1. Social Media and
Public Health
(Crisis) Communication
Sarah Evans
Sevans Strategy
@PRsarahevans
sarah@sevansstrategy.com

2. Online Communities &
Social Media
 Give people information (ASAP)
 Allow others to comment and participate
◦ Share photos and video
◦ Link to other experts and sources
 Dispel rumors and misinformation
 Monitor (your own news and other breaking news)
 Respond
 Comprehensive (multiple online accounts)
 Compile credible sources
 Streamline information
◦ Badges
◦ Widgets

3. • Email
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Ning site (create your own network)
• Web site and/or blog
• Text
• Photo (Flickr)
• Video (YouTube, Seesmic)
• Applications (badges and widgets)
What are you going to use & what
already exists? (your inventory)

4. Who owns your content?
WHO, CDC, Kane County?

5. Let people know you’re there
• Build up your community (start now)
– Send an email announcement
– Reach out to people from your account(s)
• Include social media sites in your email
signature, print materials, Web site, etc

6. Let people know what you’re going to
talk about
• Is this just for breaking health news?
• Are you going to interact with people?
• Is more than one person going to update the
account(s)?
• Will there be updates 24/7/365?
• What is your voice/brand?
• Is more than one account on each network
appropriate (see upcoming example)?

7. Twitter
Twitter is a service for people to communicate and
stay connected through the exchange of quick,
frequent messages. These messages are posted to
your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and
are searchable on Twitter search.
Twitter lets users engage in conversations with other
users in 140 characters or less.

8. Basic Terms
Tweet Posting a message to Twitter
@ + name The command which allows tweets to be sent;
proceeds username (i.e. @journchat)
Retweet (RT) Sharing someone else’s information and giving
them credit (RT @name message…)
Following You choose to receive someone's updates
Followers People who choose to receive your updates
Direct Message (DM) Private message sent between two people
Block Preventing someone from reading your updates
Favorites A public area to save your favorite tweets
Fail Whale When too many people are tweeting!
Hashtag The # next to a word allows for conversation
tracking (#tweetup)
Tweetup A face-to-face gathering of those who tweet

9. Profile Example

10. People are talking about H1N1 in IL!

11. FACT: The CDC had less than 1,000
Twitter followers in March on May 21,
they had 179, 871 and in July 487,324.

12. CDC Emergency Tweet

13. What works in that tweet?
• Gave the facts
• Shortened URL (recommend bit.ly)
• Hashtag for tracking

14. CDC Health Tweet

15. World Health Organization News

16. TIP: Encourage people to turn on
mobile alerts for your account so they
receive information real-time.

17. Facebook

18. Facebook
• Create a fan page
• Post and allow others to share links, information,
photos, videos
• Monitor for those interacting on your page
• Send messages to a targeted audience
• In an emergency you can update your status and
send a message to the group
• You MUST monitor this page (and think about
how you want to interact)

19. CDC Facebook Fan Page

20. WHO Fan Page

21. Best practices to build off of

22. WHO Virtual Press Briefings

23. CDC Web site – Show and Tell

24. CDC Web site: here is where you can
find information

25. Widget: Promotion for you, update
once, message management

26. Other Tools for MD’s

27. SickCity.org: Real-time disease
detection by city

28. To do’s for your Web site
• Running Twitter feeds (yours + CDC)
• Widgets
• Links to your online profiles
• Email alerts
• RSS feeds
• Show where people can go for additional
information
• Link to other credible sources of information

29. To do’s for you
• Set up Google alerts
• Monitor http://search.twitter.com and
Facebook
• Identify who is in charge of your social media
presence
• Talk about your strategy and plan for social
media use
• Once you join in, you’re expected to
participate

30. Conserve Space and Track: Shorten your URLs
Resources
•
• http://bit.ly
• http://tiny.url
• http://www.tiny.cc
• 3rd Party Applications
• http://www.tweetdeck.com
• http://www.twhirl.com
• http://twitter.com/downloads
• Streamline updates = Ping.fm
• Mobile
• Blackberry = Twitterberry
• iPhone
• Tweetie
• Tweetdeck
• iTwitter (just launched)