Health & Medicine Policy Research Group Social Media Deconstructed

A brief look at the purpose, function and benefit of our current social media outlets & channels

Margie Schaps, Executive Director & Karin Pritikin, Development OfficerPresented to the Chicago Partnership for Public Health

Chicago Department of Public HealthFriday, November 20, 2009

Health & Medicine Policy Research Group (HMPRG) is a 28-year old health policy, advocacy and research center with a working board and a lean staff. Online communications is currently managed by our Development Officer who has been at HMPRG since September, 2007.)

Like many organizations, by 2007 HMPRG had a modest website, and used email and listservs. We revamped our organization’s website in 2008, to make the site more easily navigable. It is built using a WordPress platform that allows staff to refresh content easily and regularly. We also began html and text e-blasting using verticalresponse.com which gives NPOS 10,000 free emails a month!

We launched our social media “channels” (a blog, facebook and Twitter) in late July of 2009, to broaden our reach, to leverage the formidable expertise and “voices” of our Board and staff, and to allow for open dialog and conversations with our constituents.

The following slides define the purpose, function and benefits of each of our online messaging/informating “channels” and display examples of the kind of content on each.We have also shown how content is positioned on the sites, to demonstrate the amount of content sites can “hold” and how each site can be navigated.

Overview

Channel: HMPRG Website

Purpose: Our Organizational Face

Access: People visit us at our “address” (our URL)

Key Function: Basic HMPRG information on mission, programs, staff, and leadership downloadable white papers, articles, conference materials; logistical info; development info; “pressroom”

Benefit: Informs donors, funders, program participants, media and public who are steered to site; and casual visitors or newbies who find us through search engines or by accident

Special: In-depth information and materials for targeted audiences who return to retrieve them (Schweitzer, conference attendees, etc.)

HMPRG Website “Home” Page

Channel: HMPRG Blog

Purpose: Our Philosophical/Theoretical Brain & Heart Access: We push our content out into the world

through tags, keywords, search engine, links, feeds, RSS, animated headers on our website, email signatures etc.

Key Function: Posts from HMPRG Board and Staff commenting on local, state and national events, policy, politics, etc.; HMPRG video and slide presentations; audio clips

Benefit: Educates & engages like minded people and encourages action; extends our zone of influence, builds followers and credibility

Special: Links to other sites, RSS feeds, blog feeds, work, position papers, platforms, etc. from orgs we trust or find interesting

HMPRG Blog “Landing Page”

Column 1: Space for Current Posts

Column 1: Space for Current Posts

Column 2: Links to HMPRG Content & Subscription Info

Column 2: Links to HMPRG Content & Subscription Info

Column 2: Links to Archived Posts

Sub-Page Link from Column 2

Sub-Page Link from Column 2

Column 2: Links to other HMPRG channels

Column 3: Some Other Blogs Featured on Ours

Column 3: HMPRG’s SlideShare.net Viewer

Example: HMPRG Email Blog Subscription

Example: HMPRG Blog Feed

Channel: HMPRG’s facebook Page

Purpose: Our Community of Friends and Followers (mostly local)

Access: Our evolving online billboard & gathering place; visitors are steered here; some join and return and some dialog

Key Function: Posts about events, media appearances, conferences, awards, action alerts, picture albums from recent events,

Benefit: Outreach to and ongoing communication with our “community” of followers: current and past board, funders, past employees & interns, donors, event & conference attendees, etc.

Special: Fans can “see” each other; we can email fans; folks can interact and can invite others to join our “community and follow our work”

HMPRG’s facebook “Landing” Page

HMPRG facebook Left Column Elements

HMPRG facebook Event Tab

Channel: YouTube & Slideshare.net

Purpose: Our Broadcast Channels/Network

Access: Pushed to our other “sites” and publicly viewable/searchable/embeddable by public visitors to YouTube, SlideShare and Google

Key Function: Video, Photos, PowerPoint, Voiceovers, Interviews and other audio clips

Benefit: Our Work, Board, Staff and Events in Motion: Powerful/persuasive way of bringing our work to life. Expands our Zone of Influence

Special: Followers and Visitors can embed, download, comment and share

Example: One of HMPRG’s YouTube Playlists

Example: HMPRG Playlist (Embedded)

Example: HMPRG’s Slideshare.net Page

Channel: Twitter

Purpose: HMPRG’s Mission “In the Moment”

Access: Via subscription, or through search engines, or off of links on all our sites

Key Function: 140 character distillation of what we are doing (Headlines are picked up off our blog and facebook; we occasionally post live tweets)

Benefit: We are attracting follows and also following other orgs who want a quick “in” to what we are up to, including orgs and funders both local and outside Chicago

Special: Helps us distill our work and expectations to their simplest and most unembellished which is great for strategic planning and crafting or other media

Example: Blog Header on Twitter

HMPRG’s Social Media Plan Moving Forward

• Maintaining/Expanding/Enriching all our information/education/messaging/mobilizing channels to get HMPRG constituents all they need, in the right forms and formats

• Inspiring HMPRG Board and Staff to regularly author and post content

• Engaging our visitors, friends, fans and followers to post content

• Building vibrant, vital linked communities with other public health, health policy and health reform organizations

• Evolving into the destination “thinking” and “action” communities for anyone, anywhere who values health policy driven by a social justice perspective

Learn about Health & Medicine programs, staff and leadership: http://www.hmprg.org

Follow Health & Medicine’s thinking on our blog: http://hmprg.typepad.com/health-medicine-hmprg/

Join Health & Medicine’s facebook community: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-Medicine-Policy-Research-Group/105544909634

Get up to the minute Health & Medicine news: http://twitter.com/hmprg