Greetings from our self quarantine new reality! We hope this post finds you healthy, sane, and social distancing. This is not one of our usual blog posts because we going thru an unprecedented event. 

We’re watching entire industries transform right before our eyes: Amazon is hiring 100,000 new workers to keep up with the need for home deliveries. Universal is releasing several movies on demand the same day they’re hitting theaters. Requests for B2B remote work services has skyrocketed. For better or for worse we’re witnessing widespread disruption in real-time.

We’re Built for This (You Can Be, Too) 

Since its inception, Vab Media Digital Agency has functioned as a distributed team with the ability to work from anywhere so long as there’s a solid WiFi. Yes we work from coworking offices in NYC but we have been working from our homes and apartments a few days a week for years now so our business will be able to adapt to this crisis.  With COVID-19 continuing to impact people and countries around the world, teams and schools everywhere are moving to remote work and distance working. This practice has been widely regarded as a good move, showing a level of compassion for the concerns of the working population and assisting the efforts of governments around the world to restrict the unnecessary transmission of disease. However, even in the current digital age and with having flexible work on the agenda during the last decade, the reality is that many organizations are ill-prepared for an entirely remote workforce, while CEOs may find it difficult to adapt their working styles.  Those organizations that are set up to use virtual meeting and presentation software, enabling employees and coworkers to participate and remain engaged while supporting data-driven decisions, will feel the sting far less than those that don’t.  

How do you thrive working from home? Setup a physically separate workspace—ideally a separate office or at least a desk that’s dedicated to work.  Wirecutter has helpful post about working with your family in the home.  Use headphones, use services like Zoom, if you live with significant others try staggered work hours, use Slack or Google hangouts chat (which we use) and have enough chargers for everyone.   Even media companies such as CNBC are now having their regular contributors call in or use video conferencing software tools. 

As millions of people across the United States shift to working and learning from home this week to limit the spread of the coronavirus, they will test internet networks with one of the biggest mass behavior changes that the nation has experienced.  And as people start using work applications like video conferencing that can eat up a lot of data, accompanied by their children using bandwidth-hogging apps and games, some people may want to consider upgrading to an “enterprise grade” network hardware solution that has enterprise-grade managed wireless access points and repeaters in key locations throughout your home to ensure the highest and most reliable speeds.   If you are located in the New York City area, we recommend you check out some home A/V integration companies such as Expert Tech that can help your home speed up the networks bandwidth capacity.

Bidets Are Having a Moment

With panic shoppers hoarding toilet paper, it seems people in the U.S. might finally be ready to embrace the bidet. Welcome to the club – we have clean tushies. Other industries poised to flourish as social distancing policies are implemented: adult toys, video conferencing and streaming services.

Robinhood Needs a Moment

In a prime example of what NOT to do in a crisis, Robinhood – the commission-free investing app – had two massive outages, leaving investors locked out in the midst of a market sell-off. Twitter users speculated the outage may have been caused by flawed code that failed to account for the Leap Year. CNBC reported on it as well. Robinhood refutes this claim and published a blog post stating that their DNS was overwhelmed by traffic. Either way, this is a good reminder for companies to revisit their crisis strategies for both web traffic infrastructure and communications.

A Black Swan Moment

By now you’ve probably read the update from Sequoia Capital calling Coronavirus the “Black Swan” of 2020. This sentence really struck a chord with us:

“With greater economic and fundraising uncertainty, you might even want to consider raising the bar on ROI for marketing spend.”  

We couldn’t agree more. Every marketing dime that is spent needs to be a business driver. This is a time for accountability. If you’re not getting that from your agency, give us a call.  If your business has been shut down or severely hobbled by Coronavirus regulation or closures, We would be glad to offer a bit of local SEO/search/visibility advice on a consultation call. 

We’d love to hear from you!

Let’s talk about what Vab Media Digital Agency can do for your business.