Slides from my talk at the Instantly Informed conference in Findlay, OH in July 2012. Transcript available upon request.

1. Hashtags and Flash Floods
and Flu Shots, Oh My!
Adding Social Media to
the Public Health Toolkit

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Case Study: VTResponse.com
• What is Social Media?
• Getting Started
• @InstantlyInform
• Questions & Answers

3. CASE STUDY: VTRESPONSE

4. Hurricane Katrina, August 2005
Waveland, MS

5. Twitter After Irene

6. A 2.0 solution to volunteer management in
the wake of Tropical Storm Irene that
connected thousands of people in need to
those willing to help.
OR
A place for people to connect.

7. Key Goals
• Consolidate
information
• Create a place to
connect
• Accessible to all
• Simple to use

8. Managing VTResponse
• Check Email, Twitter and Voicemail
• Review comments and forums
• Review VTExchange.org
• 17 individual town pages
• 12 individual town web pages
• 6 State of Vermont Sites
• 27 person contact list
• Traditional Media Sources

9. By the Numbers
• 938 posts
• 1,150 followers on Twitter
• 426, 686 total views
• 44, 688 views on August 31st, 2011
• 35,410 forum participants

10. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

12. Social media is what you make it. It’s a
place to engage, to share, to learn and
to connect.

13. Key Tools for Public Health
Facebook
Twitter
Blog

14. Facebook
• Membership required
• Users create profiles
• Can handle text, photos and videos
• Allows commenting, liking and sharing
• Who’s On?

15. Twitter
• Requires membership to post
• All can read if profile is public
• 140 character limit
• Information can be re-shared rapidly
• Who’s On?

16. Blog
• No membership required
• Easy to set up, maintain and update
• Can handle almost limitless text and photo
• Autopost to Twitter and Facebook

17. GETTING STARTED

18. The Basics
Build your audience before you need it.
Manage the information.
Use fewer tools well, rather than all the tools
poorly.
Create a system that is as automatic as
possible.

19. Building Audience
Engagement is key.
• Identify key players
• Follow generously
• Create a conversation

20. Manage the Information
If you don’t share it, someone
else will.
• Clear, concise, original.
• Provide contact information for follow-up
• Seek user generated content
• Active, consistent participation

21. Launching Instantly Informed
@InstantlyInform

22. Thank You
• Greg Moore
• Tom Birkland
• Matt Sisto/Katy Kent

23. Questions/Comments