The Struggles of Social Media during the Pandemic

It’s hard to grasp that a year ago, or even six months ago, we were all totally unaware of the struggles we were going to have to face, and try to overcome, due to a pandemic which has swept the globe. On one normal Thursday, while sitting at home in the kitchen of my college house, I heard the news my life was going to be somewhat put on hold indefinitely. It was in this short three hour interval, that we were informed that all colleges and universities would be closed, and everyone was to return home. For me, third year ended just like that. It’s crazy looking back because what we were first believed would be a two week break, one many of us were yearning for, turned into a 3 month nightmare where all we wanted was to be back in college, drinking far too many cups of coffee, spending late nights chatting to one another and studying for our summer exams together. What we called “normal” life suddenly seemed like a distant memory or dream. Adapting to a new normal became the focal point of many our lives.

Now in the middle of Phase 2, there is at last some light at the end of the tunnel which seemed like a twenty year dark night. It is the confirmation that all the days stuck in our homes were not all for nothing. It was worth it.

However, this cannot be said for many companies and small businesses which have struggled to survive during this time of social lockdown. Many of these companies struggled to adapt once the pandemic hit due to their social media presence, or lack thereof…

As a member of the UCC Formula Student Operations team, this is something which I have struggled with. With a lot of the practical work on hold and our only interactions being through Zoom or messenger, it has been difficult to come up with material for our social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as our website! In order to gain followers and interest in this project, we need exciting content to build this. In a time where our work has been moved to the screen, it has been challenging to say the least. Many content creators have thrived during this time as their work, for the most part, has barely changed. YouTubers are a good example of this. Many of these content creators work from their bedrooms and already have a vast fanbase, and with nothing but time, have been able to keep their content flowing. For a new project like ours, we have not had the luxury of already having a built fanbase before the pandemic hit. However, what it has provided us with is time. Time to start coming with ideas to promote our Formula Student project. Time to work on the project itself and get all the knots untangled. Time to sit back and look at what has been done and what needs to be done. It has been a time of hard work for many of our team members.

Currently our Instagram pages stands at 61 followers, with 4 posts. With work on the project well underway by the other groups on our team, it is hoped we will have some very interesting content soon and this will help build our follower base and build up excitement around Formula Student! Our LinkedIn and Facebook are at similar standpoints, but we hope to have everything back up and running as soon as we can. Our website seems to have the most activity with blog posts from various team members being posted almost every two weeks. These posts have allowed us to share our thoughts and ideas on various topics surrounding Formula Student.

Nonetheless, the next few months should be very exciting for UCC Formula Student as normal life begins to resume and I cannot wait to share all the updates!

In the meantime, be sure to follow us on all our social media platforms:

INSTAGRAM: uccformulastudent

FACEBOOK: Formula Student UCC

LINKEDIN: Formula Student UCC

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Written by Elaine O'Sullivan