To stay afloat, Seattle businesses are turning to social media during the pandemic

Restaurants have been relying more on Facebook or Instagram during the pandemic. They use it to promote specials or to keep customers posted on reopening plans.

But there are some who are new to social media, and are learning how it’s an important tool for their survival amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Purple Dot Café in Seattle’s Chinatown International District is known for Cantonese comfort food and dim sum. Typically, this place is bustling with ladies pushing dim sum carts, says Carol Xie, whose family owns the restaurant.

“You have like a lot of elderly Chinese families or just like younger people chatting,” Xie said, reminiscing about life before the pandemic. “And then sometimes one family will see someone they know across the restaurant and they shout 'Hey!' And then you hear the waitresses screaming at each other like, 'I need this, I need that.'”

Like many restaurants, Purple Dot is quiet these days and trying to stay afloat while serving takeout orders. Xie says what’s helped the business is having a social media presence. That is new to the business. In the past, customers came through word of mouth.

“I was like, we don’t really need online presence because we’ve been in the ID for so long like, people either know us or they don’t. That was kind of our attitude.”

But Covid-19 changed that and having an online presence is now necessary. Xie was inspired to put Purple Dot on the social media map after she started an Instagram account -- for her two dogs. Through that she became friends with businesses that sold dog accessories.

“In a year I garnered a couple thousand followers on that account which I thought was insane. Like, who cares about my dogs?”

That gave her the idea that social media could help the restaurant. So she opened an account and used the same strategies she learned from her personal one.

“I know it sounds really weird and unconventional, but somehow it worked.”

It brought new customers who may be familiar with the ID, but did not know about their restaurant until she started posting online.

Not many businesses in the ID are as fortunate to have someone who can navigate the world of social media. Most restaurants here are run by first generation immigrants, often with limited English and no access to technology.

And even before the state’s stay-at-home order, businesses in the neighborhood were reeling from anti-Asian sentiments and false fears about the virus.

In response, Sarah Baker, along with two friends, created a Facebook group called Support the ID Community United. For Baker, the ID has always had a special place in her heart.

“My grandmother is a first generation immigrant from Japan, she moved here in 1958.”

Baker says during her childhood, her grandmother worked at Uwajimaya, an Asian supermarket in the neighborhood. Baker went to a preschool nearby.

“I have these fond memories of being walked around the neighborhood, or going through Uwajimaya and my grandma would give us fortune cookies,” she said. “So it’s been one of those places that has been community for me.”

For Baker, creating the group page was more than just helping businesses get through the pandemic; it’s about preserving the community that’s under constant threat of new development. Baker fears the public health crisis could permanently close businesses, leading to the end of the International District as we know it.

“If that happens, then what does that mean for the neighborhood? Who’s going to take their place? And the answer, unfortunately, is developers -- folks who have not been in community, historically.”

The group is evolving beyond the ID. It’s using the momentum to support Black Lives Matter. It has become a resource for those seeking to support Black-owned businesses. And it has become a space for difficult conversations about anti-Blackness. Baker says it shows how the community has been able to come together to make sure we all thrive and not just survive.

“Despite the fact that we’re in a pretty dark time and that things have been really hard, that this has just been a constant source of light for me and I hope other folks are able to see it that way as well.”