Coronavirus Communications: Messaging During a Time of Crisis

Regardless of your industry or cause, the spread of the coronavirus has quickly moved from something to keep an eye on to something you must be ready for.

Whether you’re planning a big conference, a small gathering of customers or donors, or something else, it’s likely you’re already fielding questions about how you’re planning to address the virus. It’s also likely your employees have questions about how the outbreak might impact travel or even their day-to-day work.

How should you respond?

Our advice is simple: You should be communicating regularly, calmly, and truthfully to your key external and internal audiences.

Let’s walk through what this means:

Communicate regularly

As with other types of crisis communications, it’s important to provide regular updates about your plans – even if it’s to reassure people that nothing has changed. 

For example, if you are planning an event and you don’t plan to cancel, tell people that things are moving ahead as planned, explain how you’ll make a decision about canceling or rescheduling, and outline what you’re doing to ensure health and safety.

Amy Sample Ward, who leads the Nonprofit Technology Network, provides a great example of what we mean in the video it posted this week on the registration page for its upcoming conference. In simple and direct language, Amy explains the show is still going on, how the conference is adjusting, and what you can do if you can no longer attend.

Communicate calmly

We’ve all seen the stories about people who are taking extreme measures to protect themselves or are spreading disinformation. Be careful not to buy in to the hype or share shoddy information.

As a thought leader, you want to make sure you’re sharing carefully vetted information and that you’re acting responsibly.

Communicate truthfully

We simply don’t know how this situation will play out over the coming weeks and months. But that doesn't stop some people from pretending they do.

Resist the urge to speculate. Instead, talk about what you know now. 

If you don’t know something, answer questions truthfully and say that you don’t know.

Finally, if you don’t already have a crisis communications plan in place, this is a huge reminder that you need to have one.

Here’s some simple advice on how to create an effective crisis communications plan.

Oh, and one more thing, go wash your hands!