{"id":14238,"date":"2020-03-25T17:16:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T17:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/?p=14238"},"modified":"2020-04-08T08:58:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T08:58:11","slug":"creating-human-connections-through-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/creating-human-connections-through-a-crisis","title":{"rendered":"Creating human connections through a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/social-navigation-helping-brands-navigate-through-a-global-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Navigation whitepaper<\/a> has valuable insights and advice for navigating through this crisis.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The word \u2018unprecedented\u2019 has been used so many times during this crisis, but these really are unusual times.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To help organisations navigate their communications on and off social media during the crisis, The Social Element ran a webinar on 25th March, to find out what businesses and social media organisations are learning and experiencing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joining the webinar as panellists were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director of Brand &amp; Customer Experience at Eurostar, Amber Kirby<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Planning Director for Northern Europe at Facebook, Ian Edwards<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PR and crisis expert, Co-Founder of Polpeo, and the author of Communicate in a Crisis, Kate Hartley<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CEO of The Social Element and Co-Founder of Polpeo, Tamara Littleton<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was hosted by Chief People Officer at The Social Element, Wendy Christie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The panel discussed several topics during the webinar and answered questions from attendees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What\u2019s been the most significant lesson from this crisis in the past two weeks?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Amber<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> talked about her team\u2019s daily calls around the ongoing crisis. The crisis, and so Eurostar\u2019s response to it, is changing on an almost hourly basis. It\u2019s a much more intense crisis than Amber has experienced at the business during the year in her role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being one of the main ways that the UK connects to Europe, Eurostar felt the ripples of the crisis starting to hit Europe before many UK businesses did. It\u2019s very tough for the travel industry at the moment, and a lot of travel companies are in real trouble due to the tight margins they operate under.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the crisis has helped Amber\u2019s team understand the range of experiences in the Eurostar family, and demonstrated the commitment of all of their employees &#8211; especially those on the frontline who are keeping people moving. They all feel a duty to keep the vital transport link open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ian <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said that he\u2019d never known a period of disruption like that which we\u2019re experiencing now. While he felt an initial shock at how fast things were changing, he quickly realised the importance of the support of those around you. Speaking to clients daily and helping them strategise their way through the crisis has also formed an important part of the past fortnight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, he said, it\u2019s also crucial to take a breath. Many people are working at home with their children off school, and Ian, like many other parents, has realised the importance of structuring his, and his children\u2019s days so that everyone can work effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While <\/span><b>Kate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has worked from home for years, she\u2019s still used to working in the hub office most of the time. The past two weeks have shown Kate how important it is to keep communicating with her team. Video calls help replicate face-to-face time, and virtual drinks give the team a chance to unwind and chat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kate has found a renewed sense of community in her area, with people offering their help through social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tamara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emphasised the importance of leaders looking after their teams before anyone else, and ensuring that they are safe and doing okay. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tamara frequently works from home and the agency has been using a remote model for years but she acknowledged this is completely different for everyone and especially those with children and she gave a shout out to Joe Wicks for being the friend that everyone needs right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How are clients doing and what are they asking for help with?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For<\/span><b> Ian<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, at Facebook, the biggest challenge has been getting the right information to the right people. It\u2019s been about supporting the work of health organisations and governments. Facebook has given the World Health Organisation unlimited ad credits, and opened a COVID-19 information centre, to help inform people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He mentioned that Facebook has a $100m fund that small businesses can apply for &#8211; covering 30 countries &#8211; which will hopefully support 30,000 firms. Many businesses are pivoting to ecommerce and dealing with a huge surge of demand for customer service. Facebook is looking at how it can use AI-powered chatbots through Messenger to support businesses. Around 90% of call centre volume is generated by customers\u2019 top 10 questions, so clear information is imperative if brands want to reduce the impact on their call centres and social media teams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tamara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that clients have needed The Social Element team to support them on adapting content to reflect the right tone and message on social media and that they have needed insights and crisis communications support. She\u2019s also been providing a lot of ad-hoc support to businesses on virtual working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, brands will need to start thinking more traditional campaign-led marketing and advertising again; this crisis could last for months. Many people will also want to see brands being present &#8211; brands are part of normal life, and sometimes help people to define their identity. When and how these campaigns will start up again is a matter for consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Amber <\/b>talked<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0about how COVID-19 has been a great leveller. It\u2019s taken people back to thinking about what it means to be human. Right now, marketers should listen to their instinct about the right things to post, and when to post them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone\u2019s hunkering down and protecting what they love and cherish &#8211; for brands, this is their values. Eurostar values &#8211; caring, connecting and ambition &#8211; are helping the brand respond to the crisis and keeping the \u201cburning light of the future\u201d alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Tamara and Kate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> agreed. One day, this crisis will be over, and you should be able to look back with pride at your brand\u2019s response.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How should brands be communicating through this crisis?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Kate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emphasised that the most important thing was to put yourself in the shoes of people most directly affected by the crisis. It\u2019s not about what your brand needs to say, but what people want to hear from it. People are focused on the health and safety of themselves and their families, not on brand profit (unless it&#8217;s their employer).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can be hard for brands to show empathy, but Kate recommends using the structure laid out by Professor Theresa Wiseman (who is a clinical professor of applied health research, specialising in Cancer Care, at the University of Southampton and the Royal Marsden hospital), in her work on <a href=\"https:\/\/pdfs.semanticscholar.org\/0cd0\/2f528a829e286c016230030a9f72f5653921.pdf\">empathy in nursing<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1) see the world as other people do\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2) understand their feelings and why they feel that way\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3) be non-judgemental\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4) communicate that understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The unique thing about this crisis is that it\u2019s something we\u2019re all going through. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No-one is to blame for it, and brands have limited power to fix things. They can, however, look after their teams and their customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What advice do you have for companies struggling to adapt to virtual working?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Tamara\u2019s <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a self-confessed eternal optimist. She believes that this crisis is driving a positive and more human change in communications. We used to be so obsessed with providing a perfect environment for video calls when we were working from home; now we see and embrace the chaos of what it means to be human. We\u2019re meeting co-worker\u2019s families, housemates &#8211; and pets! &#8211; and generally forming deeper human connections with our teams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tamara pointed out that communicating to all team members is key. If someone can\u2019t join video calls, ensure that they still feel part of the team by using a range of communication methods. Remember that even people who often work from home may feel isolated right now due to lockdowns in their country. Use calls to share aspects of your daily lives, and to discover ways to keep people motivated &#8211; this is a crisis that could stretch on for months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Social Element\u2019s Chief People Officer, <\/span><b>Wendy Christie<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, pointed out that people are working under much more pressure right now and that they\u2019ll all be coping with different experiences. Businesses need to find ways to support these people. (For example, by understanding that people may not be as productive as usual.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The panel also discussed how they were coping with the crisis. What is clear is that everyone is struggling. As leaders, it\u2019s important to find ways to support yourself so that you can be there for your team. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and share your hopes and fears with them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a terrible situation that no one could have predicted, but by working together and supporting each other, teams can help each other, and their businesses, come out on the other side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can listen to the full webinar <a href=\"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/The-Social-Element-_-Social-Navigation.mp4\">right here.<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Social Navigation whitepaper has valuable insights and advice for navigating through this crisis.\u00a0 &nbsp; The word \u2018unprecedented\u2019 has been used so many times during this crisis, but these really are unusual times. To help organisations navigate their communications on and off social media during the crisis, The Social Element ran a webinar on 25th&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":14241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/The-Social-Element-_-Social-Navigation.mp4\r\n60544265\r\nvideo\/mp4\r\n","transcript_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Creating human connections through a crisis - The Social Element USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We hosted a webinar for a panel discussion on the impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on them, their businesses and their communications.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/creating-human-connections-through-a-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating human connections through a crisis - 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