New social media features since COVID-19

COVID-19 changed the way that everyone marketed, very quickly and very extremely.  Overnight events were cancelled, shops were closed and face to face meetings died out.  More and more people were using digital methods to stay in touch and that included social media.

Social media networks were suddenly under pressure to help their users maintain relationships with their loved ones, and at the same time were looking to provide business tools that addressed all of the new challenges.

Many didn’t disappoint, and here are a selection of some of the tools and even tweaks that social media networks made as COVID-19 swept the world.

Facebook Rooms

Launched in May, Facebook’s newest videoconferencing feature – Messenger Rooms – allows up to 50 people to video chat at the same time, with no limit to how long you can talk for.  In addition, you don’t even need a Facebook account to join a room so it’s open to everyone.

For a B2C company that uses Facebook a lot, who were planning on holding a small event of around this number, Facebook Rooms made this an adaptable possibility.

A new reaction from LinkedIn

In the world of work, sharing information on LinkedIn has been a bit of a minefield.  People are having to share news of furlough, redundancies, temporary or permanent closures and product changes and delays.  A ‘like’ or a round of applause or even a sad face doesn’t seem appropriate when you’re trying to communicate ‘keep your chin up’.

It’s of little surprise that LinkedIn released a new reaction button which essentially means ‘sending you support’.  Messaging changes as times do and LinkedIn got this absolutely right.

Whatsapp catalogues

This actually came out a while ago but it was a relatively low key affair.  In a time where people can now not hand over a real life catalogue, the potential to send people a virtual catalogue on something as easy as Whatsapp has a big appeal.  It has become much more publicised and widely used as a result of COVID-19.

How it works is, a business owner gets a digital store using WhatsApp Business and inside the store, you can create any number of catalogues. You can put prices, descriptions, pictures and other ordering information. You can even add a website to each catalogue.

If you’re looking to use more social media marketing in the aftermath of COVID-19, get in touch.