As COVID-19 kept people at home, in-store sales fell sharply. Many companies understandably wanted to grow online sales through channels like e-commerce.
But selling alone does not grow revenue. First you have to build awareness and popularity.
That is where running an official social account matters. By consistently sharing the latest news and offers, you can strengthen your brand image and raise awareness. With so many companies now operating official accounts, COVID only made that work more important.
In this article we analyze accounts that used the conditions of the time to their advantage and grew large followings in a short period.
Case 1: A Hotel Account That Passed 100,000 Followers in Two Months
“futaritrip” is an account themed around hotels people want to visit once stay-at-home restrictions lift, featuring stylish hotels from across Japan. It opened on Twitter in May that year and reached 160,000 followers in just three months. The Instagram account opened in June had already passed 25,000 followers (as of August 6).
The biggest reason for the rapid growth was an approach tuned to the COVID situation. Building the same hotel account in normal times would not have grown this fast. By stating “places to visit after the restrictions” right in the account name, it used the moment to capture attention, and that drove part of the growth.
On top of that, the GoTo campaign that began the previous month was expected to gradually revive demand for small-group travel. Under the “traveling duo” concept, introducing stylish hotels with good value made the account look all the more appealing, which added to its popularity.
Source: Traveling Duo: Hotels to Visit After the Restrictions
Case 2: A Beauty Brand Account That Sparked Buzz with Stay-at-Home Products
The Instagram account for “Akabako,” a product from Cow Brand Soap Kyoshinsha, started posting in April that year.
Using the hashtag “Akabako joshi,” it ran many campaigns tied to its own products on Instagram. In a spring campaign, users who followed the account and liked a post were entered into a giveaway, and two campaign posts earned more than 100,000 likes in total.
The campaigns used many hashtags tied to the stay-at-home period, such as #stayhome and #at-home-beauty. With more time spent at home, plenty of people devoted that time to beauty. Google Trends also showed searches for at-home beauty surging around the state of emergency, suggesting more people were using their time at home for beauty care.
A similar campaign had run the previous October, but this one earned more than ten times the engagement. Follower count passed 60,000, and feed-post engagement rose after the spring campaign. It is a strong example of promoting products through the lens of time at home while steadily winning fans through solid social fundamentals.
Source: Cow Brand Akabako, Cow Brand Soap Kyoshinsha
Case 3: RETRIP’s Account That Delivered a Travel Mood at Home
RETRIP, a travel-information sharing service, launched “RETRIP At Home” in late April so people could enjoy a travel mood without leaving the house, featuring sweets from around the country and ways to enjoy time indoors.
It highlighted dishes featured on RETRIP’s roundup site, at-home camping by pitching a tent indoors, and home theaters for special time with family. The account showcased plenty of activities worth trying and products worth buying precisely because people were at home.
Posts used the #stayhome hashtag and introduced content suited to the trending “home cafe” idea, along with sweets you could enjoy via delivery. This distinctly pandemic-era content paid off: within roughly three months of launch, the account grew close to 10,000 followers.
Source: trippiece “RETRIP” Instagram
Conclusion: Reading the Shift in Needs Is the Key to Follower Growth
Winning followers on social media is not easy. Even so, accounts that launched that year grew quickly because they read the COVID situation and operated around the resulting needs. Posting in line with needs born from changing social conditions can create real opportunities to grow a following.
“Time at home” was a key phrase for social media at that moment. Many company accounts used it as an entry point, sharing useful everyday information tied to their own products. With restrictions continuing, there was no reason not to make use of it.
New needs will keep emerging as society changes. Spot those shifts early, turn them into a concept, and create easy entry points through hashtags and campaigns. Sustaining these fundamentals is what leads to stable follower growth.
