Coronavirus is dominating the news cycle. Events are being refunded, store shelves ravaged, and flights canceled. Concern is widespread, but there’s no consensus on the gravity of the situation or how we should react to it. There’s a fine line to walk—on the one hand, you want to worry a responsible amount. On the other hand, exacerbating panic could make things worse.
So how do you decide the best response for your organization, from a health and safety perspective and from a branding perspective?
We’ll attempt to lay out what we know about COVID 19, how it may impact the various business sectors in which we operate and some things to consider when creating your organization’s plan of action and/or statements.
What We Actually Know?
As a primer on COVID-19, you should visit the CDC’s FAQ page.
For a deeper dive into what we know, it might be good to see the CDC’s COVID-19 situations summary page.
Internal Communication
Start with an internal communications plan. This is a great time to remind your staff and the people who work closely with your organization about your core brand, the values and attributes it conveys, and what that means for your COVID 19 response. Who you are should inform how you respond.
The important part is to quickly get every person in your organization on the same page. The basic information about COVID 19 is all the same. How you communicate it to your staff, how they communicate it to others, and the actionable items your organization puts in place may differ.
Are you the source of community knowledge in a specific area?
Are you are bold and innovative?
Are you are the steady leader in the community?
Then make sure your response conveys that.
And if you’re Chicken Little, feel free to run around in a panic, buying all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer you can find.
After you have this down, you’ll start creating your external communications plan.
External Communication
The two most important aspects of any external communication are credibility and accuracy.
Credibility is all about whether you or your organization are qualified to deliver this information.
When telling people about COVID 19 and its symptoms, treatment, and prevention, if you’re not in the medical field, specifically in infectious disease control, you’re probably better off linking to or quoting from medical professionals who do have expertise in this area.
If you stay in your lane there will be plenty of room to provide important and relevant advice. Here are some examples by business sector:
Local Government
This is an opportunity to lay out exactly how your municipality is planning to prevent the spread of COVID 19 and deal with it in the event cases show up in your community.
Remember, your residents will take their cues from you. If you panic, they’ll panic. If you don’t seem organized, they’ll overcompensate. The better prepared you appear, the more comfortable they will be.
This is a good time to introduce your community to the “team” that you have in place. You should consider using social media and your owned channels (website, public access TV, etc.) to put members of your health department, EMT, Public Schools, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, etc. front and center to show a unified, organized front.
Child and Family Advocacy
There will be much concern over risks for contracting COVID 19 at schools, parks, after-school activities, and anywhere that children congregate. Additional concerns will arise around the possibility of kids carrying the coronavirus into homes where more at-risk family members live.
This is your opportunity to lay out very basic preventative measures (citing quality, credible, medical sources). You should also consider working with your provider networks to provide additional, recommended resources such as sanitized wipes or tissues. Remember, there is no bad time to teach children to wash their hands often or to sneeze into a tissue.
Healthcare and Pharmaceutical
This is a tricky area because of the instant credibility that people will give these organizations. Because of this, you may consider deferring public comments to the medical experts while keeping your internal communications plan clear and straight-forward
Foundations, NGO’s and Religious Institutions
As the “tip of the spear” for community outreach, you might want to consider preparing a plan to temporarily shift your focus to help others take preventative measures. Is there an outreach effort where you help sanitize public areas (like children’s parks)? Is there a way to use your network to mobilize neighbors to help each other (maybe by delivering supplies)? Is there an opportunity to develop a meal delivery plan in case some in your prevue self-quarantine? Even if the necessity to deploy these ideas never materializes, having them and communicating them may go a long way in demonstrating your organization’s commitment to the people you serve.
Hospitality
This might be the most sensitive sector for an issue like COVID 19. Part of your audience will be on high alert, looking for a reason not to come to your establishment. Overtly communicating your COVID 19 plan might simply push the issue to the forefront, pushing your customers away. You will likely want to add layers of extra protection such as additional sanitary wipes. This might communicate enough about your preparedness. You will have to decide, based on your brand, whether additional communication such as signs encouraging handwashing in restrooms should be used.
The Bottom Line
The truth about this particular coronavirus is that the public reaction to the information about it may actually cause more damage in your community and to your organization than the actual virus itself.
You should have an internal plan that aligns with what the CDC and public health officials are recommending. You should also be thinking ahead to how your organization will handle a situation in which much of your workforce will need to stay home. But now is also the time to plan how your organization will communicate these plans both internally and externally. Those plans can and should start with your brand.