Using Brand Journalism To Save Lives

Our StorySMART YouTube episode "Using Brand Journalism To Save Lives" is about encouraging health officials to communicate directly with the public using video brand journalism with covid-19 (corona virus) crisis communications. Relying on traditional media methods, at the exclusion of direct communication methods like brand journalism, is a recipe for creating confusion, clutter and misinformation.

Now more than ever, we need to cut through the clutter, and hear directly from health officials.

Health providers should be communicating directly with the public using every possible communication channel available to them - from YouTube to Tik Tok to traditional media.

Like many of you, I've grown frustrated by the conflicting communication on the corona virus. What has been missing since day one of this outbreak is shareable direct communication from health officials.

When I hear my nine year old son and some of my friends repeating some of the BS that has been going around the world about Covid-19, I have to do my part to plead with officials to cut through the clutter by communicating directly. While I value what our healthcare heroes are doing to help people, their old school communication approach is lacking. They should modernize their approach to communications immediately.

Health providers should have their PR people use their cell phones to produce short shareable videos you can post to your website and social media. Communication that looks like a medical journal article won't cut it. People don't read. They look at pictures and watch videos.

When you communicate, you must tailor your communications to your audience. You should make it accessible.

In this video, I share examples of good efforts and point out opportunities for improvement. While we deeply value all the hard work the medical community is doing to keep people safe and to curb the spread of the corona virus, it is clear that the goal of their communication efforts is to influence the behavior of people. To do that, they need to communicate clearly and directly. #getStorySMART #Covid19 #Coronavirus #BrandJournalism