This article is the first in a four part series about how environmental health professionals can benefit from social media. It provides an overview of social media and focuses on Facebook as the most commonly used platform. The article defines social media as the "two-way web" that allows users to both find and share information on topics of interest. It then describes how to establish a Facebook profile and connect with others, share posts, like pages to follow organizations, and provides examples of relevant environmental health organizations on Facebook. The goal is to demonstrate how social media, and Facebook specifically, can be a useful tool for information sharing and communication.

1. Social Media and the Sanitarian, Part 1
Jason Menchhofer, R.S.
Van Wert County Health Department
This is the first in a four part series of articles on how environmental health
professionals can benefit from the use of social media.
These days, social media seems to be all the rage. With laptops or smart
phones in nearly every office, home, belt holster or coat pocket, people can stay
connected with friends, family, colleagues and clients more easily than ever
before. This all sounds great, but what is social media? For many of us, the
term social media calls to mind things like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. While
these are examples of three major social media platforms, the point of social
media actually becomes clearer when the term is defined much more broadly.
Chris Brogan, author of the book Social Media 101 defines social media as the
“two-way web”.
We have all known for years that the web is full of useful (and not-so-useful)
information. Social media allows the user to go beyond finding valuable
information, providing endless opportunities to discuss and share that information
with others who are interested in the same subject matter. Before modern social
media platforms existed, this could be accomplished using a combination of a
web browser and e-mail. Modern social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin and scores of others serve as one-stop shops to monitor and share
information on the user’s area of interest, whatever that may be.
Let’s begin our exploration of social media by taking a look at the most commonly
used and well known social media platform, Facebook. Facebook reportedly
now has over 800 million active users- more than twice the entire population of
the United States. More than 350 million of these users currently access
Facebook on their mobile devices. These numbers add up to a huge network of
information that is available anytime, anywhere. If you have read this far and you
don’t have any firsthand experience using Facebook, you may be thinking that it
amounts to little more than millions of people sharing pictures of their kids, or
maybe commenting on their latest meal or what kind of day they had at the office.
While plenty of this kind of material can be found on Facebook, it is much more
than that. Before we dive into using Facebook for professional purposes, let’s
look at the basics of how Facebook works.
In order to use Facebook, a new user must first establish a profile. This can be
done in a matter of a few seconds by visiting www.facebook.com and providing
your name, e-mail, password, sex and birth date (Facebook users must be at
least 13 years of age). Once your basic profile has been established and you
sign into Facebook using the e-mail and password you signed up with, you can

2. edit your profile to share as much or as little information about yourself as you
like. Facebook also allows you to establish your own security levels. It’s OK to
share your birthday, but to help protect against identity theft it is recommended
that you don’t make your birth year public. You may also want to consider
making most of your profile information visible only to your “friends”. The same
goes for information and pictures you share on Facebook.
Once you have signed in and established your profile, you can do a simple
search to find people you know, or information on subjects that interest you. In
order to connect with someone you know on Facebook, you must first send that
person a “friend request”. Once your request has been approved, you will be
able to read everything your friend posts on their “wall” and you will be able to
view pictures that they have uploaded to Facebook. Each new post your friend
makes will show up in your “news feed”. In the same manner, no one will be
connected with you until you have approved their friend request. Once you have
approved another user’s friend request, that user will be able to see information
you post on your wall and pictures you upload to your albums. In addition to
connecting with individual “friends”, Facebook users can also form “groups”. A
group allows for sharing of information that is only seen by members of that
group. OEHA has a Facebook group, and President-Elect Jennifer Wentzel has
been sharing updates with the group periodically. To join the group, simply log
on to Facebook and do a search for “OEHA”.
So far, we have learned how to establish a profile and connect with others on
Facebook via their profiles. Many active Facebook users do everything they
want to do on Facebook using only their profile. However, many individual users
and most companies or organizations on Facebook also establish “pages”. A
Facebook page can be used by an organization to share more detailed
information and even hold discussions on specific issues. In order to follow a
page that interests you, you must “like” that page. Often no approval is required
in order to like a Facebook page. Once you have liked a page, any new
information that is added to that page will show up in your news feed.
Now let’s look at a few examples of information found on Facebook that is
relevant to environmental health professionals, as well as other public health
professionals. Ohio Department of Health has a Facebook page that is updated
several times a week with information about topics ranging from birth defects, to
ticks, to radon and beyond. Ohio Department of Agriculture and Ohio
Department of Natural Resources are a couple of other relevant state agencies
that have a presence on Facebook.
Professional associations like the National Environmental Health Association,
National Onsite Water Recycling Association, Ohio Onsite Wastewater
Association and the Soil Science Society of America also maintain Facebook
pages as a way of sharing information with their members and other interested
parties. Toledo-Lucas County, Williams County, Union County, Sandusky

3. County, Columbus Public Health, Wyandot County, Hamilton County, Miami
County Public Health and Delaware County are a few county health departments
in Ohio who have also established a presence on Facebook to share important
health information with their constituents.
Armed with the basic information above, anyone with basic computer skills can
make use of Facebook. If you haven’t considered social media as a legitimate
information-sharing and communication tool in the past, hopefully you’ll take
another look. Facebook and other social media platforms may provide you with
another viable option for sharing important information with an ever-growing
population of users.
References
Facebook Statistics
https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet#!/press/info.php?statistics
Intro to Social Media: Part 1, What Is It?
http://blog.noinc.com/2011/07/24/intro-to-social-media-part-1-what-is-it/