Comments on: Is Twitter Playing A Positive Or Negative Role During Swine Flu Outbreak? I Say Positive But Am Concerned About Governmental Social Media Capability During A Pandemic

By: H1N1 Flu Response Shows Government Needs To Improve Social Media Public Communications For Future Emergencies

Mon, 04 May 2009 21:53:13 +0000

[...] IÂ wrote on the blog this past week that the communications from governmental officials during the H1N1 situation had been very good so far, but I was concerned about the ability of federal, state and local authorities to inform the public if the flu became more serious, particularly in the area of social media. I also suggested that while there was a lot of uninformed ‘noise’ on Twitter and other social media, users by and large could find reliable information on the situation relatively easily. However, Robin Parker, from theÂ Oregon Trail Red Cross chapter’sÂ Cross Blog which has one of the most useful and creative web operations on emergency preparedness, commented on my post FridayÂ with some suggestions for governmental entities: [...]

By: admin

admin — Sat, 02 May 2009 12:53:34 +0000

Robin-
You make a very fair point. In fact, in his weekly radio/video address this morning, President Obama specifically said the White House was expanding its social media effort to help broaden the communications outreach on H1N1. Yet, as you point out, the government’s social media effort on the flu outbreak has been much too limited. And it’s unlikely — due to the lack of current capability — that it will improve significantly during this situation. Luckily, it has been augmented by non-governmental resources such as the Oregon Trail Chapter of the Red Cross on Twitter and other applications. Still, I agree with you that there is a need going forward to expand the frequency, breadth and creativity of the government’s (federal, state and local) social media communications.
-John

By: Robin Parker

Robin Parker — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:16:40 +0000

Been meaning to add my two cents on here since you posted it…

I think you’re right that twitter is pretty self-correcting. I do think, though, that the CDC (and other official info sources) could be doing a better job with their tweets. They’ve been posting links to PDFs, but many people can’t click the links if they’re reading twitter from they’re mobile devices (or even some computers).

If the CDC were to pull out the main points from those PDFs and tweet them it would be much more useful (and then people could easily retweet the info to correct misconceptions). I’d also like to see them offering more concrete tips. (Like my favorites: “sing a full round of happy birthday while washing your hands to make sure you’ve washed long enough” or “try sneezing into your elbow, not your hand if you don’t have a tissue handy”) … Little things, yes. But they make it easier for a worried public to take action and feel like they’re making a difference.