https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Administration


Photo by Juliana Romão on Unsplash

Article

Best practices for public health communications in the era of COVID-19

Best practices for public health communications in the era of COVID-19

  • Written by Scott Wilkinson
  • 5th October 2020

COVID-19 represents the first global pandemic of the social media age and an unprecedented communications challenge for today’s public  officials. The burden of local government officials has always been to communicate proactively, clearly and in a fact-based way that avoids overtly persuasive tones that could be perceived as bias. That imperative is more important than ever during a pandemic.

Given the fast-evolving reality of the pandemic, the continued unknowns, and the prevalence of misinformation (and outright disinformation) circulating across social platforms, how can public health officials break through the clutter to ensure their messages are reaching the people who need them most?

Communicating about risk and best practices for staying safe has been challenging enough these past six months. As we move forward, public  officials will also be tasked with communicating updates, protocols and safety information around potential vaccines—a divisive subject surrounded by misinformation even when we’re not in a pandemic. To communicate effectively around this and other crucial topics, public health officials must be able to:

  • Understand and reliably measure public sentiment around a given topic as it evolves on a daily basis
  • Identify and recruit appropriate voices to help carry facts and information to the public, in both a general and targeted capacity

In tackling this challenge, public agencies must prioritize their limited resources for maximum effect, and that’s a daunting task given the ever-expanding volume and reach of online content and conversations. As public officials evaluate their communications strategies for the coming difficult months, these five best practices should remain top of mind.

Understand that social media will be a force, whether you influence it or not
Social media and other digital platforms have already played a massive role in the shaping of public understanding of and reaction to COVID-19, and the same will prove true in the coming months, especially as the possibility of a vaccine looms larger. No public health agency can control what’s happening in online conversations, but officials must recognize this activity for the force that it is.

Information and discussions on social media will translate to real-world actions—actions that have serious implications for the health and wellbeing of a given community. Public health officials must be paying attention to these channels if they are to anticipate potentially problematic scenarios. Retroactively trying to trace and amend the source of misinformation that led to a local panic or spike in infections can be akin to closing the barn doors after the horse has already bolted.

Measure misinformation but don’t overreact to it
It can be tempting for public health officials to react to every instance of bad information that they see online, but this is an urge that must be resisted. For one, misinformation and misguided logic is simply too big a problem online to reasonably address in a comprehensive manner. More importantly, it’s also highly unlikely that you’ll be able to persuade an individual with a misinformed opinion. People are emotional beings, and we don’t always make decisions based on fact.

That said, while it’s important not to overreact, there are situations in which reactions are not only appropriate, but quite necessary. When misinformation is persistent, or occurring among a particularly at-risk group, it is the duty of public health officials to aggressively and intelligently combat bad information with facts.

Inoculate, don’t cure
You can’t change the minds of certain people, but you can help people who are most susceptible to misinformation. By identifying populations most likely to be exposed to misinformation, public health officials can proactively deploy fact-based information to those at-risk individuals. If officials can get the truth out to people first, there’s a much greater likelihood that information will be retained and applied when those individuals encounter incorrect information later.

Recruit the right allies
In the consumer marketing realm, the concept of influencer marketing—i.e., soliciting endorsements from people and organizations who have purported expertise or social influence in a given area—has become quite popular. This is a concept that is extremely useful for public officials as well. By identifying and recruiting people within a local community who are known to credibly share information related to topics like the pandemic and vaccines, public health organizations can amplify their important messages through trustworthy individuals. In seeking out these individuals, keep in mind that the “right” messengers aren’t always just the ones with the largest followings. They’re the ones with credibility and measurable influence with their networks.

Investigate the quiet areas
It’s easy to spot a four-alarm fire, but it’s much harder to spot the areas that are prone to ignite at the slightest spark. This holds true in nature and in social media. Public health officials need to be aware not only of active problem areas of misinformation, but also communities where no information at all seems to be penetrating. These are the communities that will be most susceptible to bad information if it should come their way. As such, they are key targets for proactive informational campaigns. By tapping into real-time intelligence around public health conversations and sentiment, officials can effectively deploy an ounce of prevention in advance—rather than attempting a pound of cure later.

Scott Wilkinson is the founder of AlphaVu.

Tags: homepage-featured-1 Administration News Administration News Article

Most Recent


  • Amid shifting workplace expectations, local government employers must adapt
    Constrained by inflexible budgets, local government employers can’t compete with the lucrative salaries offered in the private sector. And while recruitment has always been a challenge for public employers, the last two years have been especially difficult. From January 2020 to the same month this year, government organizations lost around 600,000 jobs—more than manufacturing, wholesale […]
  • Smart911 emergency profiles provide first responders with more information, faster
    Since the first full time fire department was established in Cincinnati in 1853, emergency responders have raced into unknown scenarios with limited advance information when the firehouse bell rings—until now. Among the many advancements of next-generation 911 dispatch systems, Smart911, an app developed by Rave Mobile Safety, automatically displays resident profiles during an emergency—including details […]
  • baseball
    Minor league baseball is helping cities hit a revitalization home run
    It’s that time of year again—the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd when the home team hits a home run, not to mention the peanuts, Cracker Jacks and hot dogs! Nothing compares to the fun of gameday at the stadium, enjoying the national pastime of baseball. Some mid-sized cities have taken the […]
  • MSPs
    The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection
    Recently the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) along with the FBI, NSA, and international cyber authorities issued a cybersecurity advisory aimed at protecting managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers. This high-level advisory has been gestating for some time ever since the SolarWinds and Kaseya supply chain cyber-attacks. A software supply chain attack occurs […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Lessons from your friendly neighborhood public service employees
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • How local governments can get ahead of the infrastructure wave: Strategies to mitigate risk
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery

White papers


The PIO’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media

16th May 2022

Gain Greater Visibility Into Your Public Works Fleet

16th May 2022

Arizona Arts Center Meets Rapid Deadline with Hundreds of Thousands in Savings

26th April 2022
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

Amid shifting workplace expectations, local government employers must adapt dlvr.it/SQm2RT

20th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Smart911 emergency profiles provide first responders with more information, faster dlvr.it/SQh9gl

19th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Minor league baseball is helping cities hit a revitalization home run dlvr.it/SQc5N4

18th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council can help governments get up to speed on sustainable buys dlvr.it/SQbwqL

18th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

The MSP downstream cyberthreat paradox: Understanding the city and county connection dlvr.it/SQYVjs

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Philanthropic group to launch assistance portal for local admins navigating federal bureaucracy dlvr.it/SQY16G

17th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Nearly 95 percent of America’s mayors face harassment, threats and violence dlvr.it/SQTn2z

16th May 2022
AmerCityCounty

The PIO’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media dlvr.it/SQTdCK

16th May 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X