Pandemic parlance

Human language changes every day. Sometimes just a tiny bit, sometimes by giant leaps. Long-lasting events that affect all aspects of our lives tend to lend themselves to the latter.

With that in mind, we decided to take a look at how the Covid-19 pandemic is changing the language we use.

Once obscure phrases have now become common. We ask our friends how they’re doing under quarantine, read articles about self-isolation tips, and moan about others not social distancing.

Here’s how the use of these phrases has progressed this month.

It’s no surprise to see the steep incline in usage of these phrases, but it’s what happens afterwards that’s interesting. While mentions have declined from the initial boom, the fall is far smoother than the rise. In other words, they’re sticky.

This could be an indication that these terms are going to become part of the general lexicon. This makes sense. We use words to make sense of, and communicate within, the world around us. That world right now is very much one of quarantining and self-isolation.

Meanwhile, we also looked at the names we use for the virus. Originally, we just had ‘coronavirus’. This was never fully accurate, as the word refers to a group of related viruses, not a specific one.

On February 11 the World Health Organization announced the official name: Covid-19. We can see how adoption of the term increased below.

As of 1pm on March 31, Covid-19 seems to be the phrase of choice as its usage consistently overtook that of ‘coronavirus’. For clarity and accuracy, this is only a good thing.

We’ll have to wait and see if the WHO have succeeded in making the name stick.

Bringing joy: Home organization surpasses January mentions

With excess time on our hands, we appear to be taking inspiration from Marie Kondo. Mentions of home organization are now the highest they’ve been since everyone posted their new year’s resolutions.

This March, 250k unique authors posted (in English) about getting their homes organized – that’s 86% more than in January. It seems people are making the most of their time inside.

When we investigated what drove the social mentions, cleaning was the main topic (88.9k mentions). Living rooms were a priority for organization with 15.2k mentions, and books were a top priority for arranging in an aesthetically pleasing way, at 46.8k mentions. Books have been a hit since the lockdown, with #ShowMeYourShelves trending just last week.

Queen of organization, Marie Kondo, is still reigning, with 11k mentions of her on social media. She’s also seen an increase in search interest, with Google Trends showing global searches about her increasing markedly since March 8.

Emotion-categorized conversation revealed organization mainly bringst social users joy, at 31% (Kondo will be happy). That said, some users are struggling with their projects, with 28% of social mentions categorized as angry, and another 21% as sad.

People are turning to chores to pass the time, find enjoyment, and deal with working from home better.

Signed, sealed, and almost delivered

Now that one third of the world’s population is in lockdown, we’re relying on delivery more than ever.

When we explored the conversation around delivery, Consumer Research discovered mentions had skyrocketed. In the last 21 days, English-language mentions were 142% higher than normal, with a total of 6m unique authors.

Although we can order whatever we want online, food is topping the list on social media – in the last 21 days, English-language mentions of grocery delivery hit 1.3m. Restaurant take out mentions sit at 432k.

We found 201k mentions of ordering masks, and 106k mentions of ordering toilet paper.

But getting hold of these items is no easy task. People are frustrated that their orders haven’t arrived, and that they can’t book a delivery slot, particularly for groceries.

Emotion-categorized conversation revealed the conversation around delivery to be 43% angry, 10% sad, 9% disgusted, 5% fear.

Examining the key topics revealed a lot of the social conversation surrounding delivery was focused on concerns around delivery workers, with 745k mentions. There were 350k mentions for drivers specifically. Overall, concern for workers made up 46% of the delivery conversation.

Killing time seems to be key. Boredom in relation to a purchase was mentioned 24.9k times in the last 21 days.

It’s a good time to consider how you can help your customers in this time, especially if you already offer delivery. These negative emotions indicate how frustrated and upset customers have been with their orders, and the congested delivery system.

Consumers are representing a bit of an impossible task here. They’re concerned for delivery workers, but also want them to work faster and deliver more!

As we covered in yesterday’s bulletin, supporting key workers is vital for employees to feel valued, and for your brand’s reputation as a whole. The challenge is to do your best, while protecting key workers and fulfilling orders as quickly as possible.

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Stay safe,