Social Media Trends During COVID19

With limited activity out of home, the people are reportedly reading, contributing and influencing on social media. Consequently the total volume of Covid-19 related conversations reached more than a billion, as on March 24 in the entire world. Most providers of social media marketing and social media optimization services in India report that social media usage has gone up. 

So what do we derive from this exactly?

Is the pandemic situation really favourable for social media? Or is it actually adversely affecting the network?

Most people are more and more engaged in the world of social media right now. So it can never be a bane for the social networking sites, to put it in short.

According to the data received from various market research firms, volume in social media saw a whopping 50X surge between January and March in India alone, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

The social media buzz picked up from a few millions in January and February to a staggering and whopping billion figures, all over the world till March 24. The number reportedly spiked simultaneously as corona virus cases jumped huge leaps. 

Now due to the spread of the virus, all employees of various workplaces are quarantining and are working from home, i.e., working from remote situations. In this case the only way the work communication or the constant contact is maintained amongst all office employees, is the social network. Hasn’t the social media benefitted from this? Now that conference tech tools are in excessive use? Well, let us look with a little more depth.

Due to COVID-19 lockdown, most workplaces have shut down around the world and work is being managed remotely from homes. In such situations, video conferencing apps have seen a huge demand by businesses and offices worldwide.

Also Read : The Changing Nature of CRM in a Post-Crisis World

Zoom

One of the most popular video conferencing apps, Zoom gives the user various plans depending upon the size of the business. It is extremely useful when it comes to video conferencing for proper work productivity.

Google Hangouts Meet

Google Hangouts can also be utilised for businesses as Hangouts Meet. According to the website description, “Meet is fully integrated with G Suite, so you can join meetings directly from a Calendar event or email invite. All of the important event details are right there when you need them, whether you’re joining from a computer, phone, or conference room.” 

Skype for Business

Microsoft’s Skype for Business has been there for quite some time as a popular video chatting option for enterprises and teams. According to Microsoft, “the meeting link does not expire and can be used anytime.” There are also some additional features for making the work easier, say for example sharing the screen and recording the video call. 

Slack

There are awesome features which video conferencing tool Slack provides to us. The Free plan on Slack is for small teams who wish to make use of the utility forever. It lets the user access 10,000 of the team's most recent messages. Plus the feature also has in its fold 10 integrations with tech apps like Google Drive, Office 365 and others. It also allows voice and video calls between teammates. It is great when it comes to aiding Work From Home.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is available on Windows, Mac and mobile devices. An Office 365 tool, Teams let people build channels topic or department-wise. You can share files and hold meetings through the channels. There are tabs simply marked Calls, Files, Chat etc. for the respective functions.

All The Buzz on Social Media Explained….

Social media notably began buzzing around, and benefitting from it, since mid-January with the initial news of the outbreak of the novel corona virus in Wuhan district of China. Pandemic updates followed by campaigns such as use of hand sanitiser and masks, to Safe Hands Challenge all over the network, were also huge triggers for social media uptick during the entire phase of quarantine and isolation of the people all around.

Social media volume also doubled in the same period as the preparation for pantry gathering hiked up significantly when social distancing and quarantining became the norm. There was a decline in store visits and jump in online shopping. Other than essential goods store outlets, there was complete restriction on going out to shop. Hence this also became a big boon for the social network. 

Key Takeaways

Currently, the affected countries all over the world, are mostly under complete lockdown with exceptions in delivery of essentials such as groceries by ecommerce platforms such as say Grofers. In the aspect of e-commerce, average orders surged for staples all over. This also had huge discussions and a constant trigger in the social media, as to the gathering of various essentials and necessities.

Social media got filled with the buzz around people being curious and anxious as to where they could find hand sanitizers, hand soaps, and face masks.

Another positive side that has taken place is the trigger around Facebook Workplace. It has made the work from home during this phase a lot easier.