This month, Instagram added a new feature making it easier to small business to sell services through the app, including gift cards or food orders, through their company site.

In complement to this feature, Instagram added a sticker for users to add to their stories to encourage follower support of local small businesses.

Facebook also launched gift cards for small business, in support of these businesses as well as their own interest, as a large number of their customers are small businesses. 140 million businesses across the Facebook apps and 8 million of them are advertisers.

Small businesses generate a large portion of Facebook and Instagram’s revenue, so their promotion is not 100% from the goodness of their hearts. The businesses provide revenue as well as priceless content and entertainment for Instagram and Facebook’s consumers. Instagram COO Justin Osofsky says, We want to do our part in helping them stay open, keep in touch with customers, and be informed on how to navigate this crisis.”

Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/instagram-gift-cards-food-orders-for-small-businesses-announced.html

AT&T President John Stankey predicts that the coronavirus will alter consumer behavior permanently, beyond media companies like AT&T. He released a statement that he believes that coming out of this pandemic, we will not return to our previous notion of “normal”. He said, “We are going to return to a different economic environment, we are going to return to different business models.”

As for his own industry, Stankey stressed that connectivity is vital during this pandemic. Connectivity has allowed for the maintenance of some normalcy. He said that in a time of much uncertainty, “people are resonating with an opportunity to spend their time looking for great stories and emotional attention and distraction during some very difficult circumstances.” He did concede that there will be changes in digital and streaming industries as well.

He does not see a return to retail space and major movie theater screenings for many consumers. He predicts that there will have to be new innovations to present stories and entertainment to consumers without the help of the big screen.

While some industries will see a more drastic adaptation than others, it is inevitable that industries will have to adapt in a new economic and consumer landscape.

Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/atts-stankey-consumer-behavior-will-be-changed-from-coronavirus.html

Snopes, an online fact-checking resource, examined a claim that many Floridians, and others made, that the photos used to show crowded Jacksonville beaches were in fact fake. They argued that photos from the past, before the pandemic were used to paint a false picture of the beaches, and illustrate what would happen to many public areas when reopened after the pandemic.

There is an extreme divide within the U.S. in beliefs of how to begin to reopen the country. One side urges the government to hold off on opening public areas, such as beaches, and allow social distancing to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19. The other side of the argument is that individuals have a right to use outdoor space, for mental health as well as exercise. They argue that individuals are in more close contact in the grocery store, than on a beach, and therefore they should be allowed to use this public land.

Snopes concluded that while old photographs of Jacksonville beaches may have been used in the context of unrelated stories, the photos used to show the crowding of the beaches after reopening this month, are very real. Snopes also conceded to some arguments that the angles and photo choice make the beaches appear far more condensed than they actually are. However, the photos are real and current, and accurately portray the state of the beaches.

As systems like parks and beaches begin to open in the future, there will be inevitable disparity in opinions. In an unprecedented crisis, there is no way to know how the public, or the virus, will react, and therefore it is unfortunately nearly a guessing game at this time.

On Tuesday, April 21st, President Donald Trump was up early, before 7 am to be precise. His first action, surprisingly, was to take to Twitter in a series of tweets attacking the media.

At 6:19 AM, Trump tweeted  “Watched the first 5 minutes of poorly rated Morning Psycho on MSDNC just to see if he is as ‘nuts’ as people are saying. He’s worse. Such hatred and contempt!” The next tweet came shortly after at 6:40 AM when he tweeted, “It is amazing that I became President of the United States with such a totally corrupt and dishonest Lamestream Media going after me all day, and all night. Either I’m really good, far better than the Fake News wants to admit, or they don’t have nearly the power as once thought!” The final early morning tweet was at 6:57 AM, and read, “I’ve had great ‘ratings’ my whole life, there’s nothing unusual about that for me. The White House News Conference ratings are ‘through the roof’(Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, @nytimes) but I don’t care about that. I care about going around the Fake News to the PEOPLE!”.

While Trump’s preference for Twitter, and his less than eloquent tweets are no surprise, many had something to say about his decision to tweet during this time specifically. While at heart, false media coverage would be a large issue, in the face of a world wide pandemic claiming thousands of lives each day, it seems trivial and even insulting to be tweeting about one’s television ratings.

Trump’s frequent debriefings with the Coronavirus task force often result in clashing with journalists, when any of his statements are confronted or fact-checked. In times of great peril, we need to come together in the face of a common cause, not grab onto our exclusive beliefs and rally against others.