Broadcast Updates or Policy

1. Broadcast Updates or Policy Tools of the Trade Summer, 2009

2. Tools of the Trade – Broadcast Updates In researching the vaccine safety question, it became clear how rapidly events are moving—with almost daily updates about the epidemiologic and clinical aspects of novel H1N1 disease, about vaccine production, antiviral medication availability, community mitigation measures, and other guidance. And ever since the “pregnancy and vaccine safety” issue was raised, your phone has been ringing off the hook, with requests for more and more information.

3. Tools of the Trade – Broadcast Updates Finally, the very success of your tabletop exercise—in identifying myriad policy gaps and ambiguities that need to be addressed—has added to your need to receive and share information efficiently. You wish you had more effective tools at your disposal than just e-mail, your agency web site, and your telephone…

5. What we’ll cover today • Basic explanation of Twitter as a tool for broadcasting updates • Examples: How it is being used in public health • Learning how to use Twitter • Setting up your free Twitter account • Sending an update – a “tweet”! • Replying and Re-Tweeting • Finding and following other Twitter users • Registering your cell phone, tweeting from phone

6. Twitter! • Remember blogs? Twitter is ‘micro-blogging’ • “What are you doing?” (trivial) •  “What’s happening now” (surprisingly useful!)

7. Sending versus Receiving • Twitter can be used as a broadcast tool, by you or your agency, to rapidly disseminate short updates to whomever wishes to receive them; or, • Twitter can be used to automatically receive short missives from people or organizations of interest (friends; CDC, e.g., H1N1Info); or • Both!

8. Assuming for the moment that you are a registered twitteruser…

9. Sending • Ridiculously easy • Type anything you want in the “What are you doing?” box … up to 140 characters • Click on Update • Your “tweet” goes out to everyone who is following you, and goes into your “timeline”, in reverse chronological order

10.  “Tweet” here!  Timeline

11. Receiving Tweets • Find a Twitterer (by username, or first and last name) from within Twitter; or • Use Google et al. to search for “[organization name] Twitter [subject]” to see whether they have such a Twitter page • Once on the page of interest, simply select the Follow button to begin receiving their tweets. • For our purposes – H1N1 tweets from CDC?

13.  Click here to receive these tweets

14.  Now you’re following CDC

15. Some examples of Twitter Use by Public Health Agencies and Organizations

16. CDC

17. APHA

18. WHO

20. http://www.newmedia.hhs.gov/tools/twitter.html

21. Now, a bit more about sending and receiving…

22. Sending a Tweet: many paths • Twitter web site (“What are you doing?” box) • Cell phone SMS (text message) • Cell phone application e.g., TwitterBerry • Cell phone browser (http://m.twitter.com) • Via e-mail via a circuitous path (e-mail  your blog  blog feed-to-Twitter (using Twitterfeed or Tweet Later)

23. Sending SMS message to Twitter • Your cell phone must be registered in Twitter for this to work. • Access SMS (“texting”) feature on your cell phone, and start a new message • Put in toll-free Twitter phone # for US: 40404 • Type your message (remember: only 140 characters!) • Send—Voilà! • Your tweet will show up in your timeline, and go out to your followers

24. Links and Pictures • You can embed URL links in the regular tweet • You may need a URL shortening service • E.g., TinyURL or bit.ly • You can’t post images directly using Twitter, but you can easily post a link to a photo using other applications, e.g., TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/)

25. Hashtags • Hashtag: a search term that makes it easier to find tweets via Twitter search • A hashtag is a word preceded by # (e.g., #swineflu), which denotes a specific topic • To use hashtags in your own posts, you must follow @hashtags • To track the most popular hashtags, go to http://hashtags.org/

26. Replying to a Specific Twitter User • Remember: a generic “tweet” goes out to all followers, and into your own timeline • To respond to a specific “Twitterer” use the following syntax: @tweeters-namemessage • E.g.: @thefiona Thanks for helping today! • This message goes into your timeline, and • Shows up in the recipients timeline if the recipient is following you; else, • Does not show up in timelines. Replies are visible in the @username tab in your home page sidebar

27. Re-Tweeting • = Forwarding another person’s tweet to all your followers • Just a convention, a standard message format • Procedure: • Copy the tweet text, including the username at the beginning of the text • Click in your “What are you doing” box • Type RT @ and then paste the text • Add your text in brackets if room—and Update!

