Originally published on the DeckersMarketing.com blog.
I used to be the Risk Communication Director at the Indiana State Department of Health and one of the things we prepared for over and over was “pan flu.” At the time, we thought it was going to be the H5N1 bird flu, and we prepared by practicing drills, simulating events, writing tons of press releases, and creating processes to get information out to the media and public. Quickly.
The problem is the old model of sending out press releases via email was fast enough three years ago, but since the explosion of Twitter and social networking, and the decline of the traditional newspaper, people just aren’t getting their news through traditional methods anymore.
With social media, the public is getting their information as it happens, rather than waiting for a newspaper to publish day-old news, watching network news at certain times of the day, or cable news that only has time for a national focus, but nothing deeply local.
I’ve been using Twitter to get national news from sites like CNN, the BBC, and USA Today.
I’ve been watching the Google Maps case markers, the CDC’s swine flu investigation, and even listened to a couple of the CDC swine flu podcasts.
There are a few ways public health and first responders could use social media to educate the public, and get ahead of the rumor mongering and bad information that many people seem to perpetuate, whether accidentally or otherwise.
Create a Twitter account.
Someone posted a tweet today that the Twittersphere was talking about swine flu the most, so this is the place to start. Use Twitter to quickly answer questions, debunk rumors, and give out good information and news links.
1) Use the name of your agency AND the emergency (for example, IN_SwineFlu.)
2) Download TweetDeck from TweetDeck.com.
3) Set up a search column for “#swineflu and swine flu.”
4) Use Twitter’s Find People function to find media outlets and journalists in your area, and follow them. They’ll follow you back.
5) Use NearbyTweets.com to find other people around your area. Search for the city AND keywords like “#swineflu” and “swine flu” to find local people talking about those topics. Follow them, and they’ll follow you back.
Set up a blog
Don’t screw around with the rigamarole of getting your IT department to set up a blog on your agency’s server. They’ll have to ratify it in their bi-weekly committee meeting, and want to create a mission statement and all that crap. Use blogs to publish press releases, send out quick updates and stats, give information that can’t wait (i.e. locations of hospitals and medication).
1) Go to Blogger.com, and set up a blog for your agency (i.e. http://youragency.blogspot.com). You COULD screw around with WordPress, which is actually better, but we’re going for speed here. Plus you can’t do this. . .
2) Set it up so you can send emails and texts to your blog. If you’re one of the lucky people who has a Blackberry, you can send blog updates that way. Ditto with photos.
3) Go to TwitterFeed.com and have your blog automatically update your Twitter account.
Monitor your traffic
It’s important to monitor your traffic so you can know what messages are getting the most attention, what ones are being repeated, and where your biggest traffic sources are from.You need to know how many people are coming to your blog, reading your tweets, and paying attention to what you’re saying to know which areas you need to improve on.
1) Set up your TweetDeck URL shortener to use bit.ly, not Tiny.url or any of the others.
2) Go to www.Twitalyzer.com, and enter your Twitter ID. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on Return on Influence. You’ll be able to measure how many people have read your Tweets.
3) Install StatCounter into your blog. I usually like Google Analytics, but they only update around 3 am EST. StatCounter updates minute to minute.
Those are the basics of using social media to communicate with the public. If you have any questions or suggestions for best practices, post them here in the comments. I’ll put up new blog posts to answer big questions
In the meantime, please take a few minutes and watch this video to learn how to avoid spreading colds and flu, not just swine flu.
