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.

CNN news anchor Chris Cuomo revealed a COVID diagnosis March 31, posting the update to Twitter and noting concern for his family ahead of his own health.

While in a holding pattern, some organizations are pivoting from content production to information gathering.

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.

During the last several weeks, COVID-19 has dominated social media

With museums and cultural institutions shuttered during the pandemic, communications teams have banded together to show support for each other’s collections and brighten art lovers’ days via the #MuseumBouquet hashtag.

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.

The Ad Council’s partnership with media and government organizations for a series of coronavirus PSAs aims to quickly reduce public confusion.