CDC Expands their Social Media Tools

CDC just announced a new updated social media tools page. What is most interesting about this is there were rumors that the Health Marketing division of CDC was going to be cut.    Instead of waiting and wondering..someone took the intitiave to put out a  "New! Improved! "website.  What a great strategy! If your worried that your organization is going to cut you...go public with something that adds value.

Check out the New, Improved  Social Media at CDC

85% of Americans have one

What is it? A cellphone.

Susannah Fox from Pew Internet held up two things: a cell phone and sun screen. "What do these have in common?"
Answer: they can both promote health.

She described a research study that compared people who got a text reminder to put on sunscreen with a control ( no text message)
Text reminders = 56% put on sunscreen vs no reminder only 30%. Impressive difference.

How many mobile devices are there in the US? 280,000,000 ( also impressive)

A few more facts
# of hours a cell phone is in arms reach of owner (19)
% households with no land line (20% and growing)
% of text messages that get opened? (90-100%) Compare that to emails!

We should be thinking about ways to use cell phones in public health!

Another example: cell phones are being used to help treat tuberculosis in developming countries. Patients text in when they have taken their treatment ( they actually use a urine stick that tests to make sure the medicine is in their system and then text the code on the urine stick as proof that they took their meds) If they take the meds...they get free air time. How's that for a good incentive?

For more information check out Pew's report on the Mobile Difference March 09

This is why I came!

The session this morning was just what I hoped for when I came!

Why CDC uses social media

• To reach more people
• Be where your audience is (make it easy for them to find you)
• Increase opportunities for conversation ( your audience can talk to you)
• Use the power of networks (make it easy for people to share your information with their friends)
• Access the wisdom of crowds (let your data go and people will create more than you ever could)

CDC lessons learned

1. Consolidate your social media in one place (make it easy to find)
2. Cross publisize (use each social media to promote others)
3. Challenge of 508 (government must meet accessibility requirements)
4. To convinced supervisors...use metrics. People want to see the data ( CDC has a metrics database on their website.)

Quotes
"Podcasts..we love them. People are using them in ways we never dreamed of...like teachers using in their classrooms."

"We have image files on our website but it doesn't hold a candle to the activity we are seeing on our Flickr site."

"Content syndication and RSS...our partners love it! They get up to date, credible content on their websites."

CDC is using social media

Erin Edgerton from CDC shared the social media tools they used to handle the Salmonella outbreak. They needed to reach a lot of people, so they tried a lot of tools.

Blogs
A webinar for bloggers
Buttons and Badges: like mini posters you can put on your webpage or your social network page
Widgets: an outbreak map, the FDA database ( you can put this content on your website and it is updated automatically)
Twitter: a micro blog ( you get mini test updates (140 characters)
Youtube: They created a what to do/not do video- 60 second video and Anatmony of an Outreak- 5 minutes (bet you can guess which one got more views)
E-cards
Mobile site This has information that people might need to check while they are away from home
My Space page ( they are on Facebook too)
An Island in Second Life
Podcasts

Flickr: need some photos for HINI?

Resources for partners: they create what they call mirror webpages...so state and local health departments can put CDC content up on their own website ( uses RSS to update)

If you want to see all the social media tools CDC is using. Go to their social media page.

Here are examples of how CDC has used social media in campaigns.

Want to know if anyone actually uses the CDC social media tools? They post their metrics dashboard. You can see what data they are collecting.

Blogging the CDC's Health Marketing Conference

Bill Novelli ( Porter Novelli, a nationally known socially marketing firm) gave the key note at the CDC National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media

Bill's three key areas for public health

1. Focus on Advocacy...It is through policy advocacy and regulatory advocacy ( meaning it's not enough to get laws passed we need to make sure they are enforced) that we can have the biggest impact on the public's health.

Currenly, public health professionals don't work on policy because (they think) it's irrelevant, inappropriate and even illegal. (sound familiar?)

Bill challenged the audience to consider an Advocacy Institute that would training public health professionals in the skills needed to be effective advocates ( and to teach citizens to advocate.)

The two public health victories he shared as examples were both from tobacco control: FDA regulation and increasing the tobacco tax.

2. Public Private Partnerships

We need to partner with the private sector. The private sector has financial resources and can reach audiences we are trying to reach.

What's in it for the private sector? Corporate social responsibility is becoming the way to do business. Being involved in social causes gives business credibitiy, helps them build trust with their audience, opens up potential new audiences, helps them attract new employees and retain current employees ( People want to be heros)

3. Leadership

We need leaders who influence and inspire. We need to build and support leaders within public health. We need leaders now. We will need leaders in the future.

Questions to think about

• What are we doing to develop public health leadership?
• Tobacco Control is often held up as a leader in public health..what are we doing to share what we have learned with the rest of public health?
  
• What about the idea of private sector partnerships? Do we have any examples of this?