The affect of the pandemic on online communication in business

Abstract

2020 saw a sharp increase in the use of online communications tool. Online communication has created a new reality in which all forms of personal contact are digitized. It strips away many of the features typical of true face-to-face communication. Personal communication is traditionally one of the tenants of marketing communication. Opportunities for face-to-face communication during the pandemic have all but been eliminated during lockdown. As a result, businesses are barred from most ways to communicate face-to-face with their customers. The main purpose of this article is to present the changes and challenges caused by the pandemic as well as identification and explaination of the key impacts of this situation on marketing communications. Another goal was to analyze the impact of the pandemic on workplace and communication characteristics. An online survey was conducted tso we could find out what other people think about that and if they see the changes. The target group was company employees and owners, and 33 participants were included in the results. A majority of respondents (60,6%) agree that today's businesses require as much face-to-face communication as they do online. The survey results, unfortunately, show that the pandemic has had a negative impact on business functioning, with the majority of respondents agreeing (66,7%). Keywords: Negotiation, Success, Marketing communication, E-business, Covid-19, Pandemic