Monday June 22, 2020 ~ LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke, editor, Cert PR ~ West Shore Voice News
In another day or so, the City of Langford will be launching a ‘gotta love Langford’ sort of initiative online.
Their latest promotional venture is a website called IAmLangford.com which promises to offer an “up-to-date business directory, behind the scenes stories, as well as contests and promotions”. No surprise if there are theme-identified ball caps, masks and stickers made available to keen residents.
During COVID-19 pandemic conditions which require social distancing and no gatherings of over 50 people, an online presence with a bright and flippant sort of style seems an appropriate approach for catching the attention of local residents.
COVID has been messing with human nature:
The pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everywhere everywhere — one of the ‘unintended consequences’ of the lockdown in the earliest phase of pandemic management in BC, and the physical distancing that is ‘here to stay’ until there is a vaccine or effective treatment against COVID-19 (as Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry is often heard to say).
A virus that is developed, tested, found to be effective, mass-manufactured, and distributed widely is thought by scientists and health officials to be a project stretching long into 2021 at the very least.
Spending an extraordinary amount of time away from other people has its social and psychological impacts. Physical distancing is counter to the natural human inclination for greeting people in their personal space.
Probably no one misses hand-shaking (which was never a good idea from a hygiene perspective, including pre-COVID), but standing far enough apart to have to speak more loudly or to not be able to use physical proximity as a conveyor of friendliness is against what all of humanity has known on this planet up til now.
It will all take getting used to. Public health officials know this, and hence the proliferation of online and virtual services in support of mental health for youth, seniors and others including at www.bc211.ca and the Family and Friend Caregiver Support Line at 1-877-520-3267
Riding the COVID waves:
Langford has done a good job of supporting most of its business sectors during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was the Langford COVID support line and community visiting service (a matter of some debate on March 19 when first launched), a massive amount of information and resources posted on the Langford city website, and the stirrings of a Langford local business directory (based initially on lists from business licences).
At various points in the pandemic Langford Council addressed things as they went along… such as bylaws for management of COVID-related health concerns in retail (which later got pulled back as the province’s communications kicked in).
Langford does like to take care of its own. Now it’s time for residents to feel good about how their town has taken care of them.
The public relations realm:
It will be interesting to see what sort of uptake the IAmLangford.com website gets, and how it interfaces with local media whose business it is to promote the Langford area and west shore region. It will be interesting to see how the website interfaces with other community influencers such as the school district and the chamber of commerce.
As West Shore Voice News has editorialized about over many years, there is a distinct difference between journalism, marketing and public relations (or promotion) — they are cousins but they are not the same.
Phase 3 of Restart BC is coming soon:
This community-oriented launch in Langford comes at the same time that the province is expected to announce Phase 3 of their Restart BC economic recovery. Generally, those in the know think that shift into Phase 3 will come tomorrow, June 23.
Dr Henry will be providing the fourth package of data modelling tomorrow to the public at 3 pm. If there is good news about management of COVID-19 in that modelling, then perhaps we’ll see some expansion of economic and social-gathering activity starting this week.
However, physical distancing and gatherings no larger than 50 people will still be orders of the day (months, years).
