Peter Schorsch
Facebook released a trove of data on how businesses are using the social media platform, and it shows Tampa Bay businesses are getting back to normal, though some are moving quicker than others.
The Data for Good project, a partnership between the social network and humanitarian relief organization Direct Relief, allows users to sift through info by date, state, county and business sector.
It compares businesses’ post rates during the pandemic to baseline data determined during the prior year, before the coronavirus hit.
Like the rest of the state, most Tampa business sectors saw a spike in activity early in the pandemic as businesses used social media to communicate in real-time with customers about the state of their business.
After the first few weeks of the pandemic, business sectors began to diverge depending on their ability to operate under local guidelines or adapt to online operations.
Some sectors saw seasonal increases, such as retail, which saw a holiday bump that lasted from September 2020 through January due to the phaseout of local rules and the holiday shopping season. Since then, retailers have maintained below-the-baseline post rates and recently started to decline even more as the delta variant continues to spread. Pasco County retailers hit their second-lowest usage on July 16, 2021, at 60.74%.
Grocery and convenience stores saw the same spike in August 2020 but have maintained heightened activity since then. The professional services sector, which dropped drastically in the early days of the pandemic, has mostly held steady below the baseline, but recorded its lowest usage since the start of the pandemic on July 15, 2021.
Unsurprisingly, the travel and local events sector cratered last year, and it hasn’t seen much of a recovery in the year-and-a-half since.
“This data suggests that businesses in the greater Tampa Bay area continue to recover, however, economic recovery from COVID-19 is not evenly distributed to all industries,” said Facebook policy manager Laura McGorman.
“For example, grocery stores and restaurants in Hillsborough are posting at the same rate as we observed in early 2020, but travel companies and professional services businesses are posting at significantly lower levels compared to pre-COVID-19 levels, suggesting a slower return to normal for these sectors. At Facebook, we are committed to helping businesses adjust to new ways of doing business and hope that insights like these can help assist in their recovery.”
Facebook said it hopes businesses and policymakers use the business data to see how their local economies fared during the pandemic and inform their decisions moving forward.
