Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in March, we’ve all faced a variety of challenges personal and professional. That includes figuring out working from home. For some, remote work was already the norm, but for others, adjusting has taken a bit of time and a lot of patience. Family members and pets have become our new coworkers and assistants, and communicating with our teams and customers is now, for the most part, completely virtual. We’re all learning on the job, but one industry company has been changing the game with something as simple as Instagram.
Social media isn’t anything new, but it’s fast become an essential tool for connecting with those in the industry. A couple weeks ago, we stumbled upon S&S Activewear’s Instagram story and noticed that the supplier was creating fun and engaging content, like “Top 5 At-Home Crafts Using Old T-shirts.” This immediately grabbed our attention, and it turns out Jenna Kadziulis, social media coordinator for S&S Activewear, is the creative force behind these DIY ideas (that you can now find on the S&S Instagram page under the “DIY” highlight). And she had a lot to offer about how to create other kinds of engaging content, especially on Instagram.
It started with Kadziulis and her team getting together over a Zoom call to discuss ideas customers could do at home. “We knew that we wanted to start utilizing Instagram stories more, since that is the perfect place for fun and quick ideas,” she said. “We understand that these are trying times right now, and all we want to do is try to make our customers smile and make them happy. Also, who doesn’t love crafts? Especially now, [since] a lot of people have more time on their hands.”
The S&S team searched Pinterest for fun and easy crafts people could do with old T-shirts. The idea was that almost everyone has a few extra tees lying around, so it’d be something accessible for the majority of S&S’s social media audience. “I knew I wanted to do one craft each day for a week,” Kadziulis said. “So I found five crafts and started designing Instagram stories that would best suit our page.”
These days, most of us probably watch Instagram stories more often than we scroll through posts. Stories are only a few seconds long, and you can easily tap through them. For S&S, it was clear that stories would make it easier for its audience to consume industry news, trends, blog posts and company updates without requiring an entire post. “It’s also much easier for our customers and employees to share on their pages as well,” Kadziulis said. “So far, the people have been engaging a ton! We recently did S&S Bingo, and we had that circulating around for a while—it was fun, and it was something to get our customers engaged.”
While the S&S team created more of this fun content, they also shared posts highlighting those who are currently fighting on the front lines and helping to keep communities safe. Kadziulis had the team create signs thanking essential workers, then shared photos of team members and their signs.
“[This] was our big ‘thank you’ to everyone who is working the front lines right now,” Kadziulis said. “I wanted my coworkers to create a sign thanking someone who is still serving our communities and putting their health on the line. I found it to be more personal if they hand made the signs, even if designing wasn’t their strong suit. We find it very important to be able to show how much we care and how thankful we are for their bravery. I got many messages from customers and employees saying how much they loved this post from us. I think it’s important to produce content that is uplifting and positive, especially right now. We all need it, and our followers definitely loved it.”
Right now, customers and partners are also looking to companies they work with to be a source of information. Companies should recognize that the content they put out there is being viewed by their audience and potential new followers. Sharing accurate and useful information is vital.
“During this time, I think it is so important to be cautious about Instagram and all social media outlets that you manage,” Kadziulis said. “There are so many questions and confusion during these hard times, you don’t want your followers to look at your page and feel any of those emotions. We work hard on trying to make our captions and content perfect—any type of misinformation could make or break having that follower. You want to give the best content, all while being informative and honest.”
So, maybe you’re looking to utilize the Instagram stories feature for your business, or maybe you want to connect better, in general, with your audience on social media. Either way, Kadziulis shared some advice for putting together engaging content. Her top recommendation? “Just have fun with it!”
“Get your teams’ heads together and collaborate as much as you can,” she said. “I manage all social media, but my favorite thing to do with my team is collab. I love hearing all new ideas from different types of people—even if they aren’t part of your marketing team. We talk to sales, customer service, HR, etc. I feel as if 10 heads are better than one.”
