I think we can all agree that it’s been a confusing and uncertain time in our city and world lately. As we navigate the new climate of Boston over the next several weeks and months, it’s important that we work as one community to support each other as much as we can. To do so, we wanted to share some resources to help serve your clients, businesses and yourself/your families during this time - and give you some opportunities to connect (virtually, of course)!

Resources on addressing COVID-19 in your marketing content and comms

Below are some perspective and resources on how (or if) your brand or business should address COVID-19, as well as the impact we are seeing in various content-related functions. There is no right or wrong answer here but I think everyone is curious to see how others are moving through it.

Do you agree or disagree with any of these perspectives? Share in the comments what your approach has been and what impact you are seeing. We will discuss some of these examples are our upcoming virtual happy hour!

Resources on remote working:

Whether you are working remotely full-time for the first time, or you’re just not used to being at home ALL the time, here are some resources that can help with that transition. Also, get very used to hearing phrases like “Can you please go on mute if you’re not speaking?” and “Can everyone see my screen?”

Managing a remote team: How to effectively manage work-flow and communication over the coming weeks.
Maintaining engagement with remote teams: You need to keep your business going but also ensure the morale stays high, especially during the stressful days ahead. Includes ideas on how to increase engagement like hosting virtual happy hours, short workouts, yoga sessions, polls, and more! (Possibly even virtual karaoke!)
Working remotely for the first time – This can be a huge and sudden transition. Get some perspective on how to tackle it in a way that minimizes impact.
Maintaining mental health while working remotely: working in isolation can be challenging. It’s important to develop routines that ensure you stay mentally and physically well during this lockdown period. This includes making time to get outside, moving around throughout the day, and making sure you incorporate social time – even if virtually.
REMOTE: Office Not Required (Rumor is that Basecamp is offering refunds to anyone who purchases and tweets about it)

Join our community Slack channel:

In uncertain times, it's more important than ever for us to stay connected. We hope you’ll join an awesome community of local and global content marketers in the Content Marketing Leaders Slack group. You can use this group to interact with each other, keep up with Boston Content news and events, and stay up to date on the latest practices in the ever-expanding field of content marketing.

If you’d like to join, please email the admin Cassandra Jowett <cassandrajowett@gmail.com> and tell her Boston Content sent you!

Quick Tips

Here are some quick tips to help you navigate this platform:

#boston is our dedicated regional channel. If you have a question for your fellow Bostonians, want to meet up, or ask questions about Boston Content, you can use this channel to do just that.
When you first get to the channel, introduce yourself! Go to #general and let everyone know who you are, what you do, and what you’re passionate about. Gifs and memes encouraged!
There are lots of great channels for you to explore and participate in, but if you ever need to hit pause on all the notifications, here’s how you can reduce noise.
If you’re new to Slack, here’s their get started guide. Once you’ve completed those steps, here’s their guide to using the platform.

If you ever have any questions, send Karra Barron, your Boston Content Community Manager, a DM in Slack or email bostoncontent@gmail.com

Upcoming virtual events & webinars sponsored by Boston Content:

Let’s get together! Just because we can’t meet in person for awhile doesn’t mean we can’t continue to connect virtually. Here are some upcoming events that we are sponsoring and/or hosting.

Thursday, March 26 (6pm-7pm) Virtual Happy Hour: Let’s talk about COVID-19 & marketing (Sign up here!): Grab your favorite quarantine beverage and come join our first Virtual Happy Hour of 2020. Each month we will feature a relevant topic with some guest speakers/panels but the idea is to keep it casual and allow the community to come together for some connections and conversation. In this first one, we will talk about what is top of mind for all of us right now and hear about how our organizations are responding, share good/bad examples and understand how we can keep ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually well during this time.

Friday, March 27 (1-2:30-pm EST): The CMO Imperative: Adapting your 2020 Strategy during the Pandemic: Marketing leaders need to immediately embrace change and find creative solutions to add value with an increased emphasis on the digital world. This talk brings CMOs from around the US to share how they're adapting to our new reality with an emphasis on:
- Reaching your audience when travel is restricted and conferences are cancelled
- Adapting your content and standing out when everyone is doubling down on digital
- Pivoting your field marketing and event strategy to focus on digital opportunities
- Filling the lead gen and brand building gap
- Shifting channel strategies, plans, budget and resources
- Keeping your employees motivated during the crisis
- Messaging effectively around coronavirus

Free Tools & Tech to enable remote work & content creation:

With the transition to remote work for most, you may be looking for tools to enable that transition. Below are some free options for tasks like project management, content calendars, podcast hosting, webinar platforms, video conferencing and more. As you re-think your content strategy, what tools will you need to enable that?

Project Management:

10 Free Project Management tools: Depending on what you need in a tool to manage your team’s work remotely, this is a comprehensive list with pros and cons of each.

Content/Editoral Calendar & writer recruitment: nDash

Podcast hosting:

5 Free Podcast hosting platforms: From Podbean to Anchor, if you or your brand is looking to start a podcast this year, now may be the ideal time.

Video Conferencing:

Zoom: Host up to 100 participants, 40-min meeting max, screen sharing, etc

Google Hangouts: Host up to 25 participants; video, audio and messenger conversations; screen sharing

UberConference: Host up to 10 participants; 45-minute meeting max; screen and doc sharing

Skype: Teams up to 10; interactive video chats; HD video calling

Slack Video Calls: Slack with up to 15 people on a call in a channel

Webinar Software:

Loom (Free 90 day trial)

Additional free webinar platforms (many are similar to video conferencing platforms)

Additional tools:

8 Free Content Marketing Tools you should be using: for everything from headline generation to social media management

38 Free tools for content marketers in 2019

Podcasts and webinars to catch up on:

Content Marketing Playbook Podcast (Boston Content podcast hosted by Adam Rogers)

BrightTALK content marketing webinars

Stay tuned for more!

Don’t forget to keep an eye on our job board for new opportunities!

Please let us know how else we can help make your day a bit brighter and we look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming virtual events!

If you’re interested in contributing content, please email us at bostoncontent@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Community, Content and Conversation in the midst of COVID-19