We're on social media more during COVID-19 — and these small business owners are cashing in

When the coronavirus pandemic hit about a year ago, many of our personal lives moved online.

In one Harris poll, roughly half of U.S. adults reported using social media more after the pandemic began.

But some flocked to social media for more than entertainment or personal connection. With stay-at-home orders forcing shops to close, and triggering widespread job losses, some turned to social media as content creators, hoping to find ways to make ends meet and build their businesses during the lockdowns.

Recent Cal State Northridge graduate Gabriela Linares took the first stay at home order as an opportunity to work full time on her business selling candles, crystals and other holistic self-care products. At first, she thought the pandemic would force her to shut down her Instagram shop, called Sobre la Luna.

But during the lockdown, “I’m doing better than I ever was going to farmers markets or other events to sell in person,” Linares said.

She’s now making roughly $3,000 to $4,000 per month.

Joe Gagliese, CEO of Viral Nation, a marketing agency that represents influencers, said the pandemic has been a huge opportunity for businesses of all sizes to grow their online presence.

The pandemic is “slowing people down to take a look at small businesses,” Gagliese said. “Large brands and big influencers have benefitted from this, it was like shaking off the old school.”

Like Linares, Jayde Stamm, owner of CBJ Studios and current CSUN undergrad, assumed his cake business would suffer. The influx of new orders has slowed down, but Stamm has continued to create content, apparel and other goods that are growing his brand.

Stamm went as far as saying that his business depends entirely on his social media presence.

Just as their businesses and social media presence grew during the pandemic apps like YouTube experienced a 63.7% increase in usage and Facebook 62%, according to Statista.

According to Business of Apps, TikTok saw its number of U.S. users grow 85.3% during 2020.

Linares recently created a TikTok account for Sobre la Luna. She’s also active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for her business.

Stamm is active on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and OnlyFans for CBJ Studios.

Influencers often try to have a presence on multiple platforms.

Stamm started on Facebook but moved mostly to Instagram very naturally as the platform gained popularity.

“For cake services, Facebook will generate the most money,” Stamm said. “The selling platform is much easier and more familiar than Instagram. With Instagram I can sell more of our merchandise, products and cookies.”

Both Stamm and Linares emphasized they put a lot of time into creating posts that will attract people to each of their platforms.

Gagliese said the work ethic required to brand yourself or a small business is often overlooked.

Gagliese said the amount of time and effort necessary to build a following on social media is often overlooked: “The amount of time you have to learn how to edit. The amount of time you have to learn what’s trending. The amount of effort you have to put into content, ideating and all those things…”

“It’s really a battle of consistency and brawn,” he continued. “At the beginning you’re creating this content for no one. There’s a lot more to it intrinsically then financially and I don’t think people give (influencers) enough credit.”

It’s not clear whether the new audiences that flocked to social media will remain as engaged in a post-pandemic world. But even for businesses or influencers looking to make their mark in person, social media will likely remain a tool they must learn to use effectively.

Gagliese saw the pandemic as an inevitable push towards social media, and even shared “hacks” — tips and tricks — that he said bigger companies have yet to discover.

“I don’t know if you guys know this,” Gagliese said, turning to Stamm and Linares, “but on social media there are content aggregator pages… For instance Jadye there are cake instagram pages that have 2 million followers. And they’re the TV of our generation, and are surprisingly low cost to activate: you can pay them a couple hundred dollars to post your content.”

In the case of Sobre la Luna and CBJ Studios social media has been able to provide their creators a steady source of income and consumers interactive posts, giveaways, ambassador opportunities and products that might have otherwise been hard to find during a pandemic.

Gagliese believes the pandemic only sped up the process of pushing everyday life online and increasing the reliance on technology.

“When people were sitting at home,” he said, “running out of things to do on social media, they started to discover the Jaydes and Gabrielas of the world… (The pandemic was) an enormous opportunity, and continuing to go down that path is a good one.”

This show was produced by the following team: