Staying In Touch During COVID-19

By Bruce Turkel

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus we’ve all learned a bunch of new terms like Flattening the curve, and COVID-19. Heck, I’d never even heard the term Coronavirus until just a few months ago – even though it’s been around since I was in high school.

I’m not a medical professional so I don’t have much to say about those terms. But I am an expert in brand building and messaging strategy and I have something to say about Social Distancing.

Instead of using the term Social Distancing, let’s start saying and practicing Physical Distancing. That is, while we need to be careful not to get too close to each other physically, let’s be sure to stay close to one another virtually. Let’s make sure that we deliberately increase our social connections even while we’re carefully decreasing our physical connections.

That goes for our personal lives and it goes double for our business lives. Because if it’s true that “people do business with people they like,” then what could be more important than establishing personal business relationships? Even when we can’t be together face-to-face.

I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t keep a safe distance from other people. Every infectious disease expert says staying a minimum of six feet away from other people is key to staying healthy. It’s critical that we keep a safe distance until this contagion passes.

But while we’re keeping our distance, we need personal interaction more than ever.

Better Presenting Through Technology

Unlike crises of the past, we now have a number of tools to help us stay close without being close. FaceTime, cell phones, social media, and meeting apps like Zoom, WebEx, and GoToMeeting give us the ability to be together without actually being together.

Just because you shouldn’t hold a meeting with your company’s staff, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet with them. Instead a webinar can be the perfect way to share information and maintain relationships without the risks involved in a face-to-face meeting.

But understand that just because you have the technology to hold virtual off-sites doesn’t meant that just any old presenter knows how to reach across a screen and grab the attention of an audience they can’t actually see and hear. Presenting an effective, entertaining, and enlightening online presentation requires special skills, knowledge, and years of practice.

Reach Out And Touch Somebody’s Heart

Just because you shouldn’t touch someone doesn’t mean you can’t touch their heart. And today, maybe that’s the best thing that we can do. It all starts by replacing social distancing with physical distancing and keeping your audiences, employees, and members up close and personal even when they can’t be up close and personal.