28. An example “re-tweet”

29. Receiving Tweets on your Cell Phone • Be careful! Text message fees & limits apply! • By default, even after you’ve activated your cell phone, you do not receive tweets on your phone from those you follow. • To do so: • Open the profile page of someone you follow • Click on Device Updates text under their name • Same procedure to turn device updates off

30. Direct Messages • Private messages can be sent to, and received from, people who mutually follow each other. • When you receive a direct message, Twitter saves it in your direct message inbox, accessible from the Direct Message tab in the sidebar in your home page. • Set your email preferences to notify you by mail if you have a new message.

31. Learning how to use Twitter • How do you get to Carnegie Hall? • Feel free to play around. Get a few forgiving souls who also want to learn, and follow each other to try out Twitter’s features • Lots of on-line resources, including Twitter help page—see esp. “FAQs”: http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/13920 • Good books, e.g., Twitter: Tips, Tricks, and Tweets (McFedries, Wiley Publishing)

32. Exercise • Set up a live account in Twitter • Find and follow several (or all!) of your fellow SIPHP student Twitterers; and CDC H1N1feed • Send some tweets! • Advanced: re-tweet; post a pic; send a direct message; register your cell; post via texting…

33. What are people saying about your issue and you in the social media space?

34. Tools for Listening http://blogsearch.google.com http://technorati.com/ http://twittorati.com/ http://buzz.yahoo.com

36. Feeds RSS: Really Simple Syndication Aggregate feeds/updates in one location Package site content into widgets, gadgets More than 2,000 feed reading apps

37. This is a Widget

38. Feed Readers Google Reader Newzcrawler FeedDemon Omea Reader Bloglines

40. Bottom line • Broadcasting updates is a common need in public health –case counts, updated treatment guidelines, announcements re health fairs, etc. • There are various means of doing such broadcasts, including press releases, e-mail, listserves, web sites, etc. • twitter is a powerful, easy-to-use tool that fills a specific niche for regularly broadcasting brief messages to large, self-identified groups of people.

41. Tools of the Trade – Engage the Media 1 Several weeks have gone by, and the situation regarding H1N1 in Azalea County has escalated rapidly. The number of verified cases has accelerated in the County, just as it has across the country. Fortunately, the disease remains no more serious than regular seasonal flu—which of course, still means it’s relatively serious. As with last Spring, most cases are among relatively young adults and children, relatively few of whom need serious medical attention or hospitalization. Your Twitter account is helping you keep up with fast moving events, and you wonder how you ever did without it.

42. Tools of the Trade – Engage the Media 2 Then, about 12:30 pm on a Friday, you receive this ‘tweet’ on your cell phone: Azalea Reg'l Med and Cardiac Center reports 1st death - 24 yo male h/o diabetes - also, female infant admitted to NICU -critical condition. Within a short time, this information becomes widely known, and by late afternoon many people in the community are reportedly upset and wondering what it may mean for their families’ safety. You anticipated such a reaction, however, so immediately after receiving your ‘tweet’ you began arrangements for a press conference, which will be held that day in time to be covered by the local evening news.

43. Your charge • We need 3 volunteers who would like to gain experience in facing the press - without risking any of the adverse consequences. • Review the information on the death from H1N1 and to develop a short (2 -3 paragraphs maximum) news release on the topic to be read to the press at the afternoon press conference.

44. Broadcast Updates or Policy Tools of the Trade Summer, 2009