Running a Dating Site During Social Distancing
During a time of social distancing like the one we’re in right now, dating site owners are asking the same question and that is how do you run a dating site when the whole world is practicing social distancing? I’ll dive into it a bit but first and foremost, please practice proper hygiene and adhere to local and national news suggestions when it comes to proper hygiene and venturing outside.
What Is Social Distancing?
Social distancing practices are changes in things we do while outside our house that can help stop the spread of infections. These include limiting social contact, work and school functions which all help in the delaying and reduction of an outbreak.
Basically you don’t want to go to places where there are tons of people. If you’re sick, stay home. If you’re not sick, limit the places you go. Stay at least 6 feet away from people and by all means, wash your hands, sneeze into your arm and wash your hands again, rinse and repeat!
Can You Still Run A Dating Site?
You sure can and I’ll touch on a way for your members to still use your dating site while practicing social distancing.
Within the iDateMedia dating software is a feature called “Live Video Chat Instant Messenger”. This is where two people can talk live via their phone cameras or webcams. Members can use the live video chat function to meet each other people and go on virtual dates and while going to a bar or restaurant right now is not a good idea, having a live video chat between users will be so much better health wise not to mention the cure for boredom.
If two people decide to meet then that’s up to them. If they aren’t sick or showing signs of being sick then they should themselves decide if meeting is a good idea and of course if the government is suggesting that everyone stay put then live video chat will come in handy for so many reasons.
Should I Charge Premium Membership?
At this current time it’s probably not a good idea to charge your members to use your premium features like live video chat. You want to do your part in helping people during this difficult time so having your features free will send a powerful message to your members that during a crisis you’ve got their back. Unlike large companies who only care about their bottom line, the message you send to your members will be amazing and caring as well as long lasting and that improves trust and reputation.
You’ll also want to promote your premium services if you’re using them. This means that if you have a lot of members then be sure to promote the fact that you’ve turned off the premium features and that they have access to the features like live video chat during this national downtime.
Your members will most likely be at home and will be bored. They will have internet access and when they see that you’ve opened up your features for all users then they’ll most likely utilize the services.
Other Things You Can Do
Other things you can do as a dating site owner during social distancing is to inform your members of news. If you’re keeping up with the news then post some of that news on your site. People will be visiting dating sites so pushing information to them is a great idea.
Continue to be open and transparent. Don’t go silent and encourage your members to continue to practice proper hygiene.
Don’t stop marketing. Being at home allows you to spend a lot of time marketing your dating site so take to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others and push content. Make sure it’s relevant to your dating site market.
In Closing
Right now we have the Coronavirus running around so again, first and foremost, stay safe, stay clean, stay out of large crowds and enjoy your downtime binge watching Netflix but don’t neglect your dating site. It’s a business and while it’s an online business you can still market your dating site and promote it and all from the comfort of your home.