I then had to inform a couple of my team members, who are self-employed, that I did not have enough work to be able to continue using their services at the present time. This was not a good feeling as these people have become friends and they also have young families.

I sat down and reminded myself that I needed to look at the positives. I may have lost a lot of clients but I was very lucky to have retained 13, which would be enough to keep the wolves away from the door.

Backlash

In the scheme of things, you might think that all is well but then I started to notice a backlash on social media coming from some people who had a lot to say about marketeers and dental practices who continued to use social media through lockdown. Some of the comments I saw included: ‘How dare they,’ ‘disgusting advertising while coronavirus is happening,’ ‘what are they thinking,’ plus much worse.

This made me begin to question myself, thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be providing my services at all. I am normally a confident person, especially when it comes to my work, so for me to have doubts is unusual. However, in addition to everything, I had also just been informed that my mum, who was battling with advanced dementia, was put on end of life care. This devastating news just exacerbated my uncertainties. A week later, she passed away. While this blog is not about loss, it is about feelings and understanding.

Opinions and their impact

I know that sometimes people will have opinions that differ to mine but I have always been able to appreciate this and accept that disagreeing is part of life. However, for a couple of weeks, I forgot this and started taking things too personally.

I questioned my every thought, I even deleted some statuses from my personal Facebook account in case I came in for criticism. Things were really starting to get to me… it was time to give myself a good talking to!

I re-iterated to myself that the work I was providing to my clients was the right thing to do, they wanted that service and I believed in it. While I wasn’t creating the content I usually provide I was instead keeping their followers and patients updated with useful information, such as whether the practice was open and if they could attend for emergency treatment.

As the weeks passed, we changed the tone of the posts to a more fun and motivating style. All my clients were amazing at getting involved in social media challenges that were springing up everywhere. It gave their followers/patients a real sense of the people behind the brand and the response was fantastic, all my clients’ platform insights went through the roof.

In addition, my clients and their teams had something positive to do and think about, they loved it, they said they felt closer as a team and found it fun at a difficult time. I loved receiving their ideas and collaborating with them to make it happen.

What I have learned

So here we are in September and things are changing still. New clients are starting to approach me, mainly practices that have not used social media marketing before but have seen the good things it did during the last few months.

Lockdown taught me that I need to continue to believe in myself and my thoughts, accept that others may disagree and even if they do it doesn’t mean I am wrong!

It also showed me that we all need to be more thoughtful of each other as we never really know what is going on behind the scenes. So please folks, if you can be anything, be understanding.

Save your content

As part of the shut down, all content will be deleted from Google+ accounts. If you have photos and videos that you would like to keep, take action now by downloading and saving it. This may take some time, so we advise doing this fairly soon. If you have a Google Drive or Google Photos account, you can safely store content here as these products will not be affected.

Tell your followers

It’s worth creating a post letting your Google+ followers know where else they can find you once the platform closes down. Be sure to include your website, blog, and other social media accounts as individuals will have their own preferences as to where they will want to find you.

Google My Business

If you have a Google My Business page, give it some love, if not then you should set one up. Google My Business will not only help your SEO rankings, it also shows customers where you are on Google Maps, so it’s very useful. In addition to this, it also has a review section, and we all know how valuable these are for business growth.

In the absence of Google+, it’s hard to know where your followers will migrate to, so be sure to keep up your engagement on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Google My Business is definitely an area where you should also devote some attention as this will act as the replacement platform for Google+, while also having additional benefits in terms of online visibility, location searches, and reviews.

If you’re unsure what to do about the Google+ shut down, we would be more than happy to help here at HI Marketing. Get in touch soon though, that 2 April deadline is looming! Give us a call on 07805506477, or drop us an email at hayley@hayleyironsmarketing.co.uk.

At HI Marketing we are pleased to offer a wealth of marketing solutions that have proven to be highly beneficial to a wide range of businesses. This includes social media management to help to build and grow a loyal following to interact and engage with about your services, a variety of content creation work including website copy and regular blogs, and everything in between.

Tailored to you

All of the services we offer are designed to help small businesses stand out from the crowd by developing a strong brand and reputation through the portrayal of your own personality. We do this by working alongside you, getting to know you, your business and your ethos in order to deliver a service that is truly personal. We buck the trend of marketing services that offer a one size fits all approach, because we know that isn’t beneficial to your business. At HI Marketing, we’re all about providing a bespoke and tailored solution that is truly customised to your needs and targeted at the customers you really want.

We know that supplying useful information is helpful, beneficial, and keeps customers coming back to you for more of the same, trusted facts, so keep an eye on our regular blog for a bunch of stuff that we hope you’ll find handy!

If you need to up the ante in your business, talk to us about providing marketing solutions with a difference! Just get in touch on 07805506477, or drop me an email at hayley@hayleyironsmarketing.co.uk.