How do I advertise my services online?

- [Jess] My name is Jess Stratton with LinkedIn Learning. When a crisis hits, your hours will change, your location, possibly the entire way you do business. Most likely, by now, you've updated your website with a message, updated hours on any online listings, so now I'm going to focus on advertising through social media, like Facebook and Instagram. Let's head to Facebook, as a large majority of customers will check here to see what's going on with your business. If you don't have a page yet, I'm not going to go through setting one up, but you can click Pages on the left-hand side, and then click Create Page on the top-right to get started. I'm going to go into the existing page that I have. To immediately edit your hours, on the top right-hand side, click Edit Page Info. Here's where you can change your description, phone number, change your location, and update your service hours. Now that your hours and logistics are updated, let's move to Instagram to focus on making what you offer relevant to your customers. We're going to do this Instagram because it's easy to create nice looking ads and posts here, and get them to other places like Facebook and Twitter, without having to leave the Instagram app. That makes it the perfect starting point. So, you'll need Instagram and your favorite app to add text to photos or images, such as these here, called Word Swag or Canva, both available for iOS and Android. I find this is an easy method because you can just take photos and stay on your phone, or put your graphics on your camera roll. I'll tap Word Swag to get started. I'm just going to give you a quick demonstration of the type of posts you can be creating. I'll tap Library because I already have my graphic on my camera roll. I'll select this cupcake, and at the very bottom of the screen, I'm going to choose to make this an Instagram portrait. I'll tap Next, and here is where I can add the text to my post. I can see that there are some free ones. I'll choose one of those. And here's where I can double-tap to change the text. This is where you want to advertise in a clear, concise manner. For example, this is a good time to post when items are out of stock, or that you're reaching out to reschedule consultations. I'll put in my updated text, and I'll tap Done. I'll pinch to resize it, and tap Save. The picture was saved to my camera roll, so now I'll go to Instagram. I'll add a new post. Here's my image. After I type my caption, here's what I wanted to show you. With one tap, I can add this to my Facebook page because I'm logged into Facebook on this device. I can also add it to Twitter, so this is a great way to get these nice looking posts to all your social media accounts. You can also add these to Instagram Stories or Facebook Stories. In my course, Learning Facebook, I cover how to use Facebook Stories. And in the course, Marketing for Instagram, Anson Alexander has a whole chapter on marketing through Instagram Stories. Here's some other things that you can consider. Facebook and Instagram Live is a way for you to socially connect in real time. You can answer questions live or do product demos. It's okay if it's unrehearsed. It connects us all when we're a little vulnerable. One last word of encouragement. If you're worried that you don't have a product or a service that's available right now, you do. You can have a message of hope. Keep posting, customers know that things are changing every day. If you post at least once a day, you're being an anchor that you're still there. Customers will be comforted by your consistency, and they'll remember you and your business long after the crisis is over.