5 minute read
COMMUNICATION AT THE TIME OF THE PANDEMIC
Coronavirus and social: how to change corporate communication
The current pandemic requires companies in particular to adopt appropriate content, tone of voice and action. “Social media is a place where people go first of all to talk about what’s happening in their private lives, especially with the people who matter to them. Companies have always been a necessary guest, and not always happily invited, because while we all have our business interests, no one goes to social media to intentionally consume advertising - explain Marino Pessina and Chiara Porta, CEO and director in charge of the journalistic communication agency Eo Ipso (www. eoipso.it).
At present, traditional corporate social strategies risk to be inadequate. Given the current situation, companies that already regularly use socials need to make profound changes to the usual language and those that tend to ignore or make little use of socials need to create a conversation with the public, taking advantage of the entire digital ecosystem and all the different cards within each platform. Keeping quiet while waiting for everything to pass won’t help, it will only serve to make you disappear little by little. Communicate, then, but do it with a purpose. While promoting a sense of support, community and recognition of what the world is experiencing right now. You fight to survive, even if you are closed. The question that all companies should be asking themselves at this time to set up a social media communication strategy is: “How can I use my social media presence to support my community? The goal is not to promote your business, but to offer leadership and support during this unprecedented period. This is a great opportunity to make meaningful connections. An opportunity that, we hope very much, will never be repeated in this way again.
1. Reformulate your messages so that they really talk about the difficulties people are facing right now. 2. Check all previously scheduled content to be published during this period and make sure it is still relevant and sensitive in relation to what is happening. 3. Pay attention to the tone used: there must be empathy and compassion. The last thing to do as an entrepreneur is to appear deaf during what is a very difficult time for many people. Ask: “What can I do for you?”, “What do you need from me and my company right now?”, “How can our company alleviate your pain at this time of loss?”. 4. Remove any “playful” emoji and any overly exuberant language. 5. Pay attention to the images you use. For example, instead of posting pictures of people walking on the beach, right now they are better people playing in their yard. 6. If you are open, make posts to thank your employees, asking them to take photos in the company, where everyone can see that they are complying with all the anti-contamination safety rules. 7. If you are in smart working, show people how you and your team are dealing with this moment. “Normally we would be in the office, but now everything has changed.” Publish a post with a photo or video of your morning meeting held on digital platforms that allow you to connect with colleagues or friends.
8. Offer specific skills. Use your social media as an educational channel to let people, or other companies, know how you can support them. Ask yourself: do your posts educate your followers on a relevant topic? Can you help them learn about resources in your niche that will help them in this difficult time? What can you offer for free that will provide educational value to your community? 9. Offer a way to stay in touch while everyone practices social distancing, make an extra effort to empower and support the community. Do you have or can you create a personalized community to help your followers during this time? For example, gyms can provide video courses (for their members but not only), restaurants can offer cooking classes. There can be many ideas.
10. Use videos to communicate more extensively with your audience. They help us connect more effectively with the outside world. 11. Promote and share all the actions you are taking against the pandemic, such as donations made or conversion to make masks or other protective equipment. 12. If you have a press office, share what media says about you even on social media: it’s a way to increase your reputation. 13. Publish motivational quotes, inspiration stories and practical tools. 14. Use multiple social channels and different formats. The combination of both short and long formats will help brands maintain a close affinity with their audience during these unprecedented times. 15. Finally, for the editorial planning of the coming months, consider that the elements of this pandemic could remain.
Never to be done
1. You should refrain from using language that could cause fear or appear as if you were capitalizing on the chaos (e.g. “End of days for sale!” or “Limited time offer! Coronavirus!”). Fear-based marketing may be effective in the immediate term, but it is certainly harmful in the long run. 2. There are a lot of quotes and hilarious examples of “COVID-19 survival” on socials at the moment. Keep those jokes on personal feeds, not corporate feeds. It’s a very challenging time for everyone, so it’s critical to ensure that your strategy is thoughtful, empathetic and supportive at all times. 3 . Avoid messages that might make it appear that you are exploiting the crisis rather than providing value to the public. For example, if you offer financial services, it is not a good idea to advertise yourself, rather, you could provide useful and comforting advice about what is really happening in the markets.
After the crisis
“Remember that the world is still in shock and that your messages must be processed with the same empathy and wisdom used in these days - Marino Pessina and Chiara Porta recall. At some point, people will get tired of talking about the crisis and we will all be able to return to a new normality. In the end, the show (and life) will have to continue. At some point, we will all have to return to work as a population within an economy. When, we don’t know yet. But don’t wait too long to communicate. Don’t let your company be another coronavirus victim”.
