Using Social Sites to Engage Audiences About Pandemic Flu

Slide 1: Listening To & Engaging Your Audience February 2008 • Stephanie Marshall, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services • Qui Diaz, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

Slide 2: Web Executive Seminars Social Sites for Social Good February 26, 2008 National Press Club Washington, DC Learn more: www.forumone.com/wes

Slide 3: Campaign Goal Engage national and local leaders in the challenge to help Americans prepare for a pandemic flu. +

Slide 4: Defining Your Audience Insight: People want to hear important messages from those they trust, not the government – Target audience = national leaders – 1-day Leadership Forum + 5-week blog

Slide 5: Research is Imperative Insight: although the issue of pandemic flu has dropped from the headlines, it is still being discussed at high levels by passionate citizens online

Slide 6: Assessing the Landscape Social media “Conversation Map” revealed online pan flu community • Flubies & Flublogia

Slide 7: Daily Kos • 12th most popular blog in the world • 404 posts about pandemic flu since March 2005 • 9 posts on pandemic preparedness since the beginning of 2007; 10 – 420 comments per post • Most posts about pandemic preparedness are by Greg Dworkin, a.k.a. “DemFromCT.” Greg is also the editor of FluWiki.com www.dailykos.com

Slide 8: Flu Wiki • One of the most influential resources on pandemic flu, with referrals from most pan flu resources and mainstream media. • Main editor is Greg Dworkin • Home to the Flu Wiki Forum www.fluwikie.com

Slide 9: FluTrackers.com • Preparedness comprises 15% of discussion threads and 9% of posts. • 30 forums | 12,447 threads | 65,961 posts www.flutrackers.com

Slide 10: Videos The Pandemic Bird Flu Preparing for How to Detective Pandemic Flu: Prepare for • A music video by • A PSA by the M.I.A. (Sri A Family an Influenza Alameda County Lanka/London Checklist Video Pandemic Public Health artist) • By Edna, 41 • By the Spokane Department • Views: 155,839 Regional Health • Views: 1,463 •“Cover your District mouth, wash your • Views: 5,198 hands, stay informed.” • Views: 353

Slide 11: More Multimedia Google Earth Map Mashup of Avian Flu Country Situations Uses Google Earth to track the spread of Avian Influenza. Pandemic: The Game “Evolve, Infect, Kill! Pandemic is a game where you get to evolve you own biological virus and wipe out mankind!”

Slide 12: Criteria for Assessing INFLUENCE Blogs Message Boards – Number of inbound links – Breadth of boards – Frequency/timeliness of posts – Quantity and timeliness of activity – Number and content of comments – Search engine visibility – Affiliation of author – Affiliation – Search engine visibility – Membership numbers – Traffic – Traffic – RSS feed subscriptions Multimedia (Videos/Photos) Social Networks – Number of views and downloads – Membership numbers – Number and content of comments – Types of community features present – Ratings/peer assessment (e.g., profiles, blogs, video, message boards) – Relevant groups – Activity level on features – Number of subscribers – Affiliation – Number of inbound links – Search engine visibility

Slide 14: 13 Contributing Bloggers

Slide 15: Inviting Advocates into the Conversation Insight: give your advocates full/partial ownership – they have more access than you

Slide 16: Lessons Learned Blogging has an impact . . . when it’s informed by research . . . and leverages WOM Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog | RESULTS • Site visits = 39,162 • Unique visitors = 19,765 (6 continents, 113 countries, 50 states) • Page views = 132,619 • Inbound links = 344 links (from 110 blogs) • RSS subscriptions = 811

Slide 17: • flutracker Says: Sec. Leavitt: Thank you to you and the HHS and the Ogilvy staff for this blog. It has been interesting and enlightening. I hope HHS and other federal and state agencies and legislators will take from this experiment the idea that direct communication with the citizens in this manner works well and benefits everyone involved. • Bravo and congrats to the Health and Human Services Department for its innovation and courage. If a government agency can step out of its comfort zone and explore avenues to engage and leverage conversations online think of what a Big Brand or medical center, or non profit or school or business or .. or .. or .. As the saying goes, you are limited by only your imagination and a little bit of chutzpah.”

Slide 18: Measurement Ingredients Engagement & Reach Earned Media •Offline media mentions •Page Impressions, Visits, Unique Visitors •Online media mentions •Time Spent, Pages per visitor •Emails opened, click-throughs •Videos viewed, audio plays Search Visibility •Higher search results •Greater search results “share” Word of Mouth •3rd party results •Number of Mentions, Posts, Comments •Recommendations •Mentions-per-user Research •Send This To A Friend •Customer/stakeholder feedback •Inbound links •Product sampling

Slide 19: Maintaining Momentum Insight: your new community is not a \"one-off\" – continue to give them incentive to trust and participate • Ongoing collaboration with Flublogia

Slide 20: “. . . the entire process is a credit to the HHS, Dr. Raub, and the Internet flu community that is being recognized more with each passing day as an important partner in the battle against a possible pandemic.”

Slide 21: Lessons Learned • You don’t always need to create your own online community to reach your audience. Meet them where they are. • You don't have to hit MySpace and Facebook to find your target audience. Social networks are trending as smaller, niche communities. • Working with bloggers and communities – especially those which are invested in your cause – is smart (not adversarial)

Slide 22: How to use social media for WOM today • Listen closely • Respect the power of the consumer (new influencer) • Offer different and deepening ways for people to engage • Make it easy to share • Build relationships not just campaigns • Measure performance now

Slide 23: Web Executive Seminars LEARN MORE: www.forumone.com/wes