Stories by Sophie Maerowitz

If you post a brand-focused, non-coronavirus update to your social media account, how will your audience take it?
During a recent webinar hosted by PRNEWS, communicators mulled over the question, many of them concerned that promoting goods or services, fundraising efforts or other non-coronavirus content would come across as tone-deaf. To help clear up questions about when, why and whether to post to social in an unforeseen digital environment, we asked seven communicators to offer their takes.

While social media influencers and celebrities have had some cringeworthy moments in recent weeks, brand entities as a whole seem to be starting to find their footing, putting out more nuanced messaging and recalibrating their responses when they don’t land as intended. Here’s a look at a health care organization and two name-brands that made waves on social around COVID in recent days.

Social media communicators require tools to ensure audiences are connected, supported, entertained and—perhaps most crucial amid the pandemic—receiving truthful, accurate health information. To meet these challenges, the major platforms have unrolled a number of features and hubs for COVID-related content. Here is a collection of what they’ve done pertinent to professional communicators and use cases for each platform’s offerings.

Communicators and marketers, uncertain how to handle influencer marketing, face challenges as they try to strike the right tone with an anxious public. Influencer efforts over the last week have been a mixed bag, with some celebrities winning hearts and minds, while others struggle with tone and content. Here is a look at recent attempts by influencer personalities to join the COVID-19 conversation—and lessons learned from each.

Logging into Nextdoor during the crisis, one senses a return to a more innocent time in social media history, when users took to Facebook, LiveJournal or Angie’s List to post their thoughts and feelings openly, exchange information about local contractors and services or ask for help from a small group of peers. This is in stark contrast to an online environment where brands and individual users are often concerned more with building their audiences, winning engagement or creating an idealized, but ultimately false online persona.

With an increasing number of institutions and storefronts now mandated to shut down operations, communicators have turned to live video as a workaround for serving existing clientele and reaching new ones. Some organizations have tied live streaming directly to their core missions. Here are some tips for making the most of live streaming during the COVID outbreak (without appearing opportunistic).

In the ever-evolving world of digital, there’s little doubt that social media professionals should stay on top of algorithm changes, new social apps and shifts in user behavior and appetite. As Social Shake-Up 2020 host Brian Fanzo, CEO of iSocialFanz puts it, “I wish there was a pause button for every new social media app. But there isn’t one, so we have to focus our goals on how to address that.”

In the debate over the effectiveness of influencer marketing, data from a strong measurement regime can provide solid evidence. Engagement and attribution are key metrics. The path to successful influencer content is found by creating posts that seem tailored to individual consumers, says Everywhere Agency CEO Danica Kombol.

With the start of the year, social media platforms released features that should help communicators with planning for these tools. In addition, Facebook offered users a tool that allows them to see and delete data other companies have collected based on interactions with those brands. It’s far from certain how many users will use the tool.

For several years, marketers and communicators have feared the damage done to the brands and public figures they represent via the propagation of “deepfakes,” videos and photos that use the assistance of machine learning technology to replace faces and objects with false, but realistic, images. As fake news and misinformation continue to plague online discourse, Facebook says it has taken a significant step to deter the spread of doctored video and photos.