Crisis Content!

Is it okay to write about a hot topic during a crisis?

…Is it okay to NOT write about it?

When you’re in the middle of an unfolding crisis, is it prudent for your business to look for a way to leverage that crisis to your advantage? You might react strongly to that question with a loud “Hell, no!” But what if your business does work that is related to some part of that crisis? What if you have valuable information or expertise that should be shared at this time? Would you have just as strong a reaction if not sharing that information was a disservice to the community at large? Could holding back something that you know literally put your customers in danger?

Sometimes there are easy answers, but very often there are not.

The current crisis—the global pandemic of Covid-19, the disease caused by a recently identified type of coronavirus—has thrown much of the world into turmoil. In fact, it’s safe to say that if you aren’t concerned about this pandemic, then you haven’t been paying attention. We won’t go into the details, because you’ve likely received that information from other sources, but the numbers are disturbing; when people say those numbers are terrifying, they’re justified in that belief.

Whether or not the ultimate outcome of this crisis will result in a world that looks like any of the worst-case scenarios won’t be known for some time, but those scenarios should grab your attention: Will we see more than 100 million Americans infected, leading to more than 1 million deaths? Are we really looking at an economy with close to 30% unemployment later this year, with all the collapsing dominoes such a drastic spike would bring? Is it prudent to assume that no vaccine will be available for more than a year, and that the virus will erupt in unexpected places at unexpected times for many months, causing unpredictable local and regional lockdowns of the kind so much of the country is now experiencing?

We just don’t know. In a crisis, this kind of uncertainty is often more of a concern than the depressing facts themselves, if only those facts were clearly known and people could plan their lives based on them.

When it comes to demonstrating your firm’s character during a crisis, your approach should depend on where your expertise lies and what service your business provides. One of the client lines we offer is WordWorks: Caregiver. As the name might suggest, this service is designed to help skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, hospices, and other caregivers display their expertise. These kind of facilities are already front and center during this crisis; moreover, the clients at these facilities, as well as their friends and families, are likely to look to them for support and information. It would be a lapse—even potentially negligent—for this kind of business to stay silent at this time. They can (and should) create content to help explain the situation to their customers. This content can cover broad topics: what’s known, what’s expected, what to do, who to call. It can also offer reassurance and comfort: what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, how to contact our residents, what we want you to know about our quality of care. It’s natural and fitting for this kind of facility to produce helpful content at this time (and plenty of it).

Another of our lines is WordWorks: Legal. Are there law firms who should be posting Covid-19 related content at this time? Yes, definitely. Some will simply publish informational posts, with no direct connection to their business. Others might tie in some useful information and educational content: what are your doctor’s obligations to you at this time? how do new rules and regulations issued under an emergency declaration affect you? what are your obligations to an employer, or an employer’s to you, when they’ve been declared an “essential business?” Whether or not this kind of content will help generate future business isn’t the point. You’re providing a service now by publishing it. But it’s likely that this show of targeted concern will enhance your reputation later.

On the other hand, not all crisis content is good crisis content. If a legal client asks us to develop content for them in line with the above, we will do so with enthusiasm. If a client, however, came to us and asked for content intended to lure in new business by playing to a reader’s worst fears, we would likely refuse to create it. There is already too much of this going around: pages with click-bait style headlines and grim predictions, pitched to scare worried people into pursuing a particular course of action, rather than helping them understand how events are unfolding and how they can cope with them.

If you have valuable shareable knowledge in a crisis, it’s your responsibility to make it available. Doing so accomplishes what you’re already aiming for by hosting content: it bolsters your image and improves your reputation for expertise. Using content in a fearmongering way, in an attempt to profit during a crisis, is an approach that will ultimately harm your image.

The current crisis is a major one, but it will not be the only crisis we’ll live through. There have been others; there will be others. During this one or the next, or the one after that, you can turn to Waltham WordWorks to create content that gets the job done right. When you’re ready, reach out to us for more information.

NOTE: Beginning March 30th, 2020, Waltham WordWorks will be reducing the price of some of our services by as much as 40%. If you are a health care provider or a legal services firm providing pandemic-related content to your community, this may apply to you. Check here for details or contact us.