponement and created a guide for how to take dress measurements at home since most tailors are closed. A Practical Wedding, a wedding planning guide known for down-to-earth advice, also welcomingly adapted their content – sharing photos of recently married couples and how they still made their wedding day special without anyone present; sassy ways to announce a change of wedding date; and how to throw a virtual bachelorette party or bridal shower.
Food & Beverage Personalities
One of the best things to come from shelter-in-place orders has been free cooking classes with some of the most talented chefs and bartenders across the globe on Instagram. Some of my favorites have included:
Tara Jensen, author of A Baking Year (@bakerhands), leads followers through a day-by-day guide to creating your own sourdough starter in her highlights, including recipe recommendations to help use your sourdough discard. Bonus content: photos of her very newly born daughter, Violet Rye.
Sam Treadway of Backbar in Somerville, MA (@backbar) posts demos of the bar’s classic cocktails, providing hints for how to create them with the supplies you have at home or links to the vendors they use for things like aromatic bitters. New this week are custom mixers you can order for pick up from their Union Square location, in addition to new coupe glasses so you can show off your own creations on Instagram.
Christina Tosi of Milkbar (@christinatosi) is known for creating Willy Wonka-esque sweet treats that have people lining up around the block at bakeries across the U.S. and Canada. Christina uses Instagram to bring the bake shop directly to you with her #bakeclub. Each day she posts a picture of the ingredients she will be using in her class, leaving much suspense for what she will be cooking with you later on Instagram Live with more than 32k other followers.
Stephanie Izard of Girl and the Goat (@stephanieizard) is here for those with more of a savory craving. While she is not cooking for Instagram daily, Stephanie regularly shares tips for home chefs in general – like how to order fish at the market and ways to grill stand out chicken. Look for recipes in her stories or highlights.
Robinhood – Commission-Free Investing Platform
The news has not been comforting in regards to the stock market (or much else, to be honest), including unheard of negative oil prices and talk of a potential recession. Robinhood is an app trying to “democratize the financial system” through education and commission-free trading. They are utilizing Instagram to continue this mission by defining terms from the news in attractive infographics and baseline recommendations for how to manage investments when some industries are tanking while others are flourishing.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot – #StayHomeSaveLives
In what may be my favorite example of civic leadership through social media, please meet Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. I may be biased due to my 26 year history in Chicago, but, regretfully, I was not there to elect her. She is using the power of memes to spread the important message to stay home. When St. Patrick’s Day weekend resulted in crowded Chicago bars and the next week’s beautiful spring weather beckoned citizens to the city’s lakefront park, Mayor Lightfoot became “delightfully strict.” There were the usual press conferences with Governor J.B. Pritzker, but she also put a creative twist on her message through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to reach the constituents who were probably skipping the nightly news. Her kickoff message was a 2:49 Facebook video explaining over and over in several different personas (The Baller, The Astrologer, etc.) how to “Stay Home. Save Lives,” which currently sits at 1.4M views and has received 28k reactions. One week later she partnered with every professional Chicago sports team for a Facebook Live video shot from the middle of an empty Soldiers Field with the message, “We are Not Playing…and Neither Should You.” This was followed by a coordinated organic social media campaign with each team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, reaching their larger network of millions of fans.
Who have you noticed using social media in a creative or positive way during COVID-19?
Molly S Harrold 