Many people who will walk right past a sign telling them to wear a mask will still follow cultural norms: if they walk into a room where everyone is wearing a mask, most will follow suit. They don't want to be told what to do.
You want guests to feel like they are walking into a room where everyone is wearing a mask. So start the process with your signage: we suggest that the best signs should give your guests a visual feel that people are wearing masks. At a business, if your staff is excited to increase mask-wearing, having them in the pictures can be particularly powerful. For personal events this can be even more powerful: it's not just the hotel signage calling for masks, but perhaps visually the bride and groom.
Experiment with signs like these:
Grab your copy, edit and change the photo, here.
For weddings, funerals, bat/bar mitzvahs, and similar
If you are hosting a large family gathering, and hope to get family members who don't usually wear masks to wear them this time, consider using mask signage at the entrance with pictures of the couple or of the immediate family. You might try open language that doesn't tell people what to think, just what you want at your event: "Whatever risks some of us are taking at other times, at our wedding we want to be extra careful not spread covid."
Communication Theory Behind These Suggestions: Invoke Cooperation not Conflict
Non-Judgmental Wording
If you say what masks do — perhaps you think they keep people safe — someone can agree or disagree, or wonder how much, or offer a dozen suggestions to tweak your message. It's a conversation starter and easily an argument starter: mask signage at a venue is not a good time to start a conversation.
Communications experts often suggest a "we [don't] do that here" theme: it's not personal, you are not telling someone what they should believe, you are only telling them your house rules. (The phrase "We don't do that here" turned into a meme where is a bit more mocking, so don't use those exact words.)
If you say "You have to wear a mask," that's an order — people might stand up and make you enforce it.
If you say "Masks keep us safe," there might be a time for that claim when you want a long discussion.
If you say "At this hotel, we wear masks unless seated for a meal," there is less to argue with.
I-Statements
Another powerful technique for avoiding arguments is using "I statements." If you have people on your team who are enthusiastic to see guests taking safety precautions and willing to be on the signage, have them give their personal reasons for their own actions.
We wear masks as 123 Hotel
[Photo]
I wear a mask and hope others will wear masks around me so that I don't risk exposing my mother.
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There is less to argue with here: even if someone thinks that Covid is not a real threat, still the person in the photo is worried about their parent. This signage doesn't demand the reader change their views, just be polite.
If you use our templates, we'd love a picture and a story!