COVID-19: An Alarming but Ideal Time for Real Corporate Leadership

Many leaders of corporations and entrepreneurs know that a leadership blog from their personal POV is a useful way to build a brand’s relationship with its audience. But in a time of crisis, having a leadership blog takes on a new level of importance -- one that you should consider.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given your statements of leadership new impact and relevance. Leadership is needed in all parts of our global society and you can help provide sound insights and useful information through difficult time for your contacts and customers.

Not publishing is a missed opportunity

A corporate leadership blog often falls under the nebulous category of “nice to do’s” which never get addressed. But the content from a corporate leadership blog has a number of positive effects:

• Build trust with your audience
• Keep top of mind with your audience
• Establish a relationship by communicating even when you aren’t selling
• Lets you characterize the challenges your business solves every day
• Makes you a familiar source for answers in your category
• Creates a two-way communication where users show you what they are interested in learning about.
• An established way to communicate during a crisis -- like a global pandemic

I’m a big believer is squeezing the most value out of good content, so I will also point out by experience that any content you create for your blog can be re-purposed in the following ways:

• Outbound email nurturing campaigns
• As value-add downloads for inbound lead registration (when there is sufficient content)
• Used as the basis for bigger contributed articles to be placed through your PR efforts
• Content can be mined for insightful quotes which also feeds into your PR efforts.

Your audience is listening

Due to social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders, everyone is stuck at home and consuming content. According to research by GlobalWebIndex, 87% of US consumers and 80% of UK consumers say they are consuming more content across media channels because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

New research by the World Economic Forum reported between 80% and 90% of online users, watch or listen to news and entertainment for an average of almost 24 hours during a typical week.

No matter what your business is, your audience is listening now more than ever. And if you and your team are working from home you may have the time and you do have an incentive to start creating. 

Your experience is unique

So there is no need to fret over whether what you are saying is truly new and original. If it is from your POV, it is original. Your leadership blog has the tone of a conversation -- you are allowed to mix in ideas and opinions with facts and useful information. And during this COVID-19 crisis, sincerity is rewarded.

You already know what’s relevant

There is one thing on your audiences' minds -- and you already know what it is. Cision, one of the primary distributors of corporate press releases, has shared a daily dashboard that shows that nearly 525,000 stories have been shared concerning the virus today.  

Despite all the disastrous effects of the outbreak, we live in historic times. Chronicling your thoughts and responses will be of interest now -- and potentially has interest looking back on the situation. 

This is a chance to relate to your audience

COVID-19 is impacting everyone at nearly all levels -- personally and professionally. Any insights you can offer to your constituents to help them work effectively, make money, get basic things done, and live their lives will be gratefully consumed. And you already have opinions and observations because you are living through it along with everyone else.

The trick is to find the observations that come from your particular perspective -- and to turn it into usable content.

You have more options than ever to get your ideas down

You can download a voice recorder app on any current smartphone -- and if you find that the written word holds you back, try talking through your first draft.

In fact, an unbelievably useful tool is Otter.ai -- an AI-driven transcription service that will let you upload your stream of consciousness and turn it into an editable first draft.

Writing is a process (and can be a team effort)

As always, there is no writing -- only re-writing. As popular author Neil Gaiman said on Twitter, “your second draft make(s) it look like you know what you were doing all along.”

As a corporate leader, your perspective is what is unique about you. You don’t need to be a great writer to make it work -- you have people in PR and communications who can help. Share your drafts, make your spouse listen to them if you can, share with your team and get the process started.

Useful advice for anyone wanting to write for any reason is to start and start today -- you learn by writing. And with this latest twist that has upset all of our lives and threatened the lives of so many the time to start is now. Pick up a pen, make some notes, make a recording, and start typing -- you may be glad you did.

Author’s Bio

Justin Roberti has a background in media and fine arts and has been writing and doing PR/marketing for over 20 years for Fortune 500 and startups in media, gaming, consumer tech, mobile tech, fintech, and blockchain. He is the PR Director for blockchain agency Zage.io.

Previously published at https://medium.com/@justinroberti/no-excuses-start-your-leadership-blog-today-e8691b552e26