1. S o c i a l M e d i a To o l R e s o u r c e G u i d e
1. Buttons and Badges - promote activities and increase awareness
• Buttons- graphic elements with an image and short call-to-action message; usually
posted on website
• Badges- small graphic images posted to a person's social network profile or blog
CDC Button and Badge Gallery website
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/buttonsgallery.html
Overview page
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/buttonbadges.html
Guidelines and Best Practices
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/guidelines/pdf/buttonbadge.pdf
2. Image Sharing- posting of images to public website (artwork sand photos)
• easily shared and place on websites, blogs, SM pages
• apply to health education for “health" in action, reinforce health messages
• avenue for visual diversity of presentation formats
Examples: shutterfly, Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket, SmugBug
CDC image sharing
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/tools/imagesharing.html
Peace Corps Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=peace+corps&m=text
American Red Cross 2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/americanredcross
Flickr Best Practices in Government
https://forum.webcontent.gov/resource/resmgr/flickr_best_practices_guide.pdf
3. Content Syndication- A tool provided by CDC that enables partner organization to feature
CDC health and safety content on their website ; website visitors can access CDC content
without leaving the partner website
• health topic examples-seasonal flu, chronic disease,emergency preparedness
• easy access to government tools, data and information
Website Resources
http://tools.cdc.gov/register
http://tools.cdc.gov/register/tos
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2. S o c i a l M e d i a To o l R e s o u r c e G u i d e
4. RSS Feeds - Really Simple Syndication
• easy way to stay updated - news, headlines, blogs, websites
• enable partners to personalize health information they receive
• CDC has than 25 unique feeds, including Spanish language feeds
• easily add RSS feed to your website or social media space
CDC overview and RSS Subscription
http://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/rss.asp
RSS Guide
http://www.whyrss.com
5. Podcasts- a digital audio or video file for playback on device or computer
"pod" is the content of the file; "cast” is the method of the content syndication
• increase access to health messages via easy format
• 45% of US consumers listened to podcasts in 2011
Website Resources
World Health Organization
http://who.it/mediacentre/multimedia/podcasts/en/
CDC
http://www.2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/browse.asp
FAQ
http://www.podcastingfaq.com
6. Online Video Sharing- videos that can be share tailored health messages
• examples YouTube, MSN, Yahoo
• easy to upload, view, share and comment
Website Resources
www.cdc.gov/CDCTV
http://youtube.com/CDCstreaminghealth
http://www.youtube.com/user/eshowhealth
http://www.youtube.com
http://video.yahoo.com
http://video.google.com
7. Widgets - an application (app) that displays information directly to desktop , device or
social media site
• easy to share with friends
• provide interactive info and fresh content
• minimal maintenance
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3. S o c i a l M e d i a To o l R e s o u r c e G u i d e
Website Resources
Vimeo- customize a widget for your blog, social network, etc
Vimeo Hubnut- provides TV viewing style experience
Vimeo Badge- fun, visual montage of your newest videos
Vimeo Blog Badge- shows you are a Vimeo member
http://vimeo.com/widget
http://www.cdc.gov/widgets.htm
8. eCards- electronic greeting cards sent to email accounts; health e-cards encourage
healthy behavior
Website Resources
http://www.cdc.gov/eCards
http://www.healthfinder.gov/eCards
9. Mobile Health (mHealth) - the use of mobile technology (text messages, mobile phone,
services or applications to support public health and medicine
• simple, immediate
• relevant to customer's locations and circumstances
• SMS txt messages- allow transfer of pics
Website Resources
http://m.cdc.gov
http://www.cdc.gov/mobile/textmessaging
http://mobihealthnews.com
10. Twitter- information network of 140 character messages called "tweets"
•real time, short, easy to read
•to disseminate info
•to listen and gather info in realtime
•submit via text, mobile websites, devices or micro blog
•share links, videos, photos and re-tweeting (re-posting)
Twitter events:
• "Twitter chat" - organizations communicate w followers w free flowing discussion, Q &A
• "Twitterview"- interview , limited to 140 characters per message
• "Twitter Town Hall" - scheduled forum on a specific topic
• "Live Tweeting" - live tweeting from event; followers who are unable to attend an event
can be informed of live happenings
Website Resources
Twitter search engine http://search.twitter.com
Shorten URL http://tinyurl.com or http://is.gd
CDC_eHealth http://twitter.com/CDC
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4. S o c i a l M e d i a To o l R e s o u r c e G u i d e
11. Blogs (web logs) - up to date online journals
• once popular w teens but now declined
• increase in older, more affluent groups
Website Resource
Blog search engine www.technorati.com www.blogger.com
12. Facebook - social network site which provides interactions
• share via chat, email, video, voice, file sharing , blogging and discussion groups
Website Resources
http://www.cdc.gov/SocialMedia
http://www.facebook.com/government
13. Perk Badges
• Foursquare
• Groupon
14. Comprehensive NewsFeeds -send news to several social networks at one time
• TweetDeck
• TwitterFeed
• Twaitter
• Hootsuite
15. Newspaper like Feeds
• paper.li
• scoop.it
• scribd ( to distribute to publications and bulletins)
• WordPress
16. Other Social Media Resources
• To find extension professionals in social networks
extension.org/people/colleagues/socialnetworks
• Mashable - world's largest blog for Web 2.0 and Social Media News
http://mashable.com/social-media
• Pew Internet & American Life Project- technology "fact tank", one of 7 projects for Pew
Research Center; trends, issues and attitudes of U.S. and the world
http://www.pewinternet.org
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5. S o c i a l M e d i a To o l R e s o u r c e G u i d e
• Siteanalytics- tracks online consumer behavior
http://www.compete.com/about/
• Quantcast- provides detailed audience profile information
http://quantcast.com/
• HubSpot-provides social media information , trainings and webinars
http://hubspot.com/products/
• Nielson Online- world 's leading marketing and media company that measures audience
and demographic information
http://en.us.nielson.com/
• comScore- provides online audience measurement information
http://comscore.com/
• CTIA The Wireless Association -international nonprofit representing wireless
communications industry
http://www.ctia.org/
• Fierce Mobile Healthcare- weekly newsletter that provides the latest news for mHealth
4/2012
Prepared by U.R. Taylor,MS,RD,CD-N; W.A. Hamilton,DTR
Reference
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Health Communicator's Social Media Toolkit
(2011), Electronic Media Branch, Division of News and Electronic Media, Office of the
Associate Director of Communication
Retrieved 2/2012 from
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