5 things to think about from a comms perspective during Covid-19
We’ve put together some general thoughts on what the current situation means for all of us, from a comms & marketing perspective. The below are our musings from our team meeting today; which I conducted from our garage (photo below), given that I’m in [voluntary] self isolation.
1. The obvious: Less IRL, More Online
As a company that has spent two years learning how to be “remote first”, rather than just “periodically remote friendly”, this line made us laugh a lot:
It’s something that — even after working relentlessly on curating our culture, systems and processes — we still grapple with.
However, self-isolation and the accompanied working from home will give a lot of us the chance to ascertain a) exactly what the purpose of each meeting is and b) whether it could be a 10 minute phone call instead (or even, a well bullet-pointed email).
One of our great loves of our job is the “in person event”; a sometimes vintage-feeling gathering, for the sake of a common purpose and often consumption of wine and snacks. As we increasingly see the world shift into lock down mode, it’s easy to see that these will be on the decline for the foreseeable future.
The lessons:
Never go to a meeting without an agenda (the best lesson I learned in my first real job — thanks Steve)
Take the time to understand which video conferencing system works best for your team and establish etiquette around that (mute when you’re not speaking, arrive on time, etc)
Look for opportunities to ‘bring your community together’ online, whilst we’re all practicing social distancing (what a sentence)
Stash the wine for later in the year (fingers crossed)
2. And, by that, we mean A LOT of online
A by-product of the above is that we’ve got a lot more eyeballs online: a space that didn’t exactly need more time spent on it (just ask my iPhone’s awkward weekly screen report).
“With 19 million mentions across social media and news sites related to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours alone around the world, it’s clear that coronavirus is the first global pandemic that is unfolding on social media with unprecedented volumes of conversations happening every second.”
Grad Conn, Sprinklr chief experience and marketing officer.
While a lot of that time will be consuming news & articles, we can also see that there is a need for connection and community, especially for those who are in isolation.
Image via @EcowithEm_
The lessons:
Look at how you can add value to the conversation & community — whether that’s related to Covid-19, or just more generally (this is a standard rule for us, but it still applies).
Sprinkle kindness & use social media for good. It’s a powerful tool, that can do far more good than bad, when we engineer it that way. How can you support those in your community that might be more vulnerable?
3. Bad Comms will be outed
We no longer live in a “24 hour news cycle” and we do not tolerate bad or misleading information. And — here’s a hint to the organisers of the Formula 1 Grand Prix — zero information counts as “bad or misleading”.
Even if you do not have all of the answers, being open and honest about that is the best strategy.
I spoke to an Air New Zealand steward in my travels who remarked that new CEO Greg Foran has inherited one hell of a job (my words, not hers); but that he’s sending daily update emails to the entire company. Sometimes, saying “we don’t know what we don’t know” can also be really helpful. (Christchurch Earthquake Communications Failures is another example of this).
We’ve written more on this in the past — about how sh*t is immediate and we don’t have ‘space’ to “test” or to “figure it out”. Check out these links here.
The lessons:
Be honest. Always. I literally teach my toddler this. It shoudn’t be a “comms strategy”.
“I don’t know” is actually an answer & communicating.
What you say (or don’t say) will be remembered.
Image by Pau Barrena via Getty
4. Be careful what you launch…
In uncertain and stressful times (particularly when people are worrying about their whānau, their homes, their jobs and their community), there is a tendency for spending to reduce. This is obviously amplified when social isolation is underway and there’s a general feeling of lack of security.
Yes — some concepts and ideas will prosper (delivery wine, c’mon!) — but, we would be hesitant to launch campaigns where you’re asking people to put their hands in their pockets, just because ‘you planned to launch in early April’. If you are in a position to, we’d suggest consider delaying (or, at the very least, being clear as to how your target audience can afford what you’re asking).
The lessons:
Make sure that you know your audience (stands true regardless of whether you’re crowdfunding or not): what’s worrying them? What’s working? What do they need?
Just because “now” is the most important time for you to launch — it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s perfect for your audience. Revert earlier point.
5. But, now could be the perfect time to launch!
Equally, if you’re launching something that will benefit your community / have an existing business that just needs to ‘step’ into the online space / have created a ‘tool’ or resource that will help, now could be the perfect time to share it with the world (see above).
Lots of the most amazing and important developments come from times of necessity — and we can already see the tendrils of creativity burgeoning for many.
The lessons:
What problem are you solving for your community?
Answer the above genuinely, with integrity, authenticity and kindness, and you’re the kind of person that we’d love to work with.
IN CONCLUSION
The world can feel scary, overwhelming and tough right now. However, there are also some gems out there online (we’ve included our favourites to date) — and some incredible / inspirational people who are going to create, help and generally make our lives so much easier in the next wee while.
Narrative’s (even before we were formed) “coming of age” were the earthquakes in Christchurch; we’ve navigated natural disasters, births, deaths, crises and cancellations as a team that — at its core — knows communications. If you’re looking for some help to manoeuvre this strange new world, we’ve love to help.
With aroha & kindness (always),
Erin & the Narrative Team