10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 7: Social Media Checklist

On Sunday, crisis management expert Jonathan Bernstein pointed out how social media, specifically Twitter, has become the go-to crisis management and customer service aid. Today we look at how you should build your social media “back office” for H1N1.

photo credit: Lars K. Jensen

Noteworthy Networking

As I mentioned yesterday in Day 6: Reporters’ Notebook, you should begin following reporters who cover your organization. Do this on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Include RSS feeds from their news organization, and start making connections in order to warm-up your relationship.

You should also begin educating yourself on the latest H1N1 discussion. There are a number of credible sources, but you goal should aim to keep the noise to a minimum. Don’t forget to include resources in your own backyard.

• State and Local Health Departments
• Local Emergency Management Agency
• Local Hospitals

Flu-Related Social Media Bookmarks

While you could overload your bookmarks with anyone and everyone that discusses H1N1 influenza, here are some of the key players in the North American discussion. This list is revised from my earlier article Swine Flu Action Items for Public Information Officers, written during the beginning of the April outbreak in the United States.

Facebook

• http://www.facebook.com/CDC
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Health-Organization
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/GlaxoSmithKline
• http://www.facebook.com/Novartis.pharma

Twitter

• @CDCEmergency – CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response
• @CDCFlu – Flu-related updates from CDC
• @FluFeed – a TweetBot focused on aggregating information about influenza
• @FluGov – one-stop access to U.S. Government H1N1, avian and pandemic flu information (This feed repaces @BirdFluGov)
• @FluTracker – a service from Doctor’s Without Boarders
• @JNWilliams76 – a risk communications contractor for the CDC
• @Novartis – a drug maker for one of the H1N1 influenza drugs
• @WHONews – World Health Organization

I also want to mention Veratect Corporation here. Last Spring Veratect, who does disease surveillance, was an excellent source of early information on the spread of H1N1 influenza. They distributed this information via @Veratect on Twitter. As of September 14, 2009, however, that account appears closed. Hopefully, Veratect will use this channel again this fall. I personally follow Veratect on the outside chance they resume updates.

RSS Feeds

• CDC Flu Feed: http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/download.asp?f=20&af=x&t=3
• CDC H1N1 Feed: http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/download.asp?f=252&af=x&t=3
• WHO Pandemic Feed: http://www.who.int/feeds/entity/csr/disease/swineflu/en/rss.xml

Today’s To-Do: Open an Account on Ping.fm

Although today’s discussion centers around the reception of accurate information concerning H1N1 influenza, Today’s To-Do is designed for the outbound distribution of information.

In Using Social Media in a Public Health Emergency I discussed the paradox of using numerous social media tools to distribute information about your organization.

With tremendous innovation and competition in the social media space, it is impractical to select one single platform as a primary method to push content to the general public. Even more arduous is the task of using each individual social media platform during a public health emergency. Such a strategy would overwhelm an already under-staffed communications team battling to feed news organizations hungry for details, facts, and talking points.

The solution I recommend is Ping.fm, a free social networking and micro-blogging web service that enables users to post to multiple social networks simultaneously. Ping allows individuals using multiple social networks to update their status only once, without having to update it in all of their social mediums individually. This functionality can be especially useful when if the need arises where you must communicate mission critical information in a timely manner.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• What Twitter’s DoS Attack Can Teach Us
• Using Social Media in a Public Health Emergency
• U.S. Military Establishes New Social Media Policy
• Using Social Media to Promote Your Charity
• What to Do When 100,000 People on Facebook Hate You
• Would You See a Movie that a Facebook Friend Hated?
• Is Facebook Becoming TweetBook?
• Why I No Longer Follow @BreakingNews
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• The 16 Cornerstones of a Solid Twitter Network