“Is it worth sharing?”

This is the question that we ask ourselves with everything we do. This ethos has guided our way of working and thinking for the past 6 years. We’ve infused this perspective into how we think about hiring, how we build our product, and everything in between. Now we’re leaning on it once again, to guide us during a time of crisis.

What’s worth sharing in a time like this? For us, that is content that is helpful, earnest, factually correct, and timely. It can also be content that’s positive or entertaining that helps us get through these tough times or content that helps us feel connected. Brands have tremendous resources and power and should help in these areas. Now is not the time to remain silent, but a time to make noise with purpose, and encourage others to do the same. The brands who are doing good in the world will be the ones who emerge as brands we look up to when this is over.

For us this means:

Have courage in communication 

When Twitter came out as one of the first organizations to institute a mandated work from home policy last week, they set the bar for how organizations, large and small, should react to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Their courage to stand up early and start the trend set the stage for others to follow suit.

As of last Friday, all Popular Pays teammates are working from home. We’re incredibly fortunate that our business was built to operate from anywhere and our teams are used to working collaboratively & productively online. Whether it’s tips on how to work from home, happy hours with a friendly face, or a mid-day cooking show, our team’s creativity to adapt to this new way of living reminds us of why we want to be close to each other in the first place.

Lean into your brand purpose

Brands represent a promise to people in terms of how they can help make that customer’s life better. In response to coronavirus, brands need to take a step back and think how their purpose applies to the crisis we’re in, and then follow through with courage in communication of that purpose. For some, that’s easy: consumer products and health-focused companies can share content around tips for how to practice proper hygiene or stock up correctly without panicking; travel companies can guide us how to stay safe and what they’re doing to respond with adjustments to their service. Some embrace it literally: Louis Vuitton is directing their factories to make hand sanitizer, not perfume. But even telecom and entertainment companies can embrace helping us stay connected with friends & family or showcase positive news to keep people’s spirits up. Be bold and think about how your brand can play their part, but of course strike the right tone: we’re not here to profiteer, but to help.

Embrace agile content creation

In a time when messaging is constantly changing, not just weekly but even daily, understanding the best practices and benefits of agile content creation is essential. How do you spin up content quickly based on news in the market? What do you do when normal production shoots are getting canceled? Content creators can be a real painkiller in this environment, since they are:

• Fast: you can spin up content in as little as a day or two
• Cost effective: making content radically affordable even in times of reduced resources
• Flexible: you can spin up and down your work with creators since they don’t have fixed scopes; shifting your cost structure from fixed to variable can help in uncertain times.
• Full-stack: creators are their own photographers, models, editors, and even media channels when they post, so in a time when shoots are being canceled, they’re open for business.

Influencers are also a trusted channel, so they can be valuable here as well. WHO is using TikTok creators to spread tips on hygiene and Facebook is passing large influencers factual health tips to give to their fans to help drive the right messages home.

Social media for social-distancing 

As people stay home, social media usage goes up. Since the beginning of March, when more and more people were asked to stay home mobile internet usage has increased nearly 10% to 7.3 hours a day on average. It’s a necessity to embrace the concepts of agile content development to communicate responses to the crisis, to combat misinformation, and if nothing else, to comfort and help make their our community’s experience as positive as it can be during uncertain times. Now more than ever is a time for us to use social media for GOOD.

Playing our Part with Pop Pays it Forward 

In the spirit of every brand doing what they can to help out in a time of need, Pop Pays is playing our own part. Our biggest assets are our team, our software, and our creator community, and we want to point those toward helping the spread of good and helpful content during this time. We’re donating our software and services to nonprofits disseminating helpful information related to COVID-19 or resources surrounding this crisis and small businesses most impacted by the necessary and critical mandate of social distancing.

Please let us know if there’s an organization or business that may benefit by contacting:  [email protected].

With love,

Corbett Drummey