Communicating effectively with patients and local communities is essential during this uncertain time to ease fears, ensure communities have access to essential healthcare information, and help to slow the virus from spreading. Following are 8 tips for simplifying communications and easing the strain on your staff.

On Google

1. Update your Google My Business (GMB) listings. Your GMB is an essential front door to your organization. Update the business descriptions in your GMB listings to include information about COVID-19. Include links to relevant resources on your website, as well.

2. Use Google posts to educate your audience. Add Google posts that appear prominently within your GMB listing and in search results.

3. Mark locations as “Temporarily Closed” if appropriate. Google is now supporting the ability to label a location, such as a clinic or urgent care facility, as temporarily closed. This helps mitigate the chances of patients showing up to locations that are closed.

On Social Media

4. Use social media to combat misinformation about COVID-19. Set up social listening to monitor conversations and respond to concerns. Remove inaccurate posts from the community to keep them from being shared widely. Use the “pinned” post/tweet feature to ensure the most important info stays prominent.

5. Communicate consistently with templates. Create pre-approved response templates for all social communications, to simplify and reduce the need for time-consuming, one-off responses to common inquiries, and provide information and updates about the virus.