Stories by Eric Yaverbaum

The novel coronavirus has resulted in drastic changes throughout the world. Communicators, though, can take solace in that many of the tactics they know from crisis management will apply to communicating during the pandemic.

As the pandemic continues, PR agencies are rethinking how they structure their business, looking at their staffing models and contract templates. Three trends have emerged that can keep agencies above water.

Even though health and safety are top priorities during the coronavirus, it is not time to abandon diversity and inclusion (D&I). Unfortunately, many companies are failing to communicate D&I messages to employees at this moment. Yet protecting employee health and well-being while promoting D&I are, in fact, mutually supportive.

The PRNEWS staff comes across many examples of brand advertising and communications every day. We have compiled a weekly assessment, published Fridays, with staff members providing their choices of the most notable, good or bad. We hope these brief examples will provide a learning experience about what works and things to avoid during this difficult moment.

It never hurts to revisit crisis operating procedures, particularly as they relate to social media. (In fact, with so many projects on pause, now may be the ideal time to rethink your crisis response.) These tips should prove useful as you audit your internal social media processes to stay resilient amid a communications crisis.

Internal communication has become critically important as 90 percent of Americans are homebound. Here are four tips that can propel your internal communication effort during coronavirus and at other times.

As stores and businesses suspended operations in the wake of the pandemic, many sent customers updates of new business hours, closures, delays and service suspensions. The question, though, is how to communicate such messages. Should you be an advocate or an apologist? Both approaches have merit.

Few things are spreading faster than fake news about coronavirus. In an uncharacteristic stance for it, Facebook has vowed to remove outrageous claims and cures and inform users when they’ve reached posts with bogus health information. Many believe Facebook and other platforms should be doing more.

The associate director of APCO Worldwide’s Paris office uses the example of the travel industry to show how PR pros can use technology to create a model about what business may look like after the pandemic.

A bevy of questions asked during a recent PRNEWS webinar about media relations form the basis for this roundtable where PR pros discuss pitching and product launches during the pandemic. In short, you can pitch and launch products during the pandemic. It requires careful research and a sensitive approach, however.