Coronavirus & Communication: What government entities need to consider when communicating about the Coronavirus.
Coronavirus & Communication: What government entities need to consider when communicating about the Coronavirus.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the most recent, but certainly not the only, notorious disease we have had spread around the world. As we see it begin to enter Colorado, it’s an important time for towns and cities to talk about proactive communication on this topic. The following suggestions are meant as a guide to help you facilitate this discussion with your team.
- Renew relationships. Reach out to your county’s public information officer and department of public health to let them know that you want to work with them on disseminating information without duplicating the effort.
- Create a webpage on the topic. This webpage should have a short intro paragraph that discusses how you are being proactive on this topic. If you have links to policies or procedures you have on other parts of your website for how you handle this, you can add them in this paragraph. Then you should have a bullet point list of the entities that they can learn more from. It’s important that you direct people to the leaders with the true facts of this ongoing conversation. Suggestions for your bullet points include:
- Center for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/
- Colorado’s Department of Public Health & Environment: https://www.colorado.gov/cdphe
- Information from your County’s Public Health Department.
End with a short sentence about how the community health and safety is your top priority (if you can link to your mission, vision, or values statement to show this point all the better) and you are committed to working with state and federal agencies to keep your community healthy. You should also mention that people should consult medical professionals with any medical questions.
- Make a social media plan. Be sure you have followed the entities listed on your website so you can look out for information they create and then share it. Again, it’s vitally important to share the facts and education of prevention with your constituents.
- Balance Public Information & Public Relations. Finally, and most importantly, everything you post or create should have a combination of public information and public relations. What we mean by this is that its important to provide education to citizens but its also important to assure them that you are doing all you can to keep them safe. Everything you share should be legitimate and factual information. Please be sure you verify all information before sharing it and share information from trusted resources. Panic can spread quickly but facts and empathy can go a long way in relationship building with your citizens.
As always, if you need insight or assistance on this matter, our government communication firm is here for you. Please feel free to email Amy Tallent at amy@tallentco.com if you should have any questions.