Why You Should Communicate About The Coronavirus With Grace and Patience

To say the coronavirus is on our minds is an understatement. We’re bingeing news and social feeds like never before.

Yesterday, I walked by a bookshelf in our bedroom and caught a glimpse of the novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but in my mind’s eye I read the title as, “Love in the Time of Corona.” 

The COVID-19 is infiltrating people’s dreams, too. Recently, a friend having difficulty staying asleep due to virus nightmares, posted a question on Facebook about whether or not it was “worth it” to run to the store for more melatonin. 

We are locked in.

We are consuming content at record-breaking rates.

We are addicted to coronavirus.

Why media is our boon and our bane

As both a consumer myself, as well as a professional communicator, I see the benefits and pitfalls of having access to media and news at the swipe of our fingers. 

The boon: It’s good to be informed, especially right now when so much is at stake — savings, retirements, jobs … lives.

The bane: It’s not great when we’re so honed in that we lose sight of long-term tasks and goals. While these have certainly changed in light of recent events, it doesn’t mean the future is going away.

A win for those who are showing up

From a communications perspective, companies and businesses that are working around the clock to communicate and smartly inform their employees and customers about how they’re navigating COVID-19 shows that they haven’t given up on their long-term tasks and goals. 

Many small companies I work for have done a spectacular job communicating their game plan for COVID-19. They’ve answered the essentials, like:

• Who is going to be affected by business closures?

• What’s closing and what’s business as usual?

• Why does this matter?

• When will we know more?

• How can we stay in communication?

• Where is there more information?

If you’re a business and you’ve answered these questions, you’re setting yourself up to survive whatever is ahead for us. If you haven’t stepped up yet, that’s OK. It’s not too late, but you should definitely consider drafting some communications right away. Here’s why.

Being silent is dangerous

Some companies have been decidedly silent about how COVID-19 is affecting their business and customers. This can be dangerous because — even though we’re overloaded with emails, social media posts, breaking news and meme shares — if your business is not communicating, you could lose a lot, like:

• Opportunities to educate and inform your employees and customers

• Sales

• Partnerships

• Consumer trust

Being silent is one way we try to protect ourselves when faced with conflict or uncertainty. If you don’t know what to say, just remember, saying something is better than nothing. You cannot go wrong if you stay honest, calm, factual and reassuring. 

Another communications risk? Too much Positivity. 

If at one time in your life you sought comfort and inspiration from, say, Rachel Hollis of “Girl, Wash Your Face” fame, but now you feel nauseated by the positivity platitudes, there’s a reason for that.

Being overly positive in a time when nobody knows exactly what to do, what’s going to happen, how this is going to resolve, where we’ll be in two months, two weeks, two days, is just another way of being silent. 

Here are some recent Tweets from Rachel:

In no way am I trying to discount Rachel’s gift for lifting others up, but I am here to say that, “You can do hard things!” is not helpful when nobody can really answer, “But how?” when we’re faced with one of the most significant historical events in a generation. 

Forced positivity is like singing “Happy Birthday” to someone who genuinely doesn’t want to be serenaded. 

My hope is that more of you will be realistic in your communications so consumers see that you’re human — just like them — and that sometimes it’s totally OK to not be OK. Instead of, “You can do hard things!,” maybe say, “This, right now, is a really hard thing we have to go through.”

Approach with grace rather than forced positivity

I swear I sing the praises of Mark Schaefer in everything I do, and there is a reason for that. In a recent video, Mark, an incredibly optimistic person, used the phrase “approach with grace” several times. 

Grace is different than optimism. It shows you are courteous of others’ feelings, fears, anxieties and hopes. You are realistic, patient and real. 

I’d like to also add in that being patient with your communications will also serve you well. There’s no rule book right now, and if there were, it wouldn’t instruct you to race to your computer every minute you have an update for your customers. 

First off, this is not fair to you. Give yourself time to internalize this evolving situation before you turn to reactive communication tactics, like sending five emails in two days. 

Secondly, even though the coronavirus escalated quickly, the long-term effects on business and life as we know it actually buys us time to think, problem-solve and collaborate with others. 

Thirdly, there will be a time again when being overly optimistic is completely appropriate and we can all go back to our happy platitudes. 

So don’t throw away your positivity pants. Maybe just tuck them away for now in exchange for a little grace and patience towards yourself, your business, family, friends and everyone else. 

About Lonna

Lonna Whiting is Chief of Content at lonna.co, a content, writing and editing studio located in Fargo, ND. Contact her at lonna@lonna.co